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New York Storeys

hinge

takes a brief stroll around New York to compare notes with Hong Kong on someselected housing design proposals and urbanplanning initiatives underway in the city

There are many similarities – literal and metaphorical – between Hong Kong and New York. Even though per capita income in NYC is twice what it is in HongKong, the two cities are equally paramount as the economic powerhouses of their respective continents. (It is no surprise that

Time

included both in its titularaxis of world supremacy, ‘NyLonKong’.) Both cities have become the most cosmopolitan and international connurbations of their respective hemispheres. They are both archipelago port cities of multiple islands. They both retain working waterfronts (the historical source of their respective vast wealth). Both boast populations of several million residents on land masses of less than 100sq km and, consequently, both face mounting housing pressure as the difculties ofaccommodating rising populations bite. New York’s population is expected to grow from just over 8 million today to over 9 million by the year 2030. Various coping strategies have been adopted throughout the histories of Hong Kong and New York City, at governmental level and on the drawing boards ofarchitects and public planners, not insignicant among these being the institution of reclaimed land (in the case of Hong Kong) and the introduction of theskyscraper (in both cities).The central zones of both Hong Kong and New York follow the conventional logic of the peaking of vertical height as developers maximise the potential ofsome of the most valuable land in the world. Real estate prices in the two cities are at a stratospheric high for their respective cultures. Running counter,both metropolises have highly active heritage preservation lobbies arguing for curtailment of demolition and reconstruction of the cities’ more venerablestructures.Both Hong Kong and New York share the fact they struggle with severely restricted land mass for building on, especially in their principal metropolitan areas,Manhattan and Hong Kong Island, (two of the most densely populated urban areas on the planet). At Hong Kong’s ‘Shan-Kong-Ny-Lon’ symposium back inNovember, we spoke with Commissioner and Chair of the Planning Commission of The City of New York, Amanda Burden. On New York’s capacity for growth,she says, “even though it is completely built out, there are some areas [of New York] that are underdeveloped.”At the height of Manhattan’s skyscraper fever in 1916, the City of New York imposed a zoning restriction on the city’s developers to counter what RemKoolhaas described in his 1978 book,

Delirious New York

, as a climate in which there was “no manifesto, no architectural debate, no doctrine, no law, noplanning, no ideology, no theory ... only – Skyscraper”. In many ways, the same could be said of Hong Kong, but with the conclusion substituted as ‘only – Mall’.Nevertheless, the Asian city still boasts the highest number of skyscrapers anywhere in the world...

By Andrew Johnson

PUSHING THE ENVELOPE

Architects working in New York often remark on the stringency of the city’s strict zoning regulationsand ordinances. In the literatureof their New York City projectprofiled here, RMJM, for one,describes the city as somewhat“architecturally prescriptive”.Jerilyn Perine, executive directorof NY’s Citizens Housing andPlanning Council (HPD) andauthor of New York MayorMichael Bloomberg’s 2002New Housing Marketplace Plan,describes the city as having“the most complicated zoningregulation on the planet”.Hong Kong’s various ordinanceshave been amended slightlysince, but mostly still follow codesbased on the urban shape ofBritain’s larger towns circa thelate 1950s. These still exercisecontrol over all local lands except villages native to the territory andhave resulted in the density ofHong Kong Island and Kowloonwhile Sai Kung and Tai Po remainrural. Restrictions on availableland have artificially inflated realestate prices while enabling taxes to be kept low.New York’s planning rigourand legislative proscription isstill articulated via the city’sZoning Law, which prescribes a theoretical limit on the size andshape of New York buildings,but allows them to rise to a theoretically unlimited height aslong as they carry only 25% of the plot area up with them. TheZoning Law enforces the rubric that towers may rise but muststep or taper back from theboundary edge of the plot to allowlight onto the street. The addedstraitjacket of strictly limited block sizes (in Manhattan) – the islandbeing basically a grid system of2,028 identically-sized plots –makes building there innovativelya particular challenge.The 1916 directive was revisedin 1961 as the Zoning Resolution,coordinating use and bulk regulations, incorporating parkingrequirements and emphasising the creation of open space.In the past 10 years, New York’sDepartment of City Planninghas taken an increasinglyflexible approach to thedesignation of land usage in the city, encouraging moreliveable neighbourhoods andattractive urban streetscapes.Jaclyn Perine of the HPD says,“Most new construction in thelast five years has followed thecity’s strategies of rezoning oldindustrial areas, of increasingdensity in different places inManhattan, the waterfront,downtown Brooklyn, etc.” Newopportunities for housingdevelopment are being createdwhere former industrial useshave been long dormant orwhere wide avenues with good transit connections in establishedneighbourhoods can sustainincreased density.

111 Central Park NorthResidential Tower of market two- and three-bedroom units and two/four-bedroom market penthouses111 Central Park North, ManhattanRMJM-HillierThe Athena GroupArchitects conducted thorough investigation into understanding and transforming the buildingresolutions at the site of this project to create an envelope that satises civic obligations whileembodying a new design attitude for the rst tall building on the north end of Central Park. According toPeter Schubert, RMJM North America Design Director and lead architect of the project, the zoning allowedthe building to be constructed “as-of-right” but RMJM-Hillier consulted with the local community boardon the design and integrated their preferences. As a result of this process, the podium was congured asa series of courtyards, pavilions and shop fronts to form a pedestrian-scaled base. The top of the podiumis a garden, extending Central Park into the neighborhood.2007

Name:Format:Locus:Design Architects:Developer:Innovations:Completion:

Archstone ClintonMixed-use515 West 52 StreetThe Dermot CompanyFXFOWLE ArchitectsAs part of the conditions of the agreement between the developer and the City of New York, the zoningon the site was changed via a special permit obtained through the Uniform Land Use Review Processat the New York City Department of City Planning. By adjusting the zoning districts of the projectsite, allowing for the overbuild of a railroad right of way, providing for a exible distribution of uses,and other measures, the special permit provided for a design that has a vital mix of uses includingmultiple housing types, community facility spaces (theatres) and retail spaces. The special permitalso maintained the scale of the street wall on Tenth Avenue and provided for open spaces within thedevelopment and adjacent community garden. The development aims to provide program functions thatcan serve as a catalyst for a transformation of the neighborhood.2008

Name:Programme:Locus:Developer:Architect:Description:Completion:

Photography James D’Addio courtesy of FXFOWLE Architects

PUBLIC OR PRIVATE?

Anable Basin500 affordable housing units, two-storey townhouses and live-work artists’ housing across 3 million sq ftof masterplanLong Island City, New YorkStudio V ArchitecturePLAXALL“The greatest public space since Central Park.” Waterfront zoning regulations require 20% of this historicsite on the East River to be public open space, including a continuous 40ft waterfront esplanade withan upland connection. [It’s difcult to hear the word ‘esplanade’ in a NY context without thinking of TheSopranos. -

] The solution is an “aqueous town square”. The interstices of the City, including decayingwaterfronts and underused industrial space, explore the confrontation between public and private uses inprovocative and innovative ways. Two-storey townhouses inserted into the base of the buildings and streetslead to the waterfront, which are lined with modern interpretations of traditional stoops and gardens.

The HKSAR’s Centre of UrbanPlanning and EnvironmentalManagement estimates that over50% of Hong Kong’s populationnow lives in public housing. Since the Second World War, thecity has adopted a myriad ofschemes and initiatives, including the 1980s flat-for-sale schemeand the so-called Sandwich Classprogramme for middle-classaffordable housing (which gaverise to Mountain Shore in Ma OnShan, Cayman Rise in KennedyTown and Serenity Place inTseung Kwan O). According to theHong Kong Housing Authority’sfive-year Public HousingConstruction Programme (as ofSeptember 2008), the forecastfor new public rental housingfrom 2008/09 to 2012/13 isaround 15,000 flats per year.Public tenants in Hong Kong payan average of 49 per cent of openmarket prices.To explain how public housingis incentivised in New York City through so-called “inclusionaryhousing”, Amanda Burden refers to 10,000 units planned for10 miles of deserted Brooklynwaterfront in Greenpoint andWilliamsburg on the East River.“You can build a certain ammountas of right but you do not get yourheight unless you build affordablehousing,” she says. “There is33% bonus for 20% affordablehousing. Of course all developerswant the taller floors, so we knowwe can leverage public housingdevelopments.” New York’s 2004New Housing Marketplace Planaims to create and preserve165,000 units of public housingby 2013.Burden explains that untilrecently, there had not been acomprehensive plan for publichousing in New York “since the1960s”. Bloomberg’s PlanNYCincludes public housing alongsidefive wide-ranging areas ofsustainability: land, air, water,energy and transportationacross all five boroughs undera total of 127 tenets. As aresult of PlanNYC, Burden says,masterplans for 90 differentareas have been approved. Theapprovals cover over 7,000blocks.“My agency has often beenaccused of being reactive todevelopers,” she says, referring to suggestions that New York City Planning adapts the zoningof particular areas to orderby property developers aftermaximum profit. Burden says that her office’s strategy iscomprehensive urban designmasterplanning, as opposed tosimple designation of areas foralternative usages than may havebeen originally planned.Lower-density growthmanagement techniques havebeen developed for outlying areassuch as the Anable Basin plans,profiled here.

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Upload Date:	05/28/2009
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Tags:	Architecture Housing hong kong New York Architecture Housing hong kong New York (fewer)

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