A rail terminal turned into a Google office and the world's largest house achieving a distinct standard of energy efficiency are among the real estate recognized as New York's most transformative projects.
The Urban Land Institute honored seven projects that the nonprofit real estate research and policy organization said are helping to shape the future of the built environment and aiding in changing communities.
The annual Awards for Excellence in Development winners announced this past week were among 17 finalist submissions in the private, public and nonprofit sectors across the state.
“These awards highlight outstanding practices in design, development, and sustainability,” Jared Epstein, ULI New York's awards committee co-chair and president of developer Aurora, said in a statement
The winners are:
Excellence in Office Development, St. John’s Terminal
The office property for Google was redeveloped from a 1930s freight structure supporting up to 227 railcars, ULI said. A nine-story overbuild was added to accommodate up to 3,000 employees in 1.3 million square feet. The terminal’s brick facade, limestone detailing, and masonry base were restored while newly exposed railbeds host some 95% of plants native to New York state. The project also features 33,700 square feet of open space at street level, on terraces, and on rooftops, ULI said, adding the project transformed “a defunct structure into a highly coveted office space while revitalizing a neighborhood.”
Excellence in Adaptive Reuse, Pier 57
Originally built in 1907 as a shipping and storage terminal before being redeveloped as a mixed-use destination in Hudson River Park, Pier 57 is “essentially a 500,000-square-foot skyscraper turned on its side,” ULI said. The Meatpacking District property, with Google the anchor tenant, features a 2-and-a-half-acre rooftop park, a food hall, 12,000 square feet of free public classrooms, and several restaurants, ULI said, adding culinary arts organization the James Beard Foundation has a training kitchen there.
Excellence in Affordable Housing Development, Sendero Verde
Located in East Harlem and featuring 709 all-electric apartment units, Sendero Verde is the world’s largest residential building with a passive house designation, ULI said.
Passive houses use design principles to achieve optimal temperatures while reducing the reliance on mechanical heating and cooling. The Passive House Institute in Darmstadt, Germany, established the standards for the building type in 1996.
The 750,851-square-foot, 100%-affordable-housing Sendero Verde complex was built on a site previously occupied by four community gardens and features amenities including a community garden, central courtyard, on-site school, and supportive services.
Excellence in Hotel Development, The Fifth Avenue Hotel
The project remade a mansion-turned-bank building into a stylish hotel in the NoMad neighorhood, ULI said. To preserve its “gloried past while adding modern flourishes,” the entire skeleton of the prior structure was ripped out and the facade was braced, ULI said, adding the 140,000-square-foot hotel features 153 rooms. A new 24-story modern tower was completed as part of the development. “The Fifth Avenue Hotel transforms a landmark into a new vision of intuitive and imaginative hospitality in the heart of New York,” ULI said.
Excellence in Institutional Development, Far Rockaway Library
The library in Queens replaced the prior library that was built in 1968 and served as disaster relief site during Hurricane Sandy. The new library, double the size of its predecessor, features a luminescent facade with sculpted words referencing daily life in New York, sun-filled rooms, and a central atrium shaped like an inverted pyramid that lets in light and offers sky views, ULI said.
Excellence in Market-Rate Housing Development, 505 State St.
The 44-floor mixed-use residential and retail tower in downtown Brooklyn is the first all-electric building in New York to be powered entirely by local renewable energy and includes the city’s first two passive-house schools, ULI said. The 416,475-square-foot project, featuring 441 apartments, 45 of which affordable, was completed without subsidies on a dense triangular site while preserving two historical structures. The building features such amenities as a gym, a screening room, and a plant-filled meditation space.
Excellence in Urban Open Space, Manhattan West
The 2.6 acres of open space is part of the broader, 7-million-square-foot Manhattan West mixed-use development west of Penn Station and features plazas, native-plant gardens, benches, and a range of events. The project was “an engineering feat” as plazas and walkways were built on a 2.6-acre structure above active railroad tracks on what was previously an open railyard, a parking lot, and two existing buildings, ULI said. Pedestrians also can have car-free access from the Manhattan West plaza to the High Line elevated park via pedestrian bridges.