A little while back, I vented about how the Cayuga Place Condos appeared to be a plain glass box. Based off all the data I had in front of me, it appeared that it was. The (small) images from the IJ gave the impression of one unbroken facade.
Well, I was casually glancing at the city website this afternoon, looking at the city’s IURA minutes out of curiosity, and I realized I made a tremendous mistake. One that merits its own new entry, it was that impressive of a screw up.
To illustrate my failure, I include the image from the IJ, plus the image from the IURA agenda (posted July 26th, 8 days after my rant):
Note that when you blow up the image to full size, that is the the native resolution of the IJ file in the upper left. 300×206 pixels. The side profile image that was also used in the news article is the elevation looking south – as it happens to be, the thick side of the building.
So, imagine my surprise and embarrassment when I see this:
This is not so different from the third incarnation as I thought it was. In my defense, given the images used in the article, I was mislead. Had I checked the city documents between July 26th and today, I would’ve caught the error sooner. As a result of my oversight, some of my criticisms about it being a featureless glass box, and the developer taking the cheap way out, were unmerited. It remains shorter than the previous version, so the parking garage looming over it remains an issue. But otherwise, it’s not tremendously different, or worse. My apologies to anyone who was mislead. So excuse me while I go and eat some crow.
For what it’s worth, the project has been approved for extension and is on its way to final site approval. With funding now in hand, the project may start construction sometime in the late fall.
Ithacating in Cornell Heights 
There certainly no need for an apology. I’m just glad you take the time to keep digging up this info and providing it to your readers. Thanks.
BTW, the drop from 6 to 4 floors won’t look quite as bad as I initially thought since the height of the floors will increase.
So these are no longer condominiums but rather rentals? Pretty disappointing. I dream of living in a high rise condo downtown, so it was already disheartening to see the building lowered.
I just discovered your blog. Thanks so much for helping this Ithaca n00b learn about ongoing development.
[…] are original renderings v1, v2 and v3….an updated version of V3, v3.1 if you will….v4…..and now this latest one, which we’ll call version 5. This building has changed its […]
[…] 5. I remember being confused about this when I saw it in the news, and my confusion was merited – the town did not deny Greenways, because it was never formally presented and voted on…also, per the Times article I quoted, I was wrong about it being approved in July, but it has received preliminary approval as of the 5th. The inherent risk in writing about these projects is misinterpretation, and I’m as guilty as the rest. […]
[…] iterations and layouts (here’s a few versions 1, 2, and 3, here’s 4 and here’s 5), before settling on the 45-unit design currently under construction. Part of the problem was […]
[…] several iterations and layouts (here’s a few versions 1, 2, and 3, here’s 4 and here’s 5) before settling on the 45-unit design currently under […]