Special Greenwich Street Development District
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SPECIAL GREENWICH STREET DEVELOPMENT DISTRICT SPECIAL GREENWICH STREET DEVELOPMENT DISTRICT by CAROL SHEN GLASS A.B., UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY (1969) SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE at the MASSACHUSE TTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY June, 1 School of Architecture and Planning, May 19, 1971 Certified By The is Advisor A pteg By A Chairman, Dep rtmentalCommittee on Graduate Students Rotch (Ds. 1I9T DEC 15 1971 4-16R ARI ES - -i- ABSTRACT Special Greenwich Street Development District Carol Shen Glass Submitted to the School of Architecture and Planning on May 19, 1971, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Architecture. The Special Greenwich Street Development District is an ordinance recently added to the New York City Zoning Resolution. The special district provides a 24-block area in downtown Lower Manhattan with a "District Plan" of services and circulation elements that must be constructed as development occurs. The special district legislation is intended to both encourage development and to coordinate and direct it towards providing certain public improvements deemed necessary. A case study examination of the effects of the new zoning laws reveals the implications of the concepts of the district with regard to: (1) Design: the physical, formal response to legal require- ments and the effects of those requirements on the design process. (2) Pedestrian System: in the immediate area of the case study, the effects of the "District Plan" upon contiguous pedestrian access patterns. (3) Working Environment: within the case study developments, the impact of the "District Plan" upon the quality of the environment for the working population. (4) Development: the effects of mandatory improvements and the bonusinrg system upon the economics of project development. Evaluation of the legislation's effectiveness with regard to those four issues is based upon the testing and analysis of one site and three alternative project developments on that site. Thesis Supervisor: Kevin A. Lynch Title: Professor of City Planning - ii- ACKNOWLEDGE MENTS A number of people freely contributed their time, criticism, and advice to my study. I owe them a debt of thanks: Professor Kevin A. Lynch, my thesis advisor Professor William L. Porter Niles 0. Sutphin Special thanks to John Pettit West III of the Office of Lower Manhattan Development who gave me access to his material and files on the special district, and without whose assistance this study could not have been accomplished. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .......................................................... i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................. ii I INTRODUCTION Introduction ..................................................... 1 Background and Setting ............................................ 8 Background Planning Concepts ..................................... 15 General Concept of Zoning ........................................ 19 II THE DISTRICT The Special Greenwich Street Development District ................... .24 The Bonusing System ............................................ 28 Excerpts From Special Greenwich Street Development District .......... 34 Description of Improvements By Block ................................ 40 III A CASE STUDY Generation Process of Building Study Alternatives ..................... 44 Alternate 1 ........................................................ 52 Alternate 2 Zoning Calculations .......................................... 56 Description.................................................. 57 Proposed Development Rental Schedule ........................ 57 Construction Cost ........................................... 58 Alternate 3 Zoning Calculations......................................... 63 Description................................................ 65 Proposed Development Rental Schedule........................ 65 Construction Cost........................................... 66 IV ANALYSIS Design/Process................................................. 71 Circulation Systems............................................. 75 Working Environment............................................ 82 Developm ent.................................................... 87 V CONCLUSIONS.................................................. 95 APPENDIX.......................................................... 101 LIST OF GRAPHICS.................................................. 104 FOOTNOTES........................................................ 106 BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................................... 108 INTRODUCTION -1- INTRODUCTION The Special Greenwich Street Development District, a Special Purpose Dis- trict, as defined in Section 200 of the New York City charter, was established and officially adopted into the Zoning Resolution of the City of New York on January 6, 1971. Ada Louise Huxtable hailed it as, "One of the most sophisticated zoning de- vices to be produced by urban man." 1 The District lies in downtown Lower Man- hattan, just west of the Wall Street financial district. The new zoning code provides a framework, or "District Plan" of services and circulation elements that must be constructed as development occurs. Richard Weinstein, director of the Office of Lower Manhattan Development, who has worked with his staff, lawyers, and de- velopers on the zoning district, callsit "the most significant piece of zoning legis- lation we've ever had.,,2 Although the 1961 revision of the original 1916 New York Zoning Resolution has been in force for a decade, its effects upon the City's environment as a whole were only recently comprehended. Individual tower buildings with a patch of open space at each base, strung out for blocks along the Avenue of the Americas, are evidence of the pervasive, powerful force unmanifest within the Zoning Resolution's controls on building size and bulk. Perhaps another decade will uncover the real impact of the Special Greenwich Street Development District. Although the ultimate test of the zoning legislation lies in the actual urban environment that evolves from the "District Plan, " certain aspects of the zoning code can be examined, certain results be predicted and critical issues can be raised at the present time. The analysis of these predictable results can provide insights into the effectiveness of -2- the Special Greenwich Street Development District legislation towards improving the design of the urban environment. The investigation of certain issues within this paper is necessarily constrained by the limits of time and research data available, and though of no less importance than the areas examined herein, four major issues remain unstudied. The first is that of the basic notion that the expansion of office growth be encouraged within the area designated by the "District Plan. " The question of appropriate land use in that location is an actively discussed one. The Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association, a group of banking and business leaders chaired by David Rockefeller, supports the direction of the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan, "to continue to build on its established tradition as the focal center of banking, brokerage and investment, insurance and world trade.... Whatever else redevelopment entails, it is imperative that nothing impair or constrict lower Manhattan's fundamental role of creating jobs and generating revenues, serving in both respects to bolster the municipal economy and to bear a substantial share of the city's responsibilities, obligations and burdens. "3 A local citizens' community group, the Lower Manhattan Township, holds an opposing viewpoint: "Those several hundred thousand more office workers mean the end of everything in Manhattan but business. " 4 The answer clearly cannot be ascertained without a comprehensive, unbiased planning analysis that includes all due consideration of the benefits and co sts of office expansion not only with regard to employment opportunities, New York City's tax base and land values, but also to changes in the housing, educational and recreational needs of the City. -3- The second major issue, not unrelated to the first, that remains unstudied is that of the impact of the density generated by the "District Plan. " The District is but a slice of the entire New York/East Coast region and an examination of the impact of the District's development on the entire regional environment - its services, utilities, air, power, and water resources - is a prerequisite for a complete assessment of the zoning legislation and its implications. Again, as with the question of the appropriate land use for the Greenwich Street area, this -issue is a controversial one. The New York City Planning Commission, in its Plan for New York City made this statement: "But concentration is the genius of the City, its reason for being, the source of its vitality, and its excitement. We believe the center should be strengthened, not weakened, and we are not afraid of the bogey of high density. We hope to see several hundred thousand more office workers in the business districts in the next ten years, and we think the increase desirable and helpful. "5 The dissenting report of former Planning Commissioner Beverly Moss Spatt responded, "To argue for an intensification of the already unconscionable high degree of concentration in the heart of the City is sheer mad- ness., 6Without a thorough study of the region's capacity for growth and increased density