New Yorkers should think about constructing taller manufacturing facilities and whether industrial and residential property can co-exist in some places, Mayor Bill de Blasio's top planning official said on Tuesday.
“Historically, manufacturing had to be very horizontal and it's one the reasons New York City lost so many manufacturing jobs over the past 70 years—post-World War II—as manufacturing became a much more horizontal form of business,” Carl Weisbrod, the chair of the City Planning Commission, said at a summit about the future of Long Island City.
Now, technology has changed the way a lot of production is done, delivering an opportunity “to see if the city can manufacture space by going vertical for industrial use, allowing businesses to expand,” Weisbrod said during a panel discussion at the Summit, held at Museum of the Moving Image. “I believe we're beginning to look at that.”
L.I.C. has seen a tremendous construction boom in recent years that's reshaped the neighborhood. And that work continues; just this week Tishman Speyer announced plans for a development that could total 1.2 million square feet. But much of the resulting space has been residential, which provides the greatest profits. The neighborhood has struggled to attract new commercial buildings. Beyond that, its industrial facilities have been filled to the brim with a broad range of companies that now need more space.
There are number of old industrial buildings—just one subway stop from Manhattan, off the 21st-Queensbridge F-train station—that developers could eye for residential loft conversions, said Jonathan Bowles, the executive director of the Center for an Urban Future, who also sat on the panel with Weisbrod.
“I think that we ought to be looking, should that be preserved to tech companies in the next few years may be able to go there—or creative businesses or other things,” Bowles said. “Or will it be lost to residential conversation?”
Weisbrod said that's an area where the city “might be able to look at a topography that we've really not seen much of in the city of New York, and that is modern-day manufacturing and residential in the same building, literally.”
11 comments:
What's wrong with that? If you think it'll be too loud or something don't live there.
When I see the developers and the politicians living on the next floor from a glue factory I will move next to them.
If you think its too loud ... just move.
That is what they say in Astoria next to that f*ken Stand Smoke House or some hipster bar that blares music till 4 in the morning.
The needs of transient hipster kids trump the long term owner occupied pain in the ass quality of life every time.
Get real! This is NYC - it will turn into sweatshops with dormitories - just like the company that makes the iPhone in China.
Manufacturing is such a bad idea - would you like a little cancer with your morning coffee?
It's a given that businesses don't care about people or the environment - look at the developers that will build on toxic waste sites.
It might be a great idea for Austin or Portland where people are more enlightened - in NYC (especially in Queens) it will just result in terrible abuses!
Kudos to the glue factory commenter.
But mixed residential and manufacturing how it originally was in many place (Ridegewood Glendale especially).
I remember in Glendale there were many Germans who had small well kept stealthy factory's on the ground floors (now bodegas) employing 6 or so people.
These were usually corner multi family buildings along Cooper ave. They made gears and things for machinery. I used to drive for one delivering parts and setting up precision cutting tables for garment factory's as far as Manhattan. Another German guy had a huge factory behind his house off Decatur & Seneca He made dice & roulette tables we would deliver to these posh weird places in Brooklyn & Manhattan. Sometimes I would stay all night adding the green felts, spinner bearings and numbers on sight, leveling so the clients would have it ready. It was like a scene right out of "Eyes Wide Shut"
These people had so much $$ they would order new tables every month (after the cops smashed the old ones) It was the best job ever and 2 block from home !!
I learned a lot and was able to a 280ZX with all the tips.
Anon3 this isn't about shoving manufacturing into your building, it's about new buildings. It has nothing to do with what you're complaining about. People will have the choice of whether or not to move in.
That depends how the zoning code is amended. Usually, it allows whatever they are changing in both new and old buildings.
People will have the choice of whether or not to move in.
-------------
I remember throughout the 19th century when government and big biz as a matter of policy ground the public up into dog food every chance it got.
Sharecroppers? They can move if they want.
Sweatshops? No one is forcing them to live and work in that shithole.
Dangerous work conditions? Its their choice to work there.
Did not work in 1914. Sure the hell does not work in 2014.
You do not make people live in miserable or unsafe conditions just because you can.
Anon 9 does that extend to ensuring there are enough housing units for people to live in? Or do you raze the slums and ignore what happens next? And when there aren't enough existing units do you make sure more are built? How do you go about encouraging that?
And once people leave the building do you do anything about the condition on the streets? When people from far away are racing down tiny streets, blatantly flouting the law, do you do anything about the miserable and unsafe conditions that creates? And when drivers following the law leads to miserable and unsafe conditions, do you change it?
You can still have standards on permitted noise and pollution. Doesn't mean you can't have manufacturing and residential in the same building.
I wonder if it is possible to conduct certain manufacturing industries vertically and whether it would be worth it in the long run.
Post a Comment