Here's a look at the new 13-floor residential building with 78 units going up at East Houston and Ridge Street.
It just seems ... massive.
[The view from East 2nd Street]
The website of project architect Stephen B. Jacobs offers a few more details on the building at 331 E. Houston St./163 Ridge St.
The ground floor includes the residential lobby, a lounge, and apartments in the rear of the building which have access to outdoor space. A large skylight brings natural light to the gym in the cellar, and stairs provide access to recreational outdoor space in the rear yard. A mix of studios, one, and two-bedroom apartments make up the bulk of the building. The top floor includes a three-bedroom apartment with a balcony. The rooftop is designed as an amenity space for the building, complete with deck seating, projector screen, bar, and outdoor shower.
The interior design was inspired by the raw nature of materials in the Lower East Side, such as exposed concrete and blackened steel, and includes touches of color such as the graffiti tiled accent wall in the lobby.
His firm's East Village work includes the Copper Building on Avenue B and the Village Green on East 11th Street.
Oh, and here are some renderings ...
... and notice the rooftop theater is inexplicably projecting an ad for "Live Free or Die Hard" (aka "Die Hard 4")
The building will reportedly include 20 percent affordable housing.
The L-shape parcel here sat empty for years, the property of reclusive real-estate baron William Gottlieb.
And it's just the latest project in the changing East Houston corridor... including the new 10-story residential building at Suffolk Street ... the 12-story Adele ... and the 9-floor building planned for the former Mobil station lot at Avenue C.
Previously on EV Grieve:
An L-Shaped footprint ready to make its impression on East Houston Street
An abandoned car in an empty lot that will soon yield a 13-floor residential building
On East Houston, work begins on a new 13-floor residential building
What 331 E. Houston St. will look like one day
Why do these companies think that people want to live in apartments that look like hotel lobbies? (I know the obvious answer; that was a rhetorical question.) So charmless and cold.
ReplyDeleteA lobby on the ground floor? What an architectural fucking breakthrough.
ReplyDeleteHonest question: why do you need an outdoor shower on top of a building? I understand outdoor showers on beaches, but roofdecks?
ReplyDeleteIf it's being used as a sundeck you can use the shower to cool down.
DeleteI want to speak to the doorman... Listen, this is exasperating. The goddamned affordable housing cretins have been using the outdoor shower again. Do something. And they leave their curlies on the soap!
ReplyDeleteSince "douche" is French for "shower" it's fair to say that this building will always have a douche hanging out on the roof. Let's call it Douche Towers.
ReplyDeleteAnother "Bro" Palace in the making.
ReplyDeleteThe showers are used to not just cool down but to hose off the skank of fraternal juices off.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Gottleib must have been an oddball to never develop his properties, and instead just leave empty trash lots. Unfortunately what gets built is only 15 or 16 affordable homes and 60 crappy expensive ones that probably will be only become moderately affordable in 20 years after they've been abused... Whoops that's when the tax breaks for providing those original 15 expire.
ReplyDeleteWe should have mandatory 20 percent affordable & only give tax breaks if the affordable is 50 percent or more.
"William Gottleib must have been an oddball"
ReplyDeleteAll accounts say he was. bigtime. He didn't want the properties developed. he might have been the first of the anti-gentrifiers. I'm sure he rolled over in his grave when is kids sold off his meatpacking properties. we need an EVG post on his mysterious history.