After years of recession-induced delay, 15 Renwick Street, on the southern edge of the newly-rezoned Hudson Square area, is finally entering the home stretch. While it doesn’t appear to be topped out – it will eventually reach 11 stories – it appears to be almost there, and has made considerable progress since June, when it had just barely poked its head above the surface.
The original Ismael Leyva design was ditched when the downturn forced Harry Jeremias to give up the site. But Jeremias’s loss was the Izaki Group’s gain – they picked up the site for just $11 million, and tapped ODA, an architectural practice led by Eran Chen that’s been seeing a lot of work lately, to redesign the project.
ODA’s design for 15 Renwick won’t be quite as boxy as some of his others – for example, his building on Jackson Avenue in Long Island City – but it will nevertheless have his signature proliferating boxes towards the top, where the strong grid-like design will dissipate into cantilevered penthouses, which will also maximize green space.
“In the original plans, it was a glass building, a curtain wall from bottom to top, and we changed the façade, added more industrial elements, consistent with the cast iron architecture of the neighborhood,” the developer told the Observer. ODA’s new design, on the other hand, “has a more industrial finish and the apartments will all have exposed columns.”
A sign on site sets puts completion of the 31-unit condo building at spring 2015, which seems about right given the pace of construction thus far.