By Katie Kieffer
Rendering of Vornado Tower in Manhattan. Image credit: Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects/AP.
Let’s hear it for New York. Let’s hear it for the New York City Council’s vote on Wednesday in favor of a new, 1,200-foot tower, Vornado Tower.
The Tower:
Vornado Tower is the new kid on the block. She will become the second tallest building in Manhattan. Vornado Tower will be built on Seventh Avenue near Madison Square Garden and Penn Station at the site of the tired Hotel Pennsylvania. This is widely considered the perfect location for a lofty building.
The Tower’s Friends:
The tower’s advocates acknowledge the value the development would bring in the middle of a recession. The tower will add “6,000 new construction jobs and $3.3 billion in new economic output,” reports The Wall Street Journal. Additionally, the developer, Vornado Realty Trust, plans to add value by investing, “150 million on improving infrastructure around Penn Station, including corridors connecting with Herald Square.”
Prior to casting his vote in favor of the new tower, Councilman Leroy Comrie, asked his peers to consider this question: “Is New York City a snapshot taken in 2010 to be held in perpetuity, or is New York City an evolving, dynamic entity?”
The Tower’s Foes:
While Vornado Tower will be 34 feet lower than the Empire State building, the Empire’s primary owners, Peter and Anthony Malkin, are still shaking in their boots. Competition does not sit well with them. They are fearful that the Vornado Tower will threaten the Empire State Building’s unique place on the New York City Skyline.
The Malkins went so far as to conduct a survey of tourists to see what they thought about the proposed development. Because, apparently, it’s important for New York to consider the opinion of people who do not work or live in Manhattan. More likely, tourists comprised the only demographic the Malkins could find who would categorically oppose the new tower’s development.
Business Week reports, ‘The Malkins took out a full-page ad in the Aug. 23 New York Times denouncing the proposal, and commissioned a poll suggesting that two-thirds of New York’s visitors said the new tower would “degrade the character” of the skyline.’
The Verdict:
Forget the Empire State Building. New York wants to grow and she wants to create jobs. She is not going to let tourists or Malkin Securities get in her way.
The City Council approved the Vornado Tower 47-1, and the only man who can veto the City Council’s decision, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is an outspoken proponent of the tower.
Mayor Bloomberg responded to the Malkins by saying, “Anybody that builds a building in New York City changes its skyline — we don’t have to run around to every other owner and apologize,” he said. “One guy owns a building, he’d like to have it be the only tall building — I’m sorry, that’s not the real world.”
'New York Sunset.' Image credit: jerryfergusonphotography on Flickr.
As Jay-Z and Alicia Keys know:
In New York,
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of,
There’s nothing you can’t do,
Now you’re in New York,
these streets will make you feel brand new,
the lights will inspire you,
lets here it for New York, New York, New York
