Looking sharp, but will it fly with the neighbors? (Durst Fetner)

Ms. Durst, baby bump hidden behind lectern. (Matt Chaban)

"My own feeling, and the feeling of board, is that we'd like this project to succeed," J.D. Nolan, chair of Community Board 4’s land-use committee, told The Observer. "The Dursts are great developers, and they have worked very well with us in the past. Nevertheless, this is a rezoning, and the public should benefit as well as the developer."

And so, the full board voted unanimously against Durst Fenter's new apartment building on the far West Side last night. One of the most dynamic designs of the decade, 625 West 57th Street calls for a swooping white pyramid that rises dramatically up from the Hudson like an origami dove taking flight. Designed by Danish wunderkinds Bjarke Ingels Group (aka BIG), the project has even decided to eschew LEED ratings in its quest for singularity.

Still, this was not enough to sway the board, which generally seems to like the design but still has too many issues with the details surrounding it to approve the project at its monthly meeting. The board's vote is merely provisional, though it will be given considerable consideration from officials down the line as they cast their vote for or against the project throughout the rest of the months-long public review process.

Last night, Helena Durst was in attendance to make her family's case, as she has for the past decade as the project has struggled from one plan to another—data center, car dealership, for-profit school, hotel. She looked appropriately pregnant for the occasion, which was held on the second floor of St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital (the maternity ward is on the seventh) on the corner of 11th Avenue and 59th Street, two blocks from where Ms. Durst hopes the 740-unit apartment building might soon rise.

"This is an asset for the skyline," she said.

But not yet for the community, at least in its view. Their singular issue is affordable housing, of which there will be some 150 units. The sticking point is that those apartments will only be reserved for low-income tenants for 35 years. The board wants permanent affordability, instead. "As a community board, we are supposed to do the best we can to preserve and maintain our communities and keep them going," Mr. Nolan said. "As we see our neighborhood changing, we see so much luxury housing going up, and we feel that is not contributing to the preservation of our neighborhood."

The Dursts argue they cannot make the apartments permanently affordable because they do not own the site but have instead signed a 99-year land lease with a family that has owned the property for centuries. Now, there are some 150 different family members who have to be negotiated with, and any changes to the amount of affordable housing would require a renegotiation of the lease. Since the Dursts will not own the site in perpetuity, it is not clear the land's owners would agree to a permanent affordable housing provision.

Still, Councilwoman Gale Brewer has also expressed concern about the permanence of the affordable apartments, and since she has the final say on the project, it could continue to be a serious issue.

Other concerns included the appearance of the building along 58th Street. Currently, all the retail is along 57th Street, with entrances, loading docks and mechanical systems on the 58th Street frontage. The board hopes those spaces can be rejiggered, with shops, trees, anything really to make the streetscape, which is nearly a block long, more appealing to pedestrians.

Parking is an issue in two ways. One, board members argued there were too many spaces for a project in the middle of Manhattan. Two, there is an issue with the access to that parking, through a two-way driveway that cuts through the middle of the site and connects to the Helena, a rental building also owned by Durst Fetner on the southeast corner of 10th Avenue and 57th Street. The board wants that space cut down to one lane, with a public plaza created out of the excess space this would free up. "Curb-side drop-off?" Mr. Nolan said. "What is this, Dubai?"

A small community facility building drew concerns because the Dursts have yet to find a use for the building, after a failed bid to have the Manhattan Children's Museum move in. Now, they are looking at other childcare spaces, like day care or early education. Mr. Nolan thinks an art space could be good, too.

"This has always been a place for actors, artists, stagehands," he said. "They need housing they can afford, they need places they can perform. Without them, it's not the kind of New York I want to live in."

To try and counter the local opposition to the project, Durst Fetner made a full political push last night, bringing out speakers and testimonials from the Community Preservation Corporation and Citizens Housing, Settlement Housing Fund and Planning Commission (on affordable housing); New York Building Congress, Regional Plan Association and the Partnership for New York City (on design and construction jobs); members of 32BJ (on service and operations jobs); and the Audubon Society (on how normal buildings have troubling bird strikes and this one will not).

Still, this show of support failed to sway the board to vote for the project.

"We hear their concerns and we will continue to work with them on a solution," Jordan Barowitz, the Dursts' director of external affairs, said after the disapproval vote. "That being said, I think is a very compelling project for the community and the city. It provides desperately needed market-rate housing and 150 affordable units for decades. And it's an innovative and inspiring design. Great design makes for great places, which makes for a great community."

Update: The story has been modified to clarify that the full community board disapproved of Durst Fetner's building last night, not the land-use committee, though it also disapproved the plan at a meeting earlier in the summer. The story also misstated the location of the Helena. It is on the corner of 59th Street and 11th Avenue, not 10th Avenue. The Observer regrets the error.

Striking, but affordable? (Durst Fetner)

Durst Fetner is at work on arguably the most dynamic, certainly the least square, apartment building in New York City. Jean-Daniel Noland, chair of Community Board 4’s land-use committee, even cautioned his fellow committee members against overwrought superlatives when they considered the project last night as it entered the first phase of public review.

“We are in a house of worship, so no talk of icons tonight,” he said from behind a long table inside the Actor’s Temple synagogue on West 47th Street. “Only Jehovah can do that.”

Still, his colleagues on the committee could not resist, referring to the building as beautiful, interesting, celebrated, stunning, beautiful, attractive, singular, impressive, beautiful and destination architecture. At the end of the meeting, when a resolution was being drafted to make recommendations to the full board on what conditions it should support the project, James Wallace said, “I think we should go out of our to note the spectacular beauty of this design."

“Now, now, that’s a value judgment, and we just can’t do that,” Mr. Noland said.

“How about striking,” Lee Compton said. “Whatever your opinion, you have to admit it’s a striking building.”

Yet no matter how striking, beautiful or iconic the design, the committee could not surmount one serious issue. Despite effusive praise for Durst Fetner’s legacy, the inclusion of a grocery store, a commitment to public art, and yes, that incomparable design, the fact that the developers had committed to only 35 years of affordability for the below-market-rate apartments it was setting aside within the 740-unit pyramid-shaped struck the committee as an unconscionable act.

“The high-end architecture doesn’t do anything to keep the neighborhood diverse,” Joe Restuccia said. In other words, a façade is just a façade. Permanent affordability is forever.

Durst representatives claimed they could not, for financial and fiduciary reasons, pursue a project with unlimited affordability to it. Much of this has to do with an unusual ground lease on the development site, which belongs to the Smiley family, once one of the city's largest landlords. Now comprised of some 100 trustees, the Smileys present complex, almost impossible negotiation, according to the Dursts, and it would be difficult to go back and negotiate a deal that would facilitate additional affordability. "In a way, it's 150 units of affordable housing or none," Jonathan Drescher, director of major projects, said.

This comment particularly set the committee members off. "We've heard that so many times before, and we just don't buy it," Mr. Restuccia said. "You're going to get what you're going to get, so we have to do what we can to ensure this project serves the community, too."

Mr. Noland emphasized that this was a matter of precedent. "I think our concern is, affordable housing is an important component of this community," he said. "If you only give it a certain number of years, and you change it, we don't think that's good for the community, we don't think that's good for New York." He later emphasized that this could set a precedent whereby other developers would come in and say, well, the Dursts only had 35 years, so why should we do more.

In a way, the firm's reputation was as much of a hindrance as a help. People just expected more.

But it was also a difficult community to be operating in. On the one hand, Hell's Kitchen had benefited from a great deal of affordable housing development in recent decades, but much of it had been built with a sunset similar to the one being discussed by the developer now. "Look at Trump, many of those units aren't affordable anymore, and that is a problem we have to confront," local councilwoman Gail Brewer told The Observer after the meeting.

"What are we creating up here?" Mr. Wallace said. "Trump, Extell, now this. It's turning into an island of luxury."

The only other major concern for the community besides affordable housing was a desire to see more retail along 58th Street, where the developer has place most of its mechanical systems. Questions were also raised specifically about what might occupy a 16,000 square-foot community facility building the Dursts want to build on the street. They have proposed childcare of some sort but have no firm commitments, which the committee said it would like to see by the time the project reaches the full board in September.

Whatever the concerns, there was genuine excitement about the project on both sides. "As many of you know, we have tried to get many projects off the ground here," Helena Durst said before presenting the plan. "In fact, this is the fourth time I've come before you."

Within the BIG surprise was hidden a smaller one, revealed in planning documents filed when the project was approved two weeks ago, dubbed Development Site 2. Plans call for a 110-unit apartment building that backs onto the pyramid apartments, though it is unlikely it will be built in that form, if at all. Instead, it is a zoning technicality.

“That building is in the same zoning lot, so it has to get rezoned with everything else,” Jordan Barowitz, a Durst spokesman, explained. “For technical reasons, we have to keep it in there, so we decided to make it a residential building, to study the impacts.”

Currently, the building, at the corner of 11th Avenue and 58th Street, is a self-storage facility—a Manhattan Mini Storage, to be exact—with a few years left on its lease. It is one of those former industrial buildings that has been totally bricked up. When the lease comes due, the Durst Organization may extend it or look for an alternative commercial use, but the firm is unlikely to redevelop the plot for housing, according to Mr, Barowitz, at least in the form currently outlined in the rezoning.

This is in part because the proposed nine-story building, which would be built around the existing six-story structure, would block views from the new building as well as one Durst Fetner built five years ago, the Helena, which is in the southeastern corner of the lot, on 57th Street.

“We don’t know what we’re doing with that building yet,” Mr. Barowitz said.

Instead, the firm is proposing the 110-unit structure simply because the city's environmental review requires some accounting of what could go on the site, because both are on the same zoning lot. For technical reasons, Durst Fetner chose an apartment building even though they may or may not actually build one.

As for the rest of the block, the ULURP application reveals an unusually shaped building—called not a pyramid but a hexahedron. It measures 1.1 million square feet, with with 867 apartments, 151 of which are set aside for affordable for families making roughly $40,000 a year. Of the building’s remaining area, 80,000 square feet will be set aside for commercial uses, likely doctor’s offices and other community-focused space, while there will be 62,000 feet of ground floor retail.

A community facilities building of 28,000 square feet is proposed behind the storage facility and next to the Helena, and between those and the BIG building will run a driveway serving the two residential buildings. The project will have 285 parking spaces, more necessary than in some buildings, no doubt, given the nearest subway station is Columbus Circle, four avenues away.

More will be revealed tonight at the land-use hearing of Community Board 4, the fist public meeting for the project as it heads into the grueling seven-month public review process. Previously, the board had expressed mild support for the project, celebrating its design, but there may be some issues surrounding the affordable housing component.

In a statement, Douglas Durst mentioned the potential for the project to play a role in the continued transformation of the west side. "We are pleased that we have reached this important benchmark," he said, "and we look forward to working with the CB 4, City Planning and the City Council on this exciting project."

The Observer: What’s the latest with your residential condominium project at 1212 Fifth Avenue?

Mr. Fetner: At 1212 Fifth Avenue, we’re opening up our sales office, officially, any day now. This is the culmination of about three-and-a-half to four years’ worth of planning and work, and we are completing a total gut rehab of 1212 Fifth Avenue.

We have the luxury of having been able to vacate the entire building, so by having a completely empty building I was able to really redo the entire mechanical system in the building as well as all the floors. All the interior walls except for the core of the building were removed, and what we ultimately were left with was a prewar building with modern layouts.

She’s really, truly a beautiful building.

Do you feel confident with the condominium market now? It was only a few years ago that developers stepped back, choosing instead to market rental apartments.

There are a number of reasons why I feel confident. What we’re seeing—and we saw it [earlier this month] in some of the reports that came out—is that the buyers had been on the sidelines, and they had been renting. And we’re predominately rental developers, and we’ve definitely seen an increase in our rents across our portfolio. That’s primarily because a lot of the buyers were on the sidelines, waiting for the market, and waiting for what they perceived to be value.

What you’re seeing right now is that in a lot of the buildings that were built and/or converted a while back, they were asking very, very high prices. They’ve now been lowering their prices to a point where you’re starting to see a surge in family-sized apartments. The larger apartments are starting to sell, and it’s really directly related to the fact that now the consumer is starting to see what they perceive to be value.

And 1212 Fifth Avenue, we started advertising about four or five weeks ago, and we’ve got about 500 people who have expressed interest. They’re on a waiting list to come in and see the apartments!

I will tell you that we accepted our first offer last night, on a very large apartment in the building—and that’s without really having opened up our sales office. It really basically validates what we’ve thought, which is that there is a market right now where the larger units are seeing value.

What’s happening with 855 Sixth Avenue?

We’re in the design and development phase right now. Being that we’re trying to make a transformational design on West 57th Street, we also have decided that we wanted to do something unique on 30th Street. So we have a really innovative design where we are going to basically have a retail base.

Right now, we’re talking to a number of different hotel groups for a hotel in the middle of the building and then approximately 300,000 square feet of rental residential above the hotel.

What’s the time frame for construction?

We’re hoping to break ground on that by April of 2012.

With regards to ground-up development, is the market strong enough to return to the day when potential buyers were making purchases based on the blueprint alone?

Because we’re part of the Mount Sinai community, we’re showing a lot of units to doctors. They want to see, they want to touch. I’ve met with some of these clients, just to observe them looking at the units so I can pick up on what they’re liking and what they’re not liking. I can’t conceive of these people who I’ve met over the last week or two buying off plans. As a sophisticated investor myself, I don’t think I would buy off the plans, not knowing the reputation of the sponsor-developer.

Are you beginning to see more development in New York, or is it still sluggish?

In talking to our architects, and talking to other architects, we have heard that they have been looking at sites, which means that somebody is snooping around the sites. But I have yet to hear of any larger sites trading. We’ve been hearing about sites in the 100,000-square-foot range, but we haven’t heard about any larger sites.

With West 57th Street, how did you connect with the architect Bjarke Ingels?

Douglas [Durst] spends a considerable amount of time in Denmark, and Douglas went over to Denmark one year and gave a lecture or a speech. The folklore is that, after the speech was over, Bjarke came up to Douglas and asked him why all his buildings looked like buildings. And they then struck up a conversation, and Douglas really enjoyed speaking with Bjarke.

So we really couldn’t decide what to do with West 57th Street—because the empty lot has gone through a lot of different plans—and one day Douglas said, ‘Why don’t we talk with Bjarke and see what he wants to do?’

But Bjarke is extremely brilliant, he’s innovative and he has lots of enthusiasm.

Does this mark a renewed interest from developers in hiring so-called ‘starchitects’?

I’ve never bought into the term “starchitect,” I just never have. And you know what? I don’t know if it is back or if it’s not back but I’ll tell you this: I don’t think we necessarily needed a starchitect for West 57th Street. We needed innovative design. We needed somebody who could help us overcome certain obstacles of this site.

And for us, the largest obstacle was we have a spectacular building there right now called the Helena, and then I have an empty lot where I had to use up 800,000 square feet of FAR. So how do I do that and not block the views of the Helena? And Bjarke came up with a great idea, and from the river it’s a focal point to Manhattan.

With West 57th Street as well as the other Durst Fetner projects, such as 1212 Fifth Avenue, where is the financing coming from?

We are extremely, extremely fortunate that we have banks who, the second we say we’re doing a rental, they’re all over us. And they want a piece of the deal. About 20 minutes ago I got an email from a banker I haven’t spoken to in four weeks saying, ‘Hey, want some update from you on how you’re making out on 30th Street.’ Why? Because they want a piece of that financing.

The underwriting today is definitely more stringent than it was years ago, but if you’re really not an A developer you don’t have the equity to put it up because the equity requirement is much more. And that’s assuming that they even want to make a loan to you.

So we have been very, very fortunate to enjoy really good relationships with a lot of strong banks.

Are you more focused than you had been on distressed assets, or no?

We’re focused on assets, O.K.—wherever we can find them that makes sense for us. And when I say, ‘makes sense for us,’ I mean to say we’re very long-term minded. When you’re long-term minded, and you want to put your equity to work, this is an environment that works for us in that we are able to be sort of more opportunistic.

jsederstrom@observer.com