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| New York
Architecture Images- Recent W New York Downtown |
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| Please note- I do not own the copyright for the images on this page. | |
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architect |
Gwathmey-Siegel & Associates |
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location |
123 Washington Street |
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date |
2007 |
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style |
Neomodern architecture |
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type |
Hotel |
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construction |
Concrete frame |
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notes |
Business Wire W Hotels Puts the “W” Back in Wall Street with W New York-Downtown Hotel & Residences W Hotels’ Sixth Property in Manhattan Will Add Style and Substance to New York City’s Most Important Revitalization  March 27, 2007 Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. (NYSE:HOT) announces the continued expansion of W Hotels with an agreement with New York-based real estate developer Moinian Group to operate the W New York-Downtown Hotel & Residences, a new luxury property in downtown Manhattan, featuring 217 guest rooms and 222 residential units. Located at 123 Washington Street, just one block from the site of the new Freedom Tower, the W New York-Downtown Hotel & Residences will mark the W brand’s arrival in New York City’s recently revitalized downtown area. The newly constructed building is anticipated to open in 2008, with residential sales expected to begin in mid-2007.  The W New York-Downtown Hotel & Residences is poised to serve the growing number of visitors and residents in lower Manhattan as it continues to transform itself into a premier 21st century business district and a vibrant residential community. Lower Manhattan is now the fastest growing residential market in the city, dedicating resources to improving its waterfront spaces, parks, schools, and cultural institutions, fostering the development of a more pedestrian-friendly environment. As the first globally branded luxury hotel and residences project of its size and scale in downtown New York, the W New York-Downtown Hotel & Residences is the first W residential development in Manhattan. Adding breadth to the W brand’s New York City based portfolio, this new property joins five other W hotels in the Big Apple and further strengthens Starwood’s position as the largest hotel operator in New York City with twelve renowned hotels in Manhattan. “W is deeply connected to Manhattan and we’re proud to be a part of this important project to revitalize this part of the City,” said Ross Klein, President of Starwood’s Luxury Brands Group. “W New York-Downtown will create a destination inside a destination, adding substance, style and luxury to Manhattan’s most anticipated new development.” The 57-story building will offer all of the W signature comforts, including its Living Room experience where guests can socialize while sipping cocktails, and the Whatever/Whenever® 24-hour concierge service that can provide whatever guests want (from a bed covered in rose petals to private jet service) whenever they want it. Offering the ultimate urban lifestyle, residences will feature spectacular views of the city as well as state-of-the-art kitchen appliances and a sophisticated telecommunications infrastructure. Residents will enjoy all the services and amenities available to hotel guests, in addition to exclusive access to a residence-only lounge area, rooftop terrace with cabanas, and private spa treatment rooms. Both the hotel and residences will have dedicated full-service fitness centers. Moinian Group, one of the nation’s top real estate developers, is the owner and developer of the project and Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects has been named design architect for the building. SHVO Marketing is handling exclusive marketing and sales for the property and will open the W New York-Downtown Residences Welcome Center by mid-2007 at 90 West Street, directly opposite the building’s construction site. “This project will be a premier destination in downtown Manhattan because it brings both new visitors to the city and new residents to the neighborhood,” said Joseph Moinian, President & CEO of Moinian Group. “The W Hotels brand, and its sophisticated, well-traveled and savvy clientele, will help shape the cultural landscape of the area, making downtown New York City an even more desirable destination.” Michael Shvo, President of SHVO Marketing, agrees. “This property offers an exceptional opportunity to live downtown,” said Mr. Shvo. “Few brands can match the lifestyle appeal of W Hotels, which immediately conveys a strong contemporary style and elevated taste-level to the buyer. As big believers in downtown New York City, we’re thrilled to be part of this project, and will create a dynamic, interactive sales experience for the W brand that will make buying at the W New York-Downtown Hotel & Residences a very easy decision.” 
 Similarity.... About W Hotels Worldwide Since its debut in 1998, W Hotels has been a favorite of guests and developers alike and today is a global lifestyle brand with 21 properties in the most vibrant cities around the world. Inspiring and indulging its guests with thoughtful, refreshing and stylish experiences, signature restaurants, bars and destination spas, W has become the fastest-growing luxury hotel brand in the world. Each hotel offers a unique mix of innovative design, comfort and cultural influences from fashion to music to art and everything in between. W Austin Hotel & Residences will be the Brand’s second property in Texas, following the very successful W Dallas-Victory Hotel & Residences which opened earlier this year. Other recent openings include W Retreat & SpaSM – Maldives and W Seoul – Walkerhill. W has announced plans for new hotels in Philadelphia, Hollywood, South Beach, Phoenix, Scottsdale and Hoboken. Internationally, W has announced plans for hotels in Barcelona, Istanbul, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Santiago, Dubai, Doha and Koh Samui. For more information, visit www.whotels.com. About Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.® is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with approximately 850 properties in more than 95 countries and 145,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood® Hotels is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels and resorts with the following internationally renowned brands: St. Regis®, The Luxury Collection®, Sheraton®, Westin®, Four Points® by Sheraton, W®, Le Méridien® and the recently announced AloftSM and ElementSM Hotels. Starwood Hotels also owns Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., one of the premier developers and operators of high quality vacation interval ownership resorts. For more information, please visit www.starwoodhotels.com. About Moinian Group The Moinian Group is widely regarded as one of the industry’s most active development firms, boasting a portfolio totaling more than 20 million square feet of commercial, industrial, residential, retail and hotel properties throughout the U.S. and abroad. Its extensive acquisitions include trophy buildings like the Downtown Club in lower Manhattan, formerly known as the Downtown Athletic Club and home to the Heisman Trophy, the Sears Tower in Chicago and Continental Towers at 180 Maiden Lane in Downtown Manhattan. The Moinian Group aims to transform long-underutilized areas into dynamic, transit-oriented urban centers by integrating a mix of medium- and high-density residential, commercial, entertainment and cultural land uses. Striving for excellence, it sustains its leadership in the industry with a focus on creating new environments in which to grow, work and live. For more information, please visit www.moiniangroup.com. About SHVO SHVO, a leader in residential real estate marketing, branding and sales, brings breakthrough concepts and partnerships to the luxury condominium market. The company’s recent projects in Manhattan have sent new standards for luxury residence marketing, design and living. Founded by Michael Shvo, the company’s unique strategic strengths, design and technological insights, and sales expertise have resulted in an impressive roster of prestigious clients and successful projects. The SHVO signature includes innovative marketing and sales campaigns that create the right lifestyle proposition for the right buyer. In addition to marketing numerous buildings throughout New York, SHVO is actively marketing luxury properties in other major U.S. cities, Europe, Asia and Mexico. For more information, please visit www.shvo.com. |
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123 Washington Street - W New York Downtown
- by Gwathmey-Siegel & Associates Article from the Battery Park City Broadsheet Sometimes known as 123 Washington St, the building at 4 Albany was recently sold by Deutsche Bank to the Moinian Group. A Moinian spokesperson would not comment on plans for the site, but executives associated with downtown reconstruction work confirmed that the building will come down and that new development is planned. Local residents are concerned that the building is contaminated, and without the public scrutiny that has been focused on the Deutsche Bank deconstruction, demolition may release toxins into the air. As long as the Moinion Group does not use federal funds for the work, the company is not obligated to publicize its plans. "This should not be a secret project," said Helen Seeman, a BPC resident who participated in an LMDC advisory group on the Deutsche Bank deconstruction. "This needs to have a public process. It doesn't seem reasonable to have the LMDC go through all this and then have Moinian do whatever they're going to do with the other building." The building at 4 Albany St is said to be architecturally significant and is eligible for listing on the National Register. Designed by architect Arthur C. Jackson, it was completed in 1922 for the National Surety Company. "It is a neo-classical commercial building with projecting bays at a stone base separated by Doric columns and a large bracket cornice," said Ken Lustbader of the Lower Manhattan Emergency Preservation Fund. "If they're using private funds, they can do whatever they wantBut, for everybody, it would be beneficial to have a clearer line of communication." --------------- Greenwich St. Neighborhood on the Rise by Etta Sanders http://www.tribecatrib.com/ NoBat? SoLib? East of West? No catchy moniker has yet caught on for the area north of Battery Park and south of Liberty Street from Broadway to West Street, but developers and the city are hoping it will become one of the hottest neighborhoods in Lower Manhattan. "We're bullish about the area below the World Trade Center," said Elad Dror, director of residential properties for the Moinian Group, developers of a new apartment building in the area. With much attention focused on buildings that are coming down just south of the World Trade Center site, less notice has been taken of what will be going up. By the time the rebuilding dust settles, the area commonly referred to by city planners as Greenwich Street South may be the most altered Downtown neighborhood of the post Sept. 11 era. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) has financed an urban design study of the area, examining, among other things, its potential for residential conversions and/or mixed uses, particularly housing in areas around the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. While the city and the LMDC study and plan, two high-rise luxury residential buildings are already in the works, according to The Real Deal, a trade periodical. One of them, a 30-story condominium building, is slated to go up at 4 Albany Street, where demolition of the existing building began in late December. Dror confirmed that Moinian is planning a residential building on the site, but would give no other details. The developer has already converted three other commercial spaces in the area to create 1,200 apartments since the summer of 2000. Just to the east, at the corner of Thames and Greenwich Streets, the two-story building that housed Corbett and Conley and a Japanese noodle shop will be replaced by another 30-stories of luxury condominiums. At 120 Greenwich Street, nearly all the occupants of the 105 apartments are gone. Most moved in with two-year leases after Sept. 11 to take advantage of the Downtown residential grant program, according to Charles Cecil, managing director of Barrington Development, which manages the property. Cecil said the company plans to increase the 12-story building by roughly 50 percent and turn it into condos or a combination condo and hotel. Today, the area hardly has a neighborhood look. "It's pretty bleak,' said Susan Fox, who moved from 120 Greenwich Street last year. "There's the Pussycat Lounge and the sex shop. There's really not much there." But Dror expects that will change as more people move in. "With all the residents there, the retail will come," he said. The planned transformation of the southern stretch of West Street into a grassy boulevard could blossom into a promenade of outdoor cafes. Cecil said the neighborhood will also be boosted by the restoration of Greenwich Street through the World Trade Center site, its proximity to the financial district, and by improved transportation. Even taking into account the hundreds of new apartments already coming to Tribeca and the Financial District, the market will not be saturated with high-priced housing, he said. "If demand went down 20 percent, it wouldn't change anything." The newcomers, of course, will differ from the artists and others who pioneered the neighborhoods to the north. "Peculiar artsy types are not the ones spending $1,000 a foot," Cecil said. ---------------- Demolition work begins at 4 Albany St. By Ronda Kaysen While much of the World Trade Center redevelopment plans have been bogged down in a bureaucratic quagmire, a small neo-classical office building at 4 Albany St., standing damaged and shrouded behind a black curtain since Sept. 11th, 2001, has been cleaned of contaminants and will soon be reduced to nothing more than a cement foundation.  Workers began demolishing the Deutsche Bank-owned building last Friday and by July the 10-story edifice will be gone. One of the last World Trade Center-damaged structures scheduled for the chopping block, it is the only one privately owned. In December, workers began a painstaking floor-by-floor cleaning process to remove the contaminants – primarily lead and asbestos — that rendered it uninhabitable. With the building now empty and clean, the façade will be peeled into the structure to be demolished floor by floor. “All of the contaminants have been removed,” Frank Lawatsch, Jr. legal counsel for the bank, told Community Board 1 members and local residents at a recent C.B. 1 public meeting. “All that’s left is brick and mortar.” The office building’s fate was sealed last November when Deutsche Bank entered into a $30 million sale agreement with developer Joseph Moinian on the condition that the bank would demolish the structure. A spokesperson for the Moinian Group declined to comment on the developer’s plans for the site. From 7 a.m. until 3:30 p.m., five days a week, workers will haul debris from the site. Loading the remnants of the building on Albany St., trucks – two to five a day at the start, and 12 to 14 a day by the middle of June – will loop onto Carlyle St. and onto the West Side Highway. The demise of 4 Albany St. may be a harbinger of how the other remaining 9/11-damaged structures are dismantled. “What happens at 4 Albany St. is setting the precedent for what happens at 130 Liberty St. and what happens at Fiterman Hall,” said C.B. 1 member Catherine McVay Hughes, referring to two 9/11-damaged structures that are awaiting demolition. Although 4 Albany St. is not facing the same level of public and government scrutiny as the government-owned contaminated buildings, the Environmental Protection Agency has been closely watching Deutsche Bank’s activities at the site. Future demolitions will most likely take cues from the bank, according to Pat Evangelista, W.T.C. coordinator for the E.P.A. “4 Albany is a good model,” he said. The E.P.A. is directly overseeing plans for the demolition of 130 Liberty St., a former Deutsche Bank property that was acquired by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, a city and state agency, last year. The L.M.D.C. is currently revising a draft of its demolition plan that will include a detailed emergency action plan, which the corporation discussed at the meeting. Local residents and community board members voiced environmental safety concerns at the meeting, and a general sense of frustration with a process that has occurred with little public input. “There’s a lot of distrust because the community wasn’t involved at the beginning,” Craig Hall, president of the W.T.C. Residents Coalition, told Deutsche Bank representatives. Lawatsch insisted that the E.P.A. and C.B. 1 have been kept abreast of the company’s dealings, noting that environmental consultants for the bank deliver reports to the E.P.A. every week. “The last thing the bank wanted to do was expose the community to anything,” said Lawatsch. There have been two incidents where contamination levels have exceeded safety levels since work began on the 130,000 sq. ft. building. The first exceedence showing lead was caused by work at a nearby Con Edison project and the second, caused by asbestos, was related to work at the site. Neither incident, said Lawatsch, posed a public health threat since the exposure stayed within safe limits. “We set very specific requirements that go well beyond what the law requires,” he said. |
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