Proposals for the West Side Rail Yards, New York

American Institute of Architects, New York Chapter; Architectural League of New York; Design Trust for Public Space; Fine Arts Federation; Friends of the High Line; Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art; Municipal Art Society; New York New Visions; Regional Plan Association

present

Proposals for the West Side Rail Yards

Monday, December 3, 2007
6:00 – 8:30 p.m.
The Great Hall, Cooper Union
7 West 7th Street
New York City
Free admission, no reservations required

Even in an era of large-scale real estate ventures, the proposed development of the West Side Rail Yards is an enormous undertaking, with equally enormous implications for the future of New York. On October 11, 2007, five developers submitted responses to a Request For Proposals issued by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for development of both the Eastern and Western Rail Yards, the largest undeveloped tract of land in Manhattan. Zoning on the overall site allows 12 million square feet of combined residential and commercial development; the RFP also requires that space be allotted for a public school and community and cultural organizations. The MTA expects to select a developer for the site in the first quarter of 2008; after conditional approval by the MTA board, the selected proposal will proceed through the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP).

On Monday evening, December 3, representatives of the design teams for the proposals will present their schemes in a public program co-sponsored by a group of architecture and civic organizations. This is the first public program at which these proposals will be presented.

Architectural teams and developers are as follows: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Field Operations, Thomas Phifer and Partners, SHoP Architects, Diller Scofidio and Renfro, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa/SANAA, Handel Architects (Brookfield Properties LLC, developer); Steven Holl Architects (Extell Development Company, developer); FXFOWLE and Pelli Clarke Pelli (Hudson Center East LLC and Hudson Center West LLC, joint venture of Vornado Realty Trust and The Durst Organization, Inc., developer); Kohn Pedersen Fox, Robert A.M. Stern Architects, Arquitectonica (The Related Companies, developer); Murphy/Jahn Architects, PWP-Peter Walker and Partners (TS West Side holding, LLC, joint venture of Tishman Speyer and Morgan Stanley, developer).

Proposals are currently on view in an exhibition presented by the MTA:
Public Viewing of Rail Yards Bid Proposals
335 Madison Avenue (northwest corner of Vanderbilt Avenue and 43rd Street)
Across from Grand Central Terminal
Daily 8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m., through December 3