Tag: architecture

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Up To Speed

Work begins on $15 billion Manhattan infill project

Work begins on $15 billion Manhattan infill project.

Earlier this week, New York City officials celebrated the groundbreaking of Hudson Yards, a new $15 billion office and residential district to be built above the Long Island Railroad’s yard on Manhattan’s west side. The development’s 16 towers will create nearly as much new office and residential space as currently exists in downtown Cincinnati. An extension of the #7 subway serving the development will be completed in 2014 and new buildings should be ready for occupancy in 2015. More from the New York Daily News:

The groundbreaking ends years of deal-making between developers and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which owns the rail yard and will lease the development rights for 99 years for more than $1 billion…The 26-acre site, to be built on platforms over the rail facility, will be the largest private real estate development in the history of New York.

For New Yorkers trying to wiggle out of a recession, Hudson Yards could mean thousands of jobs and hundreds of units of affordable housing…Urban experts see Hudson Yards as a means for New York to stay competitive with Shanghai, London and Paris as a key 21st century city.

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Business Development News

PHOTOS: Downtown and Over-the-Rhine over the course of 2012

2012 has been a pretty terrific year for Cincinnati’s center city. And while I don’t get to spend as much time as I would like back home, here are 28 of my favorite images I captured throughout Downtown and Over-the-Rhine during the course of the year. Here’s looking to an even better 2013!

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Business Development News

Officials celebrate completion of nation’s largest green renovation of affordable housing

Photograph by Alexis Barnes.

The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Shaun Donovan, is in Cincinnati today to celebrate the completion of the newly redeveloped housing project called the Villages at Roll Hill. The project, which was once known as Fay Apartments, is being heralded as the largest green renovation, affordable housing project in the country.

Developers Wallick-Hendy state that they intend to apply to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) to obtain LEED certification on the project.

Redevelopment of the long-stalled neighborhood had begun in earnest in 2010 after years of setbacks and delays. As disclosed by UrbanCincy in 2010, developers were able to tap a variety of funding sources to get the project off the ground including a $32 million loan from HUD and a $3.2 grant from City HOME. The City of Cincinnati also granted an eight-year tax abatement on the renovated units.

The rehabilitation included the demolition of 17 buildings on site and reduced the number of housing units to 703. The upgrades also include landscaping, security, tree installation, a new playground and other improvements.

The Villages of Roll Hill is located along Baltimore Avenue on the west side of Cincinnati. The housing development debuted in 1962 as a promising new city neighborhood with over 1,025 market rate apartments. The development was owned and operated by HUD but was bought by the City in 1982.

By 1986, the City sold the struggling development to Stern-Hendy due to promises to invest millions in rehabilitating and repairing the complex. By 2005, however, there were only 112 market rate apartments left, 650 were rented to Housing Choice Voucher recipients (Section 8) and 128 were rehabilitative housing operated by Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA).

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Up To Speed

Would an aerial tram make sense for Mt. Adams?

Would an aerial tram make sense for Mt. Adams?.

The number of cities using aerial trams (cable cars) as a means of urban transport is growing. In Cincinnati, the idea of implementing an aerial tram between Over-the-Rhine and Mt. Adams has long been considered. Often times the trams take passengers from low-lying areas to the tops of hillsides, but they are also being used to traverse rivers and more. More from The Guardian:

Cable transport is cost-effective, environmentally friendly, safe and requires little infrastructure. It is particularly suitable for crossing natural obstacles such as rivers or scaling hills, there being no need for expensive engineering work. Over an equivalent distance a cable link costs half as much as a tram line, and though no rival for underground railways in terms of capacity, some models can carry up to 8,000 passengers an hour.

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Up To Speed

Will Philly learn from Cincinnati’s urban casino experience?

Will Philly learn from Cincinnati’s urban casino experience?.

Like Cincinnati, Philadelphia is struggling with what to do with a proposed casino in its center city. Concerns include potential crime, urban design, historical context, and a worry about such a large area of the urban environment being owned and controlled by one entity. More from Next American City:

Blatstein is the latest high-profile developer to throw his hat into the ring, with the 120,000-square-foot “Provence Casino” plan that would transform the former Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News complex. The former offices would house a 125-room hotel and table games, while former loading docks and a parking area would be expanded into additional casino space and a massive commercial area, topped with an extravagant French-themed rooftop “village” and indoor botanical garden. According to Tower, the project will create 5,300 permanent positions for casino workers, in addition to thousands of temporary construction jobs.