NYC’s Chelsea Piers has entered the chat

lol, didn’t see it. All the hardcovers are $3 (5 for $10!) or $2 paperback. A few rare books on a special shelf cost more. I have that one, pretty easy to find a cheap copy online (like most everything else at this sale)

Yep I did this exercise in pluto a few yrs ago and came to same conclusion—data isn’t good enough for clear winner. Main takeaway: Bedford is the outlier b/c it *is* rectangular. Most others are the odd triangles, trapezoids: that’s what caused someone optimistically to build even w/ short frontage

Yes I tend to agree. It’d be nice if the next admin takes the oppty to rationalize NYC’s peculiar disconnects across agencies in land and street data. Some historical and legal reasons why the land maps were digitized long before the street maps but this is the time to fix it all.

lol, a digital map ballot proposal is like Halley’s Comet for urban data nerds!

Google stock images of highway workers doing weed trimming etc in US vs Europe. Euros have shielded helmets with respirators, Americans lucky to get safety goggles. (License plates and road signs in the background are the confirm.)

Luckily this crime could never happen in USA because our elevators are so big we don’t need these furniture hoisters common everywhere else in the world 🙄

“Spatial misallocation” in Spain suggests some sort of technocratic problem. But massive corruption btwn construction industry & govt is big part of what that crisis generation saw. Very difficult to erase images of cranes looming over half-done neighborhoods. Maybe in 5 yrs will be ancient history.

That whole NW quadrant is land connected to / protected by royal family (and Franco during his time). Then mountains beyond. Today has stringent environmental protections, controversial even to improve the 1 rail line that goes thru. NE quadrant has more sprawl but does bleed into mountains also

All the other comments, plus: at night, street is often better lit than sidewalk

Don’t see many small churches with buttresses like that. Esp. unusual if it was built in 1860s new for church and not earlier. So maybe conversion from 1840s building is more likely.

Oh yes on townhouses. I was talking about overbuilds on commercial-to-resi conversion (orig post). LPC can’t wrap its head around adding onto those 20s/30s taxpayers (esp. well-done Art Deco ones) bc of scale & contrast issues. Adding a few stories onto a 10-story building would be a lot easier.

No I meant 2-4 story addition on a taller building (not adding onto a 2-4 story building). Actually LPC would be less likely to approve the overbuild on a shorter building bc much harder to pull off integrating the new onto the old without overwhelming it.

LOL. In any case I think there are other examples in the 2-4 story case where ppl did think it was worth pursuing

True…but seems like ever-increasing demand for massive, low-occupancy units is a wealth distribution issue & trying to solve through land regulation is Sisyphean

Setbacks, almost always yes. But often from LPC viewpoint, more a question of distinguishing the new structure from the original, not minimizing visibility per se. Doubling height I’ve seen (google Remsen Manor though that project is dead) but agreed, not doubling floor area. Very site specific tho

Btw LPC does greenlight overbuilds on these conversions. (Unlikely to OK plopping more stories on existing residential.) Taxpayer hyperbole aside, is issue with these big SF/unit bldgs even zoning let alone landmarks? If could build 2x high, wouldn’t they just do 2x units @ 3000sf not smaller units?