Week 7

Hello everyone, welcome back to my senior project blog! This week for my senior project I continued my onsite placement, research, and final paper.

During my time on-site this week, I continued my canvassing tour of the M-zone (manufacturing district) looking at buildings that would be eligible to rezone under the MSMX rezoning proposal. The buildings that I toured this week also are primarily commercial buildings, but not under the brokerage of B-6 limiting my access to the buildings. This week I chose to focus on the role of location as well as room for expansion and reconstruction of already existing structures.

The first building I took a look at was 152 W 36th St. This commercial building is positioned adjacent to a smaller manufacturing building that is underbuilt for its space meaning its owners could build on top of the current property. This would be the case had the building retained its air rights. Instead, their owner transferred this property’s air rights to 152 W 36th St. by allowing 152 W 36th St. to build higher. This height disparity leaves room for windows to be installed in the event of a rezoning without the risk of them being blocked.

A similar occurrence is present for 5 E 38th St, located on either side of a public outdoor space. The creation of these outdoor plazas is the result of a floor area bonus for developing a public plaza and is commonly found next to hotels and large office buildings in Midtown helping developers to build bigger. This space blocks the development of potential buildings resulting in windows on the sides of 5 E 38th St as well as the building to the pavilions left. 

The last two buildings I looked at are what I deem to be prime candidates for a rezoning. 580 8th Ave. and 554 8th Ave are two corner buildings with large floor plans and windows on all sides making them ideal buildings to be converted. 554 8th Ave is an office building that has remained vacant after the pandemic specifically waiting for the MSMX rezoning.

In the upcoming week I will start writing my final paper. Thank you for your time.