Construction Update: Empire Outlets and the New York Wheel
Northeast corner of the Empire Outlets site from the St. George Ferry Terminal.
Superstructure is rising at Empire Outlets, a 350,000 square foot outlet shopping complex next to the St. George Ferry Terminal on the Staten Island waterfront. Design of the development is led by SHoP Architects and will include approximately 100 designer outlet retailers and a 190-key hotel. Completion is slated for late 2017.
View of the Empire Outlets site from the west.
Located near the site of the Empire Outlets, structure for the New York Wheel has also started to go up. When completed, the 630 foot tall observation wheel will offer stunning views of the New York harbor to 1,440 people per rotation. Currently, the four pedestals have been installed and await the 275 foot tall legs that will support the wheel. The main precast concrete structure for the adjacent terminal building and parking garage structure is mostly complete. Terra cotta fins and curtain wall will eventually clad the structure.
Pedestals for the wheel's structural legs.
Site of the New York Wheel.
Urby Staten Island
Tenants are starting to move in at Urby Staten Island in Stapleton. The two building rental property from Ironstate Development sits on 7 acres of land, formerly home to an unfinished naval base that closed in 1993. A Dutch architecture firm, Concrete, has designed the four and five story structures clad in window wall and metal panel.
Residents will have access to a bevy of amenities that include a bodega, communal kitchen, urban garden, two-floor fitness center, outdoor pool, filtered water bottle filling station, bike room, and digital package system. The communal kitchen will be overseen by a chef in residence and offer cooking classes to residents.
Communal kitchen.
Outdoor pool.
The 5,000-square-foot urban garden, managed by a resident farmer, will raise produce to be sold in the on-site bodega and for the meals prepared in the communal kitchen.
The two buildings offer 571 apartments that range in size from studios to two-bedrooms, including 115 affordable units. Some units feature waterfront views of Lower Manhattan and a leftover pier from the former naval base.
Living room of a multi-bedroom unit.
Kitchen.
Studio.
Bathroom.
At the eastern end of the site, residents will have access to a new waterfront esplanade with views to Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan.
View of Urby Staten Island from the Stapleton train platform.
A second phase of the development, offering an additional 325 units on an adjacent site, is scheduled to open in 2018.
Architect: Concrete; Developer: Ironstate Development; Program: Residential; Location: Staten Island, New York, NY; Completion: 2016.
Freshkills Park
Yesterday, Freshkills Park held its annual "Sneak Peak" event, an opportunity for the public to see the progress at the site. The former 2,200 acre Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island is in the middle of a long term conversion project into the largest park built in New York City in a hundred years. For a sense of scale, the park is approximately the size of Central Park (840 acres), Prospect Park (526 acres), and Flushing Meadows Corona Park (898 acres) combined. The park is a long term project broken down into phases, with the goal of full park completion by 2036.
Landscape Architects: Field Operations; Location: Staten Island, NY; Completion: 2036.