The gas station at the corner of FDB/8th Avenue and 110th Street/Central Park North is in a middle of ownership land dispute with the city but one developer has come out to reveal a proposed plan for the site. A Read Deal article has revealed that an architecturally ambitious design which reminds us a little of Frank Gehry is one of the main contenders 13,500-square-foot site facing the park. Nothing has been officially approved yet but talks about having the Studio Museum in Harlem opening up an additional cultural space as the anchor tenant apparently is in the works:
LINK
This developer has the ambitious goal of breaking the $2,000-per-square-foot mark with this new condo development if all goes through but there still is that lawsuit that has to be resolved before anything happens:
LINK
Rendering courtesy of The Real Deal
Honestly I don't see why we can't keep the gas station as the first floor tenant of a larger residential building. Gas stations may not be glamorous, but it is far better than some retail space that sits vacant for years on end with the bonus that it brings more yellow cabs to our neighborhood (and cab drivers supporting local businesses buying meals and snacks while they're up here). And there really aren't many gas stations left in the area. Nothing wrong with the proposed design per se, but...
ReplyDeleteWho they hell wants a gas station on the corner of central park in manhattan.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry. Whoever thinks that's the best use of that space is crazy.
Central Park North deserves great architecture, not a gas station, and please, no more affordable aka subsidized housing.
ReplyDeleteI hope the gas station owners are very well compensated (enough to retire if they want) but I also think that lot, which is quite large, should be developed with an architecturally significant building, especially because a good building would mitigate the ugly monoliths across from it and the equally wretched building on the northeast corner of 5th ave and 110.
ReplyDeleteLet the cab drivers head up to the one at 124th and Manhattan! Keep Central Park beautiful!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI have to agree that the gas stations are important. I may be wrong but didn't this station [pen before the area was considered as desirable as it is now? They (stations owners) invested in the neighborhood and now they (property owners) wanna gave them the boot in favor of one more modern building that will have empty retail space on the first level? Does not seem right or to send the right message. I'd say let the gas station remain or facilitate building the first floor in a manner that allows for a gas station to be incorporated. Sounds unsafe but could something like that be done so they don't loose the needed business they have built?
I can’t believe some peoples perspective, in my opinion, the greatest city in the world, and the edge it’s greatest park and people prefer a gas station over great architecture.... truly unbelievable, but this backwards mindset is repeated many times in Harlem.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand the argument. A quick read of the deed from 1996 clearly states the city has the right to purchase back the property within 20 years and stipulates the formula that will be used to calculate the amount paid to the owners. The owner purchased the property for $350,000 which even back then I'm assuming was not market value because the sale carried with it the buy back clause. In other words, the owner never owned the property free and clear. This is not a case of eminent domain and is not the NYC government flexing their muscles. The NYC government has a fiscal obligation to purchase the property back. Not to mention a gas station on the corner of central park is ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteLet's keep in mind that the designers of Central Park envisioned grand spaces and buildings for the four corners. W.T. Sherman is certainly surrounded by beautiful buildings, and we can argue about whether Columbus got his architectural due. I don't think Ellington sits on a particularly lovely spot, in terms of the built environment. That leaves us with Frederick Douglass, and whatever comes next will have to compete with the very unlovely Towers on the Park.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, history has validated Ellington and Douglass, at least compared to Sherman and Columbus, whose greatness is certainly compromised by the bloodiness of their exploits. Sherman, by no means an abolitionist, and no believer in full civil rights for non-whites, was revered after the Civil War by many African Americans for having effectively freed so many slaves and for instituting the "40 acres and a mule" policy.
So first the present owners have to lose thier lawsuit with the city.
ReplyDeleteThen the developer in question has to have the winning bid.
It's a bit too early to speculate overmuch on how this is gonna go either way, IMO.
A gas station VS an architecturally significant building facing Central Park? Seriously? Really? Let the games begin.
ReplyDeleteGood luck to Mr. Peebles and welcome to Harlem Sir! We need more entreprenours like you (and Marcus Samuelson) to unlock the potential.
ReplyDeletePlease keep the gas station! It's what keeps yellow cabs in the neighborhood!
ReplyDeleteYou can either have the gas station, or you have a new building, you cannot have both. Environmental and safety regulations prevent anything residential above a gas station (think about it - would YOU want the fumes of idling cars and gasoline vapors wafting into your apartment during breakfast?), and the site really cries out to be something more.
ReplyDelete