Residents attending a RIRA Town Meeting last week on the revised Octagon Apartments project gave mostly negative reactions to the latest version presented by Becker and Becker Associates.  About 40 heard and saw the presentation by Bruce Becker and a team of five in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd.

At one point, as Becker changed slides from the last version to the current plan, there were groans from the Islanders attending the meeting.  During the Q&A portion, words like “abomination“ and “blocky” were used in reaction to the new design.

In an explanatory preamble, Becker said, “We have been pushed in a lot of different directions by various constraints” imposed by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC), landmark preservation agencies, and funding sources.  Even so, he said, the firm likes the current plan better than earlier versions.

Showing a diagram headed, “Integrated and Iterative Planning Process to Target & Guide Successful Development,“ he told the audience that the latest design is the result of an unavoidable interplay among several factors.  The slide showed “design quality and construction restraints“ interacting with “capital costs and financing constraints,“ and “building uses, market constraints and politics.”

Rivercross resident Larry Parnes, a professional urban planner, thanked the architects for changes he said responded to community concerns expressed in earlier meetings, but most comments were critical.

Most of the residents who spoke in criticism of the plan focused on three matters:  Wings that have grown from an original six floors to thirteen; the elimination of a mansard roof on the wings that hinted at the project’s heritage; and on-site parking, a deviation from the Island practice of locating all parking in Motorgate.  Residents called again, as in past meetings, for Motorgate to be used for cars belonging to residents of the new building.

Becker explained the taller wings in these words:  “In order to fund the $10 million restoration of the Octagon, we’re relying on the [federal] historic tax credit program, which effectively covers 20% of the cost...  [The National Park Service] asked us to double the length of the low-rise connectors separating the Octagon from the wings, so the only way we could actually maintain the number of apartments was to add height to the wings.”

He added, “We’ve actually come to like this design even more than the original, although it certainly is a different approach.  It reflects the National Park Service philosophy... And, unfortunately, we don’t really have much choice in the matter if we’re going to renovate the Octagon.  We have to comply with their design mandates.”  The mandates included elimination of the mansard roof.

Part of the change increases the number of apartments from 460 to 500.  In explanation, Becker said, “We really have to pay attention to the financing constraints...  We have to maintain a critical mass.”

Regarding parking, Becker said RIOC has never offered availability of Motorgate for Octagon Apartments parking.  While RIRA had asked RIOC to supply a representative for the Town Meeting, it did not, so there was no explanation of what considerations have kept the agency from offering the Becker firm the opportunity to expand Motorgate, either upward or into its last unbuilt quadrant.

A member of the Becker team presented a slide summarizing parking demand after completion of a full nine-building Southtown, saying that the 250 spaces required for the Octagon Apartments would not be available in Motorgate.  But the unbuilt quadrant was not factored in.  In response, one resident pointed out that there is currently no guarantee that Southtown will be completed.

The project’s proposed underground garage will extend from under its north-south oriented residential wing to space under the current tennis courts.  The courts will be raised 12 to 18 inches, along with surrounding terrain.  Becker said great expense was being incurred to make the parking essentially invisible.  “We do have a requirement to provide parking in order to finance this project,“ he said, but later added, “The only thing that we have to do is have a parking solution so that when we build our apartments we have parking associated with them.”

In a later e-mail to The WIRE, Becker said, “Moving the parking to Motorgate has never been an option for us.  Furthermore, there are compelling reasons to have it on-site.  It will offer... convenient parking to families and people with disabilities without adding any additional traffic to the commercial section of Main Street.  To address community concerns, we have completely mitigated its visual impact by making it entirely below grade.”

Asked if eliminating the underground garage would reduce project costs and permit a reduction in the scale of the residential wings, Becker indicated it would not.  He wrote, “The garage is self-supporting so moving the parking to Motorgate would not have a financial impact.  We are buying development rights for 500 units for a fixed amount.  If we were to reduce the scale of the project the project would no longer be financially feasible.”

To meet Fire Department requirements for vehicle-maneuvering space, and to raise the tennis courts without losing mature trees, the courts would be reduced from six to four.  The presenters outlined a plan to build up to three additional courts in the Water Tunnel area, but pointed out that the City still controls the Water Tunnel site, and no arrangements yet exist for the space to be made available for new or interim courts.  Becker said an effort would be made, in construction timing, to avoid loss of courts during the peak tennis season.

Key changes in the project include:

• The increase to 13 stories and 500 apartments, expected to house 1000 people.
• The doubling of the connectors.
• Addition of two 1500-foot geothermal wells for environmentally-benign heating and cooling.
• Elimination of apartments earlier planned within the restored Octagon structure.  The tower will now contain fitness facilities, administrative offices, meeting rooms, a gallery, one or more classrooms, and offices that might be used for Island organizations.
• Extension of Octagon Park all the way to the river promenade.
• An inner courtyard, “primarily for residents” of the buildings, that includes a swimming pool that might offer outside memberships.

In discussing the impacts of the project when combined with the anticipated impacts of Southtown, the Becker team said traffic, noise, and pollution would not increase significantly, but said that the Island school “will fill up.”  The presenters said the project would make a major financial contribution to the Island through ground rent, and to Public Safety costs, as well as to the extension of the minibus route.

Becker said the project will provide “very, very significant revenues to RIOC.”  He declined, however, to discuss specifics of the lease under which his firm will control five acres of the Octagon Park area of the Island.

Critical residents included Judy Berdy, President of the Roosevelt Island Historical Society.  She had worked closely with the Becker firm on aspects of the project involving the landmark Octagon structure, which was designed by a prominent architect of the 19th Century, Alexander Jackson Davis, as one corner of a City institution for the insane.  “I didn’t even have to open [the October 19 issue of] The WIRE,“ Berdy said, “and right on page one was this thing.  I look at this and I say, what is this abomination?  What happened?”  Many of the 40-or-so residents in the audience applauded at this point.

She continued, “There is no way that a project that started out with such good intent, that got along fine...  Why 500 units?  Is it to pay the ground rent?  Is it that RIOC thinks they can just get so much money out of you?”

Later, Berdy added, “This building is just a block...  It just doesn’t appeal.  It just looks like the top four stories were just stuck on.“  The remark was applauded.  Joan Christianson was among the residents concurring:  “I’m not pleased with the higher buildings.“  Speaking later, she amended her comments:  “I was being too polite earlier.  It’s ugly.  It’s like a Chia Pet.  Every time I see it, it gets bigger.  Please do something to make it more attractive.  I don’t want to have to turn against something I’ve been in favor of.“  Sherie Helstien called the revised design “utterly ugly.”

A member of the Residents Association Common Council, Margie Smith, raised a legal question, pointing out that the Island’s General Development Plan (GDP) specifies residential areas only at Northtown and Southtown.  She asked, “Did you get permission to build a third area of housing – to amend the GDP, or are you just taking a risk that nobody is going to challenge it?“  In response, Becker revealed that “RIOC is exploring possible amendments [to the GDP].  We understand that they are anticipating making some minor amendments that would insure that we are in full compliance with the GDP... an amendment that would remove [any] ambiguity.”

Another resident, Debra Mount Cornet, told Becker, “It sounds to me like no matter how many times we come up here and tell you we really don’t want parking there, we get it.“  When Becker said he had observed “a range of opinion“ on that, and said a resident had earlier spoken privately with him in favor of on-site parking, Cornet took an impromptu poll in which most audience members raised their hands to indicate they did not want parking on the Octagon site.  “There,“ said Cornet.  Becker responded by asking, “What is the reason that you’re concerned about parking on site?  Is it based on legal...“  Cornet responded by citing disruption of the tennis courts area during construction, and the traffic that would result from cars accessing the Island at the foot of the ramp leading off the bridge from Queens, a comment later seconded by Joan Christianson and Ken Diebner, who called the intersection of the ramp and Main Street “a danger zone.”

Becker responded to some of the criticism with a general statement.  “Obviously, if we didn’t have financing constraints, there would be no limit to what we could do.  We could do something that no one would object to.  But obviously to have a viable project, we have to balance different interests and requirements.  This is the best job we’ve been able to do so far.  We’ll continue to try to improve it.  It’s obviously something we want to be proud of.  We’re here tonight because we’re interested in your suggestions.“  He added, “What I prefer to hear are constructive comments on finishes or materials or landscaping – things that we really can respond to...  The one condition that we have to meet is there’s a certain scale that we have to meet in order to make this financially feasible.  We’ll certainly do everything we can to address everything we’ve heard tonight.  Our reputation is built on listening carefully and responding.”

In other comments:

• Sherie Helstien asked for a dog run for the growing number of canines on the Island.
• Mickey Karpeles-Bauer raised the question of whether dogs would be permitted in the development.  A show of hands indicated that most residents attending would prefer a no-dogs policy.
• Gladys Dixon expressed concern about traffic as it might affect Coler Hospital residents moving about the area in wheelchairs.
• Ken Diebner and others who spoke regretted the disappearance of a mansard roof on the residential wings, a change mandated by the National Park Service, which requires that new construction be clearly distinguished from restored landmarks.  Diebner said, "This is a politically-active community.  If you need petitions, we can supply them."  Becker said that his firm feels it must accept the National Park Service ruling on the roof.