From the AP via the Asbury Park Press:
3-section tower for Jersey City
his design for a 52-story tower across the Hudson River from Manhattan, internationally acclaimed architect Rem Koolhaas wants to inspire social interaction, life and energy.
The building’s design — three rectangular sections stacked perpendicular to each other — allows for a mix of uses: condominiums, a hotel, artist lofts and studios, gallery and retail space.
“I am putting together familiar elements in an unfamiliar way,” Koolhaas said Monday in an interview after presenting renderings and models of the project at the Jersey City Museum.
The Dutch architect, winner of the prestigious Pritzker Architectural Prize, showcased his plans to transform the Jersey City skyline. He said he was conscious of creating the mix of uses to allow for people to interact, which he said is unusual in a high-rise building.
“We are creating something slightly more memorable and slightly more energetic,” he said.
The $400 million project, with public spaces on three levels of the structure, will anchor an arts district a few blocks from the water in a booming area. It will be among the tallest residential projects in New Jersey and will sit diagonally across the street from another high-rise building with a famous name, Trump Plaza: Jersey City.
…
The parties settled last summer, allowing developers to move forward with plans for luxury housing as well as the cultural elements. The settlement required 117 affordable housing units and 120 less-expensive spaces for artists’ studios and lofts. Another condition included hiring a world-class architect, said Bill Matsikoudis, the city’s corporation counsel. Developers with the Athena Group of New York said about 300 condo units are expected to have a price range of $500,000 to $1 million.
Property owners are pretty much out-and-out criminals. The saga of 111 First St (where this will be built) included all the typical JC slumlord drama to try to condemn the building, including open gas pipes with flammable rags left nearby (while tenants occupied!), mysteriously broken windows to try to freeze pipes etc etc. They should be in jail, instead they’re getting ready to reap 100s of millions.
Over $70 million in fines for all this were magically removed after L. Goldman bullied the city into surrender, with the city backing off a previously designated historic Powerhouse Art District to help preserve the neighborhood warehouses. Now, as a result, a free-for-all, with Toll Bros leading the charge to throw up one tower after the next in the area. So much for urban planning.
I read once that there was a class at some midwestern college on government corruption, and JC was the case study…
No joke, I once fell through a manhole in that area (long story!) and after repeated pleas went ignored by City Hall, Fire Dept, Police, I went on Fox 5 to report it all.. suddenly they became much more responsive. Funny how that works.