Thurston Avenue’s Fitting Addition

13 05 2013

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So, the folks at Ithaca Builds brought my attention to PDFs containing site plans, floor plans and elevations for the Thurston Avenue apartment project, slated for the wooded parcel at the northeast corner of Thurston Avenue and Highland Avenue. The design here has to contextually sensitive, since it lies within the Cornell Heights Historic District. So, boxy and glassy won’t cut it with this parcel. So, the architects in employ put their creative powers to work…and two restyles later…

Design for Building 1

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Design of Buildings 2 and 3

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The latest design proposed by HOLT Architects shows four buildings with three styles – Building 1 (northernmost) and Buildings 2 and 3 (against Highland to its east) are fairly similar, though 2 and 3 are set into the hillside a little, and the design reflects that. Building 4 has massing more like a large house than an apartment building. Oddly enough, the PDF lacks elevations for Building 4. Assuming the floorplans in the PDF are similar on each floor in each building, this would produce 20 units, with 56 bedrooms (54 3-bedroom, 2 1-bedroom). Parking spaces were reduced from the originally proposed 40 to 27.

Does it fit within the context of the neighborhood? The designs demonstrate hipped roofs, porches, architectural elements similar to the surroundings, and material samples and colors shown seem appropriate…so, check. Also, for what incredibly little it’s worth, I think it’s a very good design for the parcel, so much I wish they would tear down the ca. 1966 Rabco complex next door (although, I do wonder if the Tudor-esque “exposed beams” are a bit overboard). But, the real test will come when these begin construction, which with approvals in hand, should start around November, with a summer 2014 completion.


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The EcoVillage

9 05 2013

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Although I take a lot of jabs at “hippies”, the reason I never made it to Ecovillage before now had less to do with any personal stance and more to do with the fact it was just out of my way. Rachel Carson Way lies about a mile and a half westward of Inlet Island, nestled in the hills opposite from Cornell. This means that when I past through, it’s farthest out of my way, so time often being a priority, it always sat on the bucket list. Finally, I made the conscious effort to take a trip up on my last photo tour.

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Ecovillage runs on the concept of co-housing, which in many ways runs close to most people’s idea of a commune (and mentally, I still find myself referring to it as a commune). There are optional shared dinners, a community-based work system, and of course, being in tune with the natural environment. Hence, solar arrays, housing designed to minimize energy use, foods grown on the property,  and so forth. Ecovillage isn’t unique, not even in Tompkins County (White Hawk in Danby is a smaller but similar concept). But it is probably one of the best known developments of its kind.

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Ecovillage began planning in 1992-1993, when stakeholders purchased a former farm with the intent of launching an eco-friendly community.  The first neighborhood, FROG (First Resident Group), began construction in 1995 and was completed two years later. The second community, SONG (Second Neighborhood Group), received site plan approval in 2001, and was built in three phases over five years. Each of these neighborhoods has 30 units with a community center. The community also has a few other bells and whistles, like a passive bus shelter, a root cellar, carports and a berry farm. The pre-Ecovillage farmhouse and barn are now a separate property holding an antique shop and the City Lights B&B.

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Ecovillage is well underway with its third neighborhood, TREE. At 40 units, TREE is slightly larger than the first two neighborhoods. Construction is definitely underway, and the majority of the community should be complete before the end of the year. Also worth a quick note, a 900 sq ft “Gourd Workshop” was under construction when I passed through. More additions, like an education center and a roadside farm stand, are in the works.

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If you don’t want to be a creeper like me, Ecovillage opens itself up for a free public tour at 3 PM on the first Saturday of each month. That way, you can avoid being like me, trying to take photos when kids keep wandering in front of them, and having that awkward realization that you look like a child predator.


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Ithaca Builds

2 05 2013

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When I first started following Ithaca construction projects (~2006), the only sources for project details came from news sources (which, with rapidly outdated URLs, were shoddy at best), and a thread on the urban development website/forum Skyscraperpage.com. Other than that, some of the local towns would regularly update their online agendas and minutes; most wouldn’t, and attached renderings were unheard of.

Over the past several years, things have changed for the better. For one, this blog. For two, it seems like certain news outlets like the Journal and Times now recognize there’s some worth to keep in track of these projects, especially as growth in Ithaca has accelerated within the past couple of years.

I was looking something up recently and stumbled upon a fully-dedicated Ithaca development website, calling itself “Ithaca Builds“. At the time, they had just started putting together their interactive map. Now, the first blurbs are written, and the map has been fleshed out a little more.

From my personal standpoint, there was that brief concern of “uh oh, now I have competition.” For one, their HTML skills are way beyond my own, and their maps are much easier to use. For two, the Ithaca side of this blog is really the bread-and-butter these days, as I’ve already covered much of my preferred Cornelliana, and new history write-ups have become fewer.  So there’s always the worry that if someone who “does it better” comes along, I’m not going to have the time to keep up, and this blog will fall off the map completely.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that’s kinda a silly way to look at things. I don’t make any money from this, and given Ithaca’s market size, a “Curbed” style Ithaca site would struggle to be commercially viable. If someone has the personal interest and motivation to do a great website, that’s wonderful. I like to think that in the nearly five years of this blog, that it’s offered quite a compilation of Ithaca-related projects, so even if this fades, I’ve had a good run. In the meanwhile, since their writing has yet to come up to speed, Ithaca Builds and Ithacating in Cornell Heights actually compliment each other quite well. I’ll keep updates coming on my end because that’s how I am. But I’ll be interested to see how their work grows and evolves.


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The Storybook Cottages

26 04 2013

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Several months ago, my best friend landed his dream job in Ithaca. Within the day, he was looking for places to live. I being his roommate, and trying to be as discreet as possible given my borderline-unhealthy interest in Ithaca real estate, was more than happy to listen in and offer advice.

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One of the places he checked out was The Boiceville Cottages (I’ve always assumed this is pronounced like “Boy-ss”, like the Boyce Thompson Institute on Cornell’s campus).  As multi-unit housing goes, they’re quite unusual. In general, housing is set up in single-unit cottages, clustered in groups of three. More recently, a few three-unit buildings, and a church-like meeting house have been erected. Perhaps the most obvious details are the colors. It’s like someone looked at a bright cheery children’s storybook and went to town.  Apparently, such tales were at least part of the inpsiration for their appearance, with the intricate eaves and vivid paint-jobs.

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The project is a little out of the way, about a mile south of the Caroline town hall and Route 79. So it took me a little while to swing out for a visit, and see them firsthand (my friend settled in Eastern Heights. Boo). This development further caught my attention because of the expansion underway. The Boiceville Cottages development was first initiated in 1996, and from what I can tell, it took about ten years to build the first 24 units.  Around 2007, a second phase was initiated, with 36 units. As of last year, this phase is complete (so, they definitely picked up the pace on construction…). Recently, they were granted approval for the construction of 75 more units, doubling the size of the complex.

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When I finally made it out that way a few weeks ago, I was going around taking photos, when an older gentleman in a pickup stopped and asked if I could be helped. Generally, I’m extremely cautious when I go on photo tours – on previous occasions, both Ithaca and elsewhere, I’ve been threatened with the law and with violence, so I regard every interaction where I have a camera in my hands with extreme prudence.

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The gentleman turned out to be the builder/developer, Bruno Schickel. About a month earlier, I had asked if there were any renderings or site plans online (the answer at the time was “only what’s on the website”; the link above is a site plan from a town review of the project). So I wasn’t a complete stranger. We chatted politely for a couple minutes, I told him how I thought he had a unique and creative development. He invited me to check out a display unit (which due to a long to-do list, I politely declined). All in all, I’m glad I did not get chased off the property, and my thanks to Mr. Schickel for  tolerating this random guy taking photos of his property.

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Spring 2013 Construction Update (The Last Photos)

18 04 2013

I’ll admit, took a little longer than expected. But being a first-time first author on a just-submitted scientific paper for peer review…well, that took precedence. Now that I’ve finally crossed that off my professional bucket list, I can put up the last few photos. I have variations of project photos, and Ithaca photos in general, which will show up as other entries are written in due course.

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Hello new and not-completely-sad looking Clinton Street bridge. The lightposts and balustrade are nice touches. Personally, I wish the steel was something other than Grandma’s fridge green.

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I was not completely sure where local uber-capitalist Jason Fane was planning his new 3-building, 36-unit project. But I figured this hilly area next to the City View property and the IPD was a likely guess.


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The Revised Harold’s Square

12 04 2013

Two things. One, noting that it is not Harold Square, but Harold’s Square. Well noted.

Two, as shown by the Ithaca Times, the proposed design has been revised. And in the opinion of one armchair architecture critic, it has gone from meh to hideous.

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For reference, the old renderings. Now, I thought the original design for the Commons side was fairly okay. The revised proposal…it looks grim, the “modern” steel sections are like tumors growing out of a rather cold and dour facade. The exposed truss on the tower portion is gone, but now there are narrow misaligned slit windows. Reminiscent of Cascadilla Hall. Or a prison. Or most closely, the rather awful 499 South Warren Street in Syracuse.

Don’t get me wrong, I like what the project provides – mixed-use, high-density, downtown-friendly. But unless the materials are mind-blowing, I fear this thing is going to age terribly.


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Ithaca Construction Photos, Spring 2013 (Non-Downtown Pt. 2, Downtown Pt. 1)

12 04 2013

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Facade work is just beginning on the new 106-room Fairfield Inn down in big box land. The project experienced a bit of a hiccup back in January when two construction workers were injured at the site, falling four stories through collapsing scaffolding above an elevator shaft. Occupancy is slated for mid-fall 2013.

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Site prep is under way for the new 18,000 sq ft Planned Parenthood building on the 600 block of West Seneca Street. It would be unfair to label this a demolition. If anything, it looks like a careful deconstruction is underway for the run-down homes currently on the property, salvaging what can be reused before the rest of the structure is torn down. A maneuver like that deserves a big thumbs up. The project will begin construction during the summer, with completion around late summer 2014.

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Why? Because it’s Ithaca.

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5 of the 6 floors have been built for Breckinridge Place; rather curiously, only a couple bits of masonry and steel are up to where the sixth floor will be poured. The 50-unit project should be completed and ready for rentals by this fall.

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This photo will very quickly become outdated. Firstly because of the Commons reconstruction, which I’ll cover at another time. Secondly, the Harold’s Square project. The 10-story, 140-building will refurbish the Sage Block and the Miller Buildings (the orange brick structure left of center), while the three buildings at center will be demolished. The mixed-use project will have retail on the bottom, office space on the first few floors, and apartments on the upper six floors (estimates range from 36 to 70). Although the project still needs some zoning variances, if all goes well, construction could start by the end of the year, with completion around mid-2015.

EDIT: Oh look, new renderings. Now the building has gone from “meh” to embracing the prison motif, with slit windows in the tower and a dour face towards the Commons. This is not going to age well…

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Another soon to be outdated image. The “Lofts at Cayuga Green” will add 39 units on four 15′ floors. In a recent interview, the director of planning and development expressed concern whether the project would start this year, but given that funding is in place and the developer’s tax credits will expire otherwise, my guess is now or never.

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Now, another project that is underway. Seneca Way will add 38 apartments and ground-floor office space. The five-story building is expected to be opened in Spring 2014. Meanwhile, the Argos Inn next door should finally be open for this business.

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Hotel work, approved and set to begin. At top, the site for the new Marriott. With tax abatement approved, construction will start by summer, with an 18-month buildout for the 10-story, 159-room hotel. The Holiday Inn will also begin its reconstruction this year, tearing down the low-rise portions for a 9-story tower and a convention center (and a net increase of 13 rooms). The low-rise portions are slated to close in November, and while renovation of the older tower will be done by May 2014, the new tower and convention facility will probably require another year before they are completed.

All other photos will be uploaded in the final entry.


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Ithaca Construction Photos, Spring 2013 (Non-Downtown)

11 04 2013

So, for the record – driving around town trying to get pictures of all the projects outside downtown was a royal pain in the arse. Not that I don’t like to have lots on my itinerary, but more than once, my aching feet and my gas tank were making me regret the jaunt about town. A couple sites I passed without taking photos; these were projects not yet underway, such as the Thurston Avenue project, the Stone Quarry Apartments, and CU Townhomes project on Harwick Drive. I will generally not take project photos when I’m catching up with old friends; it’s a respect thing, and I also like to pretend that I’m a normal human being.

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I’ll be doing a much longer post about this eventually, but the first new homes are underway for the Boiceville Cottages‘s 75-unit expansion out in Caroline. Currently, the site has about sixty units, 16 clusters of cottages and 4 3-unit buildings. The project will add 23 more clusters and two more 3-unit buildings. Also, I realize Caroline is a bit of a stretch, but it’s only a mile detour from 79, so carpe diem.

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Another place that will be getting a much larger write-up eventually. This is Ecovillage’s newest neighborhood under construction. The TREE project will add 40 units, in addition to the two previous neighborhoods of 30 apiece.

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The site of Cascadilla Landing.  Site Prep is supposed to be begin shortly on the 150+ unit project.

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A rather unusual project, the Heritage Park Townhomes on Lincoln Street. I suppose these are supposed to be single family rentals, but I think it’s more like 3 units each. A bit ungainly and fussy, even though the detailing is appreciated.

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The Aurora Street pocket neighborhood, by Cosentini Construction. 4 units, and a clever example of urban infill near the corner of Aurora and Marshall Street. The idea seems to have hit a market, as the builders are planning a second, similar development off of Lake Street.

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So, this threw me for a loop. The project is Magnolia House, a 14-unit shelter/home for homeless women, under the auspices of the non-profit Tompkins Community Action. At 3/4 stories, it is one of the most visible buildings in the immediate area, with the corten steel copper plating certainly doing its part. The copper is unusual, an interesting use of materials. The windows….hate. Hate, hate, hate hodgepodges.

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Although one day, the shelter may be overshadowed by a 5 or 6-story building with Purity on the ground floor. The project is still in the planning/approvals process, with about 20-24 units.

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The 24-unit Iacovelli project on Seneca is near completion, with facade installation and some interior work being all that is left.

…and wordpress has told me I’ve hit the limit on photos. Planned Parenthood and the Fairfield Inn will be included in the next entry.


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Creeping in Collegetown

26 03 2013

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I have never understood, nor will ever try to understand, the fascination some have with invading the privacy of young college women in their apartments. A recent Cornell Sun article notes a case where a former Cornell student entered two apartments in the 312 College Ave. apartment building uninvited. These apartments were occupied by female students, who screamed and/or confronted the guy, causing him to flee. Apart from the obvious threat a guy like this poses, I couldn’t help but think that events like these have been going on for a while now.

My first thought was the “Collegetown Creeper”, a story that I already knew from when I was growing up north of Syracuse, because that’s how much of a media sensation it was. The creeper was tied into at least 18 cases, occurring in 2003 and 2004. Most of the earlier ones were cases of peering through windows into the apartments of young females. Then the creep factor was kicked up a notch in early 2004 when he would break in and watch them sleeping. By the end of his reign of terror, he had graduated to full-blown sexual abuse. At least one victim claimed her clothes were cut off and baby oil was poured onto her. As one might imagine, this created quite a stir, and by the fall of 2004, students were protesting outside Common Council meetings, demanding further action be taken on the issue.

The creeper was eventually arrested in late October 2004. The suspect was identified as Abraham Shorey, who at 23, a married father of six, and sporting Rastafarian-style dreads, seemed as unlikely a sexual criminal as any. Shorey was familiar with the Collegetown area and its crowds, as he worked as a cook over at The Nines. Before his arraignment on charges of burglary and sexual abuse, Shorey posted bail and fled the area. He managed to avoid arrest on two occasions  by producing fake IDs throughout his time as a fugitive. He was finally arrested a year later in San Diego, where he plead guilty to assault with intent to rape a San Diego County woman in May 2005. DNA evidence collected at the scene of the San Diego incident linked him as the perpetrator of the events in Ithaca from the previous two years. His sentence in California is seven years and four months, but the charges against him in New York were dropped for a number of reasons (time elapsed, difficulty locating witnesses, etc.)

Unfortunately, much worse has also occurred. Although technically not Collegetown, a 25-year old graduate student was raped and murdered near North Campus in May 1981, her body then dumped into the gorge. Her killer would graduate and go on to commit seven more murders in downstate NY and CT before being arrested.

Ignoring all the insensitive jokes students make about “forcible touching” here, female students at Cornell have every reason to be concerned for their safety, in the past, now, and for the foreseeable future.


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Motivation for New Construction: 2012 Census Estimates

15 03 2013

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With over 2,500 housing units planned within the  county, and only so many increasingly spendthrift college students to exploit, local developers kinda need further justification to launch into such a building boom. The census is certainly supportive of their plans.

Following the new April 2012 census estimates (file here), from April 2010 to July 2012, Tompkins County has likely added another 990 residents, bringing the local population to 102,554. Interestingly enough, Tompkins and the bordering counties serve as a little growth pocket in otherwise declining upstate New York – Broome County, home to Binghamton, lost the most residents of any county, with about 2,540 shipping out, a drop of 1.3%. The largest increases upstate came in from Jefferson County (home to the growing Fort Drum), and Saratoga County (home to the very large and very new computer chip plant), with Tompkins in third with 1.0% growth. Given the 5.2% growth of the last decade, Tompkins is on par with its growth rate in the 2000s.

I should issue the token disclaimer that there are estimates, and the actual numbers can be a surprise when they come out in 2020. For instance, it was thought in the 2000s that Onondaga County/Syracuse lost 4,000 people over the decade – they gained 9,000. And I’m not sure how much I believe the rapidly suburbanizing Dutchess County, which hasn’t lost population since the 1890s, is believed to have lost people over the two year span. For Tompkins County in 2010, the original estimates were too high by a little over 200 (an error of about 4%).  Also, perhaps this comes as no surprise, the New York portion of the New York metro added about 160,000 people, cementing their belief that they are the center of the world and the rest of us just live in it.

Two of the numbers I like to throw around for a housing unit is that Tompkins averages 2.4 occupants for non-college housing, 2.0 for college housing. If we use that 990 figure, it can be broken down to 413 traditional units or 495 college student units – and that’s additional units required in two years, in a county already experiencing a housing shortage.  I’d say builders have all the justification they need for development in the near-term.

 


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