NEW YORK—Renderings of the 22 Thames Street tower designed by star architect Rafael Vinoly are up on the Fisher Brothers’ site, and designs suggest it could be the tallest residential building downtown.
According to the building permits, the building was planned to be 841 feet, but it’s possible the tower could surpass the 937-feet Four Seasons Hotel and Residences at 30 Park Place developed by Silverstein Properties. A previous permit application with the Department of Buildings, which was not approved, had listed 439 units, 20 percent of which would be affordable.
The skyscraper at 22 Thames Street in Greenwich Village will be Vinoly’s second in Manhattan. The firm also designed 432 Park, another thin residential tower.
The developers have the right to build an 85-story building, which came as a surprise to Community Board 1 when it was presented this summer. Fisher Brothers had opted for a variance to build a 70-story building with a smaller setback, that would act as a “hinge” from the World Trade Center towers and lower Greenwich Street masonry buildings.
Demolition of the building previously on the site finished this fall, and the building is slated to open the spring of 2017.
Lower Manhattan is seeing a huge boom in the retail market supported by the residential and hotel development in progress. According to the NYCEDC, Lower Manhattan, the financial heart of the city, sees nearly 6 million annual visitors and tourism is growing as well.
The area has an 85 percent occupancy rate for its 3,700 hotel rooms, with 850 more rooms under construction.
