Schematic and shelved designs for sites on Tenth Avenue slated for large mixed-use towers
The up-and-coming Far West Side, aka Hudson Yards, counts four three primary thoroughfares: Tenth Avenue, which stitches together the built-up city to the east and the development zone to the west; Hudson Boulevard, the grand neighborhood centerpiece; Eleventh Avenue, still largely a no-mans-land awaiting future growth; and Twelfth Avenue (West Side Highway), at once at the front step of the Hudson River and in the backyard of the Javits Convention Center. Despite its still low-key stature, Tenth Avenue is currently the busiest and most diverse of the four, and it will soon get a boost with at least three residential towers - 360 Tenth Avenue, 451 Tenth Avenue, and 460 Tenth Avenue.
For decades, Tenth Avenue in the 30’s streets was defined by dilapidated tenements, auto shops and parking lots. The past five years or so have brought a wave of massive, mixed-use additions, listed from south to north: the hulking, slanted office towers at 10 and 30 Hudson Yards, standing 878 and 1,270 feet tall respectively, with the 7-story, one-million-square-foot Shops in between; Five Manhattan West, recently-renovated and incorporated into the massive Manhattan West complex; 50 Hudson Yards and The Spire, two supertall office towers currently racing to the sky across the street from one another; and Courtyard by Marriott and Four Points by Sheraton, 29- and 18-story hotels sharing a block.
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So far, adjacent residential development has been relatively sparse, consisting chiefly of two across-the-street buildings between West 37th and West 38th streets: 455W37 (23 floors, 394 rental units, 2008, with studios from $2,837/month) and 505W37 (43 and 34 floors, 835 rental units, 2009, with one-beds from $3,722/m). Two more rental properties, Robert A.M. Stern’s classicist Abington House (33 floors, 312 units, 2014, with one-beds from $4,364/m) and SLCE Architects’ glass-walled 555TEN (56 floors, 600 units, 2016, with studios from $3,236/m), also grace the avenue, but both barely count as Hudson Yards since the former is basically in Chelsea and the latter in the Theater District.
These three buildings, however, will be true and proper Hudson Yards apartment buildings by any conventional measure, once they eventually get off the drawing boards and start rising as planned. Once completed, they will go a long way to transforming Tenth Avenue into a round-the-clock, mixed-use corridor worthy of the emerging urban core.
Shelved design for 360 Tenth Avenue by Steven Holl and Extell Development (AMD Rendering)
In 2014, McCourt Global, headed by Frank McCourt, former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, proposed a 61-story tower at the corner of Tenth Avenue and 30th Street, on a lucrative yet mostly vacant lot that nestles between the High Line and the Hudson Yards and Manhattan West complexes. SHoP Architects came up with a striking tower that starts out as a “standard” glass box yet twists and transforms at the top with balconies and an angled pinnacle. Little progress at the site has been heard in the past few years, and the last building permits filed with the city date all the way back to 2007. But whether or not the development gets built as originally planned, whatever rises at the site is bound to be a marquee project at one of the most desirable locations available in the neighborhood.
Models in SHoP Architects office showing supertower at site (6sqft)
Zoning diagram showing massing of new mixed-use tower
451 Tenth Avenue. Looking north. February 2020. Credit: Ondel Hylton
451 Tenth Avenue. Looking northwest. February 2020. Credit: Ondel Hylton
Across the street from Bjarke Ingels under-construction Spiral, Related Companies and Spitzer Enterprises have recently filed permits to transform a parking lot into a 45-story, mixed-use skyscraper with 29,000 square foot of commercial space and a 113,000-square-foot long-term care facility on the lower floors, with 526 rental unit starting at the 15th floor. The Handel Architects-designed building will come with a top-floor amenity suite featuring lounges, a pool, a shared kitchen, study and conference rooms, two libraries (one of the classic book-filled sort and a “wine library”), a game lounge, and two outdoor terraces, one of which includes an outdoor pool. A second tower is also planned next door.
Across the street from 451 Tenth, another tower will rise at 460 Tenth Avenue. Sherwood Equities purchased the site, previously occupied by a parking lot, in the early 1990’s. The 40-story, 300,000-square-foot tower is finally underway. Once complete, the high-rise will include retail space, below-grade parking, and over 200 condo apartments.
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