Lirr168 wrote:First of all, I can't for certain exactly how much of the building is being demolished, but I had heard the whole thing because it was deemed unsafe.
You heard wrong.
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New York Daily News -
Old chimneys swept
BY OREN YANIV
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Sunday, April 17th, 2005
One hundred years after they first rose above the East River waterfront, the smokestacks atop the old Pennsylvania Railroad power station in Long Island City started coming down this week.
As work began to convert the old, crumbling plant into luxury condominiums, construction workers erected tall scaffolds, draped with black anti-dust sheets, around the four 275-foot-tall chimneys.
The original plan called for restoring the smokestacks and raising a 10-story cubic glass structure between them, said Karl Fisher, the project's architect. However, a city regulation that limits the building's height to 120 feet thwarted that plan.
"We had a very nice design that would have given a very unique identity to the building," said Cheskel Schwimmer, vice president of the Brooklyn firm CGS Builders, which bought the property last year. "But we couldn't justify starting a variance process."
The $100 million project, which will add four to six brick floors to the existing structure, should be completed in about 20 months, Schwimmer said. The first phase will include 200 high-end condos, with another 200 to follow.
Work on the ancient power plant started in 1904 and was completed two years later. It was used to supply power to trains that ran beneath the East River, but became obsolete in the 1920s.
In the 1950s, the chimney-topped boiler room was sold to the Metropolitan Plumbing Co., and an adjacent building, used for turbine generators, was bought by Schwartz Chemical Co. That structure will house the second phase of the development, which will stretch between Second and Fifth Sts. and 50th and 51st Aves.
Though derelict for years, the smokestacks became a part of the riverfront view and a relic of the neighborhood's industrial character. They were featured in painter Georgia O'Keeffe's 1920s series "Across the East River" and appeared as a backdrop in the 2001 Ben Stiller cult flick "Zoolander."
Now, the building will become a part of the neighborhood's present, as a magnet for luxurious high-rises, such as the nearby Queens West and Avalon Riverview.
Some in the area are glad to see the smokestacks disappearing. They call them an eyesore and a bad memory of a bygone era.
"A lot of old timers are not unhappy to see them go because they represent pollution and problems and industry that is long gone," said Jake Atwood, who runs a neighborhood Web site that channeled community sentiments.
Others regret losing "a local landmark," and are disappointed that initial plans to incorporate them were scratched, said Joseph Conley, chairman of Community Board 2.
But he added: "It's rundown and it's time for a change. We hope that the change will take into account the history of the building."
Schwimmer said the builders' intention is indeed maintaining the historic look of the complex, which will include, when completed, a retail space and an art gallery.
Workers recently began to carefully cut metal scraps off the huge behemoths and crumble their inner brick linings. They had been using the chimneys' shafts as chutes to dispose of the debris.
"It's a huge undertaking," Schwimmer said. "It's actually the most dangerous part of the entire development."
The demolition work will take about three months, after which construction is set to begin, he said.
