Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Preserve Inwood! May 7th Jane's Walk!

Join us on May 7 for an on-the-ground tour of the neighborhood and discuss these issues with its citizens!
4650 Broadway, site of proposed 27 story development.  
Built in 1926, this is one of three remaining buildings in Manhattan 
by Detroit-based, prolific architect Albert Kahn.
Join Inwood residents and members of Volunteers for Isham Park and Transportation Alternatives for a walk focused on the design history of Inwood, the community at the northern tip of Manhattan. The tour will also highlight potential changes to its cohesive Art Deco streetscapes and WPA-funded park spaces, as well as proposed improvements to the existing street infrastructure. Capture it while you can: attendees will also see architect Albert Kahn's uptown showroom for the now-defunct Packard Motor Company (above), this building could be lost as only one negative result of requested up-zoning. 
 May 7th 2016
9:00 am
Existing conditions: Ft. Tryon Park. 4650 Broadway 
visibility study by Saratoga Associates

Proposed 23-story tower from Ft. Tryon Park. 4650 Broadway 
visibility study by Saratoga Associates

     The Historic Districts Council chose Inwood as one of the Six to Celebrate neighborhoods in 2011 for its historical, architectural and environmental attributes. Nearly half of the land in Inwood is public park space which preserves natural terrain and geological features. Thus, Inwood’s distinctive development pattern and architecture was created in relation to the original landscape of Manhattan Island.  
     One of Inwood and Washington Heights’ treasured historical resources is Fort Tryon Park, a 67-acre park which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of only ten Scenic Landmarks in all of New York City.  Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. the park’s landscape is unrivaled in its romantic views of the Hudson River, the Palisades, and its rich topography.
      However, the super-tall development found in other parts of the city has arrived above 200th Street in Manhattan in this low-scale neighborhood. Ft. Tryon Park and the Inwood community is currently threatened by two proposed buildings which will irreversibly alter the experience of the park and the neighborhood at large.  The proposed upzoning for 4650 Broadway will be a 27-story building abutting the park, four times taller than the surrounding buildings’ heights. The other proposal, 4566 Broadway, would allow a 19-story development (increase in FAR from 3.44 to 9.96). 
   Click here to send a letter saying "NO" to spot-rezoning and require an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) of the cumulative impacts of these projects, and undertake a comprehensive plan to develop appropriately scaled development, similar to the City’s InwoodNYC plan immediately to the north.

This Jane's Walk is co-sponsored by the Historic Districts Council.  See their post (which is heavily quoted above) on the upcoming Inwood walk here:
http://6tocelebrate.org/news-events/2016-six-to-celebrate-tours/
 

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