What're you lookin' at? (Visualhouse/Related)

Party on the skyline. (Visualhouse/Related)

Earlier this week, the Related Companies announced it had found backers to begin building the first tower of its Hudson Yards project (at the same time that it is trying to get a break from the MTA for payments on the entire 16-acre complex). Should the project get off the ground, it will have a long way to go.

Sure, in terms of time, as it will takes years, if not decades, for the entire 12 million square feet of office, residential, retail and cultural space to be built. But there is also a long way to go in terms of distance. As the design team puts the finishing touches on the first phase of the project, it turns out the other office tower on the site, which has yet to find an anchor tenant or an announced start date, will become the second or third tallest building in the city when it is completed, surpassing the Empire State Building.

At 1,300 feet, the tallest of the Hudson Yards towers (designed by KPF) will fall just short of 1 World Trade Center (sans antenna, er, spire) and the even taller 432 Park, CIM and Harry Macklowe’s new luxury tower at the corner of 57th Street and Park Avenue, which reaches a spindly 1,397 feet into the skyline.

But this is not the only place where Hudson Yards will surpass the Empire State Building. It will also boast both a observation areas closer to heaven than at the Empire State Building, both indoors and out.

Perhaps you noticed an unusual shard jutting out from the side of the tallest tower in the latest set of renderings, first revealed a few weeks ago in New York magazine? That is an open-air observation deck located at 1,100 feet. That puts it 50 feet above the Empire State Building’s famous outdoor terrace, that iconic movie set and marriage proposal destination.

And above Hudson Yard’s outdoor observation space will be a veritable playland of attractions reaching to the top of the tower, and by extension beyond the Empire State Building’s topmost observation room, at 1,250 feet, the place where zeppelins were once meant to dock.

"It's more akin to the Rainbow Room to be honest," Related spokeswoman Joanna Rose explained. "We have a ballroom, restaurant and bars above the observation deck that offer panoramic views. And yes, we are looking at locating some of those above the 1250 mark."

They are just going after all the landmarks—not just the Empire State Building but Rockefeller Center, too. And it will be hard to compete, since as previously reported, that master of hospitality Danny Meyer will be running the show way up in the clouds.

Another sellout for Stern? (Related)

The Stern tower next to its taller neighbors. (Related)

It may be bigger than Baltimore or Stamford, and it will probably be prettier, too. The plans for Hudson Yards continue to impress, as the office towers get refined and high-profile firms sign up to do the residential buildings. The first big news was that High Line designers Diller Scofidio + Renfro would be responsible for one of the apartment buildings, and now The Observer has learned that none other than money-minting godhead Robert A.M. Stern is designing another.

Steve Ross has actually been a regular client of Mr. Stern's in the past.

The architect has completed a number of residential developments for The Related Companies both in New York and around the country, among them the Chatham and Brompton on the Upper East Side, the Westminster in Chelsea and two towers in Battery Park City. The latest project, Superior Ink (where Mr. Ross purchased an apartment for $0.00) set the record for a downtown sale when it went for $31.5 million two years ago.

Related must hope to be bringing similar sales, and hype, to its nascent project on the Far West Side, where construction of the first office tower, anchored by Coach, is just getting under way. That and the Diller Scofidio tower are expected to be completed around the same time, in 2015. When the Stern tower will come online is unclear, but like its two, it is being built on terra firma, not the platform Related has to build over the Penn Station rail yards, so it will likely be sooner rather than later.

The tower is not technically part of the Hudson Yards, located across 30th Street, on the southwest corner of 10th Avenue, in the crook between the High Line and its spur. The site has hosted a Tom Colicchio food bizarre, a Target-sponsored play ground and other events in the past.

Plans have already been filed with the Department of Buildings to begin working on the project, though Related, which declined to comment for this story, was not planning to announce it officially until next year.

While designs have not been officialized, and could change like those of the KPF-designed office towers, the plan at present is not that dissimilar to what has already appeared in renderings of the site released upon the Coach groundbreaking. They show a red-brick building, similar Superior Ink, rising to more than 40 stories—tall, but not tall by Hudson Yards standards.

Considering the horror Curbed commenters expressed when they saw this project and believed it to be the work of Ishmael Leyva, the developer-friendly boxed-living builder who is the architect of record on this project, The Observer cannot help but wonder what their reaction to the very same building will be now that they know one of their favorites is responsible for it.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Special treatment? (Related)

The eastern section (at right) would be exempted from the living wage bill. (Related)

Steve Ross sure knows his way around City Hall (part of the reason he has become one of the most successful developers of his generation). From his start in affordable housing to megadevelopments like the Time Warner Center, Hunter's Point South in Queens and Hudson Yards, Mr. Ross, chairman of the Related Companies, always seems to get just what he wants when the city is involved. One sore spot was the fight over the Kingsbridge Armory, in the Bronx, which was unexpectedly rejected by the City Council three years ago.

The fight centered around whether workers at the armory project, which was to receive a considerable amount of public subsidies, would have to be paid more than minimum wage, something labor unions were lobbying heavily for. That fight led to the eventual proposal of a living wage bill. In an unexpected, if unsurprising, twist, it now turns out City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has carved a portion of Hudson Yards out of the living wage bill, according to The Times.

A large portion of the Hudson Yards project, a 26-acre mixed-use development along the city’s Far West Side, is specifically excluded from the proposed so-called living wage legislation in a draft that was written by Ms. Quinn’s office and is now circulating among supporters of the bill.

Ms. Quinn plans to ask her colleagues next month to approve the long-debated bill, which would require companies and developers that receive substantial city subsidies to pay their employees at least $10 an hour. She had already announced that the legislation would exempt tenants in projects that receive city subsidies from paying the living wage; only the direct employees of the developers and some contractors would be affected.

The Hudson Yards exemption caught many of the bill’s supporters by surprise, according to people who were briefed about the legislation in telephone calls in recent days and in a meeting on Thursday morning.

A Related spokeswoman directed The Observer to Speaker Quinn's office for comment, which declined to discuss the Times' report.

A Quinn spokeswoman told The Times that, "The final version of this bill and its details are still being drafted. The legislation has not been finalized." Presumably this means its parameters, which currently exempt development between 10th and 11th avenues, could still change.

According to a source at City Hall, who was not at liberty to discuss the bill publicly, Related's property is being given the exemption for fear that without it, construction of the commercial towers on the eastern portion of the site could stall. Related recently broke ground on that portion of the project, with Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Quinn in tow, once Coach agreed to be the anchor tenant of the first commercial tower.

The feeling is that with two more to come, the construction of which it is hoped will catalyze development in the surrounding portion of the neighborhood, it is better to ensure the projects than the wages therein.

"There are a couple special differences here," the source said. "There's a city-specific interest in seeing this through, since we borrowed $3 billion to build a subway out there, which will partly be paid back through commercial development. And there is a particular problem with the yards, versus the development around the Garden or Moynihan Station or elsewhere in the Hudson Yards district, in that you are dealing with the decking, which is especially burdensome."

The council is also trying to determine whether or not the block would be exempted anyway, because it might be de facto grandfathered out of the living wage bill. It has been argued that because of the type of tax benefits and development incentives being offered, it is closer to an as-of-right project than one built with the usual set of negotiated subsidies. In this case, there are subsidies, but they are inflexible and were agreed upon in years past, before the bill passed.

Whether or not this means living wage protections are warranted and appropriate is still to be determined, and could be a topic of great debate among backers of the living wage movement. Still, this provision was pointed to as a reason that other developers could not lobby for their own carve outs in the future.

"We don't want to add any new burdens to hold up that development," another source said.

Update: Even with an exemption for the Related Companies, the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union supports the bill.

"It's misleading and inaccurate to use Hudson Yards as a litmus test for judging the strength of the final bill," union spokesman Dan Morris said. "We're still on track to get a very progressive bill that goes further than what any other city has done to raise wage standards for taxpayer-subsidized economic development."

"It will fundamentally improve the way EDC, the largest economic development agency of its kind in the country, uses subsidies to structure and negotiate developments deals," he added. "We're proud of what we've accomplished."

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Sure beats the golden arches. (Related)

As if there was not enough anticipation surrounding the construction of Hudson Yards, here is probably the one reason to trump any other: Danny Meyer will be setting up shop on the Far West Side.

The Related Companies and Union Square Hospitality announced a new partnership today, whereby Steve Ross and his globetrotting development company will take a stake in Union Square Events. While not encompassing all of the restauranteurs operations, USE offers more than just catering but also runs the sports venue operations for Mr. Meyers sprawling eatery empire, and now it will do even more. So no fine dining, necessarily, but Mr. Meyer will be offering a range of culinary options, from private residential dining to catering events in Hudson Yards buildings as well as operating restaurants and outdoor cafes.

In a way, Mr. Meyer is keeping things local, as his catering company was founded in the area in 2004 and even used to be named after the neighborhood. "We love the irony that USE was born seven years ago as ‘Hudson Yards Catering’ – and now one of our greatest opportunities to grow will be in Hudson Yards,” Mr. Meyer said in a statement.

The partnership will grow beyond the city, looking to open in other stadia and arenas around the nation, a fit that makes sense since Mr. Ross owns the Miami Dolphins. There are also opportunities in other Related projects around the world. "We look forward to fully integrating their experiential concepts into Hudson Yards and expanding the business through strategic opportunities in sports, entertainment and mixed-use developments both nationally and internationally," Mr. Ross said.

First Brooklyn, then the world.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

You decide. (Friends of the High Line/YouTube)

That was the easy part.

Now that the High Line has become a smash success, Friends of the High Line has to decided what to do with the third and final section of the elevated park, which surround Hudson Yards. After fighting for decades to preserve and then transform the old rail line, it was not clear this section of track would be preserved or replaced by some alternative park, as the city worked to redevelop the site.

The Related Company and the Bloomberg administration both agreed it should be, and now that their work is underway in creating a new Baltimore on the West Side of Manhattan, so too is the Friends' job of figuring out what should surround it.

That all starts tomorrow night.

Unlike the first two phases of the High Line, which were created by the Friends and their collaborators at Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Field Operations, the park group has decided to open the final phase up to the public for input on what should grow on the tracks in the future.

They even put out a call on YouTube, and the first of what will no doubt be many meetings to discuss the final section of the park is being held tomorrow at 6:30 at P.S. 11 in Chelsea—which should leave enough time to catch the sunset from the High Line before hand.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Don't play games with the skyline. (Related)

Big. Really big. As usual, the erudite Charles Bagli puts it into perspective in all of one sentence:

Still, city officials predict that within two decades, Hudson Yards could have more office space than Baltimore or Portland, Ore., and as many apartments as Stamford, Conn.

It's a city in a few city blocks.

The Times sat down with Mayor Michael Bloomberg as well, for a look back at the Olympics that weren't, and how New York may have won anyway.

Even Mr. Bloomberg, who allowed that he “hates to lose,” said that in retrospect, the failure of the Olympic bid may have been a blessing for the city.

“Given what happened to the economy, it would’ve been tough to raise all the money,” Mr. Bloomberg said in an interview.

But, he added, his administration pushed ahead with many of the projects and land-use changes that were contained in the Olympic proposal, not just on the Far West Side, but in other parts of the city as well.

“We thought the Olympics would be the catalyst to get a lot of things that many people thought the city needed,” he said. “In fact, many got done” anyway.

From five rings to three on the Far West Side.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Dance, dance evolution... of a building. (Related)

Despite the anticipation surrounding Hudson Yards—a new neighborhood cut from whole cloth, full of open space and affordable housing and not a few shiny new offices, and the jobs that come with it all—the truth was, it wasn't much to look at.  Even the decade-old and not-much-to-look-at-unless-you're-in-on-the-architectural-joke Time Warner Center was flashy by compare. Then, Related's Steve Ross decided he could do better. It is rare for a developer to have such a change of heart, but it appears the city is better off for it.

According to The Journal, not long after Related revealed new renderings for the site, head honcho Steve Ross decided he wanted something more, to attract tenants looking for a bit of panache (but not too much!), and maybe even make a nicer contribution to the skyline.

The design wasn't terrible. But it wasn't the sort of arresting, statement-making architecture that one would expect a next-big-thing type of project. KPF's early designs for the buildings were like Buckingham Palace bobbies: standing straight and erect, faces constant, but not saying much of anything at all.

The new plan for phase one, recently unveiled, describes a much different composition. The 30-story middle building is gone. New renderings show two jagged towers—the more northerly one 67 stories and sloping diagonally toward the city, the other, 51 stories and angled towards the Hudson—that slash through the skyline. Connecting the two buildings will be eight stories of retail and trading-floor space.

For The Journal's Robbie Whelan, even if the buildings alone are not remarkable, together they create a ballet on the skyline.

The mirror-image slopes of the two buildings, which would regard one another differently from nearly every angle of viewing, give viewers the sensation of two dancers in the midst of a paso doble. The southern building, which would house Coach, is, sensibly, the female of the pair —slightly shorter, with the atrium manifested as a slit in the dancer's ball gown, giving a glimpse of a flash of leg underneath.

Vavavoom! The Observer hasn't been this attracted to a new project the Lipstick Building rose on Third Avenue 25 years ago.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Filling up fast? (Related)

And then it can start building.

Rumors of Coach signing a leasing at Hudson Yards are nothing new, and First Boston is also interested in the far West Side, as The Observer recently reported. Now, Crain's says Related is approaching a done deal with the bag and belt maker, and it means more than just some fresh ink.

[I]f finalized, Related would finally be able to secure the financing needed to begin construction on the 26-acre site bounded between Tenth and Twelfth avenues and running from West 30th Street to West 33rd Street. Related signed a contract with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to develop Hudson Yards in spring 2010, but the developer still has to reach a number of economic benchmarks before it can close and sign the 99-year ground lease and begin construction.A spokeswoman for Related said the firm is talking to more than a dozen potential tenants, but declined to comment on any specific tenants or discussions.

A dozen potential tenants? It could get crowded over those railroad tracks real quick.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC