Ithacating in Cornell Heights

ED. Please note the correction posted on August 11th.

Another incarnation of the Cayuga Green Condos has been proposed. First, the IJ article (for those without subscription, the Ithaca Indy provides another summary here). Now, first off, I would like to chastise the IJ for using an old image of the project – an image pulled from Bloomfield & Schon’s website of the modified third incarnation, which I include for reference below.

This is not the current proposal.

Notice that this has six floors. The revised version has four. This version also had 8000 sq ft of commercial space and 35 residential units. The revised proposal (which was only available in two thumbnail links, one of which was broken) has the same commercial space and 39 units, but less space overall – from 47,400 sq ft to 42,600. According to the IJ, development costs have been estimated to be about $8.5 million for this phase of the project.

I’m not even going to nice here. The design proposed does nothing good for the architectural pride of the development company. It’s essentially a glass box, with a little concrete filler. Boring, but okay. Even if it doesn’t have balconies, or even any shape to it apart from being a big glass box (heck, the earlier design the IJ tried to mislead people with is light-years ahead of this proposal). My issue is that it doesn’t even obscure the parking garage next to it, which overwhelms the proposed structure. It’s like they said, “hey, people will pay anything to live in Ithaca, so let’s try and squeeze as many as we can into as plain of a structure as possible” (I digress, this is the mantra of many low-brow developers, but I expected better from Bloomfield & Schon). Now, the last I checked, this was marketed as a luxury project. Nothing says luxury like being dominated by a parking garage next door. It’s just…mind boggling, in terms of planning and action. Cost of development aside, I’m having trouble imagining the developer getting these modifications past the planning board.

But, they kinda have to. In order for the developers to avoid issues with special resolutions from the city, the project needed to have financing and approval secured (i.e. construction starting) by June 30 – almost a month ago. So they’re already in hot water, and apparently, someone decided to water down the design, because I guess if you’re going to get on the bad side of city government, you might as well go for the gold. The prospects for development of this building are looking rather dim.

What a way to enjoy my morning – watching the IJ wrongfully mislead people with the incorrect design, and seeing the undersized box proposed. It’s mornings like this that I feel like I need to start drinking coffee.