Permits have been filed for a 70-foot tall residential building at 25-22 30th Drive in Astoria, Queens. Located between Crescent Street and 29th Street, the interior lot is two city blocks west of the 30 Avenue subway station, serviced by the N and W trains. Salvatore Lucchese is listed as the owner behind the applications.
The proposed seven-story project will yield 27,452 square feet, with 21,927 square feet designated for residential space. It will have 31 residences, most likely rentals based on the average unit scope of 707 square feet. The concrete-based structure will also have a cellar, 10 on-site parking spaces, and six off-site parking spaces.
Gerald Caliendo of Caliendo Architects is responsible for the design.
Yeah you know those guys, QC readers. And it's the little house on the right.
I have an analogy for this: One of my favorite scenes from the Simpsons is where Stan Lee shows up to Comic Book Guy's shop and bothers a kid who was about to purchase a batmobile for his batman doll. Stan yanks the car away and takes a doll of The Thing and forces it into the car, telling the kid it will fit perfectly. Stan did manage to squeeze it in but the toy car is ruined.
When the kid whined that he broke it, Stan replies "broke, or made it better"
That is the mindset of these developers and the city departments responsible for approving these parasitic buildings.
14 comments:
What a horrific site that will be. I'd hate to live in the house next door to it. Whoever is approving this should be arrested immediately.
But of course mayor dumbdumb Will look the other way.
Oh come on... This isnt really news. Its Astoria for crying out loud. Tell us something thats not already obvious.
The problem is not with the city agencies or the developer, of even the Architect (we really should not say bad things about him because he is the head of Rufus King Manor and his assistant once worked for the Executive Director of Historic Districts Council, the advocate for the four boroughs (Queens excepted))
Naw, the problem is the community and the community's politicians as well as the community board they appoint (Jerry is on it BTW).
First the community board (made up of mostly non-residents) is for 'planned development.' WTF does that mean? Consider this example: recently an ignored part of their area which is zoned 5 stories got a proposal from two developers from Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn (we believe) to put a whopping 14 building - in an area with one story commercial buildings within a residential area of 2 and 3 stories. The community board rejected it ... for a 10 story building which is what the developers wanted anyway.
Now of course, you have the Steinway Mansion fiasco (which the community board refused even to consider) and the on-going atrocities around Old Astoria (where the local civic, run by a community board honcho is worried about parking (can you imagine if that was a top issue for Tribeca Trust) - but then, again, people like Jerry do not get far in most boroughs were there is a tincture of community pride, unlike Queens where the value of your home is the dirt it sits on.
Now the area around this house in question back 30 or 40 years ago was filled with charming 19-century homes - some grand, some humble. All are being replaced with some of the most hideous housing slapped together this side of Athens and the rest of the 3rd world. In a generation or so most of Astoria will be regarded as a ghetto. These new buildings are always sparkling with exercise rooms and doorman until they are filled, then they quickly become run down cash cows milked by the owners who all live way out on Long Island.
Finally, everyone's favorite, Vallonia, where people wring their hands saying 'isn't it a shame' as they compare pictures of the best pizza parlor on Ditmars in the 70s on the way to selling out mom's house. Their day is coming, too.
Back by popular demand! - not. Lucchese & Caliendo: the Steinway Mansion warehouse guys.
31 apartments and 10 parking spots on a postage stamp-sized lot?
And what's this "off-site" parking? The street?
The owner Salvatore Lucchese,is also one of the owners of the Steinway Mansion property. Parasites of Astoria.
Well, housing crisis!
JK. this is bulls**t.
interesting are they going to move the light pole too? there is not enough space in front for a driveway to go underground unless there is a back way in??????
or is it the house next door
Only 16 parking spots for 31 apartments in an area that already doesn't have enough parking? Sounds dodgy. What even is "off-site parking spaces"?
As annoying as this is to read about (and it is)...if the neighbors/community don't care...? It's the free market at work. Or does youse guise only like the free market blah blah when it suits you, ehhhh?
There was a burnt out hull of a one-family, detached house on a corner lot that sat un-fixed for 3-and-a-half years(!) around the corner from me in Elm (abandoned by people who couldn't pay their mortgage). It's being rebuilt - GASP, HORRORS - as a TWO family brick building. Could it have been built up to 3 stories, with at least four in there? Sure...but it wasn't, hurray. It would've been less fine if it was built up more, but not by much - 'cuz it's NOT the piddly four-and-under structures overly-densifying places. It's the high-rises. Which go up WHEN:
1) Somebody sells.
2) Somebody buys.
3) Repeat until you've got two or more adjacent lots, just like MONOPOLY!
I've recently learned to my wry amusement that almost nearly all of my older, middle-class, nearing-retirement neighbors living in their humble homes actually second and third homes all up and down my street. It's smart..and none of them seem to have any plans to build anything up...just rent those one-family homes out at a sweet price. It comes down to the kind of people who move in and buy places up...versus those who live there long-term.
But ultimately, it's all up to what the owner decides to do. You don't own it, neither do I, so we don't get to bitch abouddit- and if you wanna, den whydoncha buy it instead, and keep it the way it is, and be happy paying the property tax anyway?
In our society you have no control over what you neighbor decides to do with his place, beyond trying to alter his value perception of the place through persuasion or protest, neither of which really works consistently. So unless you want to turn the outer boroughs into some kind of giant HOA, that's the breaks...for better or worse.
25-22 is the sliver in between both homes.
I’m so glad your all back. GTA did you digital SLR yet?
It's not just the 'little house on the right'. It's both houses being combined into one lot and both have already been razed. Those houses were never particularly well kept and no one is going to miss them. I'm no fan of over-development but anything they build there will look better that what was once there. For the preservation-minded there are plenty of other things to think about. Like what will happen to the Riker House? Will it meet the same sad fate of Steinway Mansion?
Last anons thanks for the corrections and the eyewitness updates.
That building will still be too much.
Naw, the problem is the community and the community's politicians as well as the community board they appoint (Jerry is on it BTW).
No the city ALWAYS allows what it wants anyway. The city turns a blind eye to everything that goes on no matter how hard you protest.
Post a Comment