A mixed-use project at 11 Greene Street designed by Gwathmey Siegel Kaufman & Associates Architects and unanimously approved by the Landmark Preservation Commission (LPC) will break ground next month.
Fourteen years, two downturns and two bankruptcies after the project was first announced, the long planning process for the Gene Kaufman-designed building has finally reached fruition.
Gwathmey Siegel’s success with 11 Greene is especially noteworthy given the staying power required to complete a project begun in 2001 and repeatedly halted over almost a decade and a half as first one developer and then a second went bankrupt, abandoned the project and lost control of the site.
The long delays and the many restrictions imposed by the bankruptcy court resulted in the expiration of approvals secured by the LPC, the Board of Standards and Appeals (BOA), and the Department of Buildings (DOB).
The third time is proving to be a charm, however, with financially powerful joint developers Ruby Ventures and Colt Equities propelling the project forward.
In addition to receiving LPC approval, the project, which sits on a long-vacant property at the corner of Greene and Canal Streets, has received a special permit from the DCP for residential use and will soon receive the DOB’s new-building approval to start construction. When completed, the six-story, 78,400 s/f structure will have 31 new residential lofts free of live-work restrictions, and 11,000 s/f of ground-floor retail.
The Canal Street façade will have corbelled detailing, creating a complex geometry and a deep sense of layering.
The façade will be punctuated by large windows and joined at the building’s corner to the Greene Street façade.
That façade will comprise a trabeated metal system in an intricate three-dimensional configuration of solids and voids that will speak to the expressed structural elements and depth of the traditional cast-iron façades for which Soho is so well known.
“The contextual language and materiality shifts from Greene Street to Canal Street, reflecting the fact that, while Soho’s uniqueness as a historic district derives from its many cast iron buildings, the area also has a rich collection of masonry structures,” said firm principal Gene Kaufman.
