The Collegiate School is planning to sell its buildings on West End Avenue between 77th and 78th street to the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church for $97 million, and the church is likely to redevelop the site. In fact, Extell, one of the biggest development firms in the city, has already offered $97 million for the site.
The Daily News checked out court papers about the proposed sale, which needs to be approved by the court because it involves two nonprofits. It would include Collegiate’s two buildings and a long-term land lease the school has with the church. Collegiate has been at that location for 120 years, but plans to move to a new larger site on Riverside Boulevard and 62nd street in 2016.
More luxury housing!!! More people!!!
Ridiculous!!!
Hey….why not build a high school?
No room to move.
Isn’t there some sort of NYC building code ordinance against very-tall buildings on residential SIDE STREETS?
Anyone know for sure?
This is also important b/c the proposed tear-down of P.S. 199 and its replacement by a 50-story tower on W. 70th.
The school building is relatively tall–12 or 13 stories. It’s possible the residential building won’t be much taller than that unless there are air rights in play, which there probably are. My guess is that the church itself has air rights it can transfer in order for the new residential building to exceed the height limit on it currently.
Honestly, the part of this story that was most surprising to me was simply the fact that the church does not already own the school’s site. I always assumed it did.
West End Avenue is so dreary, so full of old, tired-looking buildings – maybe some redevelopment there is not a bad thing.
Ken –
I can only hope that you are trying to be provocative with that comment. WEA is one of the nicest residential streets in NYC, full of beautiful, well kept pre-war buildings. If you seriously think it’s dreary, what is your idea of good redevelopment – something like those buildings lining Riverside Blvd. ?
I think, technically, the school is West 78th, right? The corner of West 77th and WEA is the church (Collegiate Reformed Church). The main school building is on the side of that block; it’s main lobby is on West 78th.
This stretch of WEA is anything but dreary and it is NOT in need of redevelopment in general. It’s a gorgeous stretch and the West End Collegiate landmark district is in the area (but it may not encompass the school proper). Actually, the stretch of WEA from about West 74th or so up to at least West 79th is *stunning*! Also in general, what it does not need is a *luxury* high rise.
However, the school in particular is no gem. It’s utterly unremarkable. I’d welcome a new residential building there but only if it is part of the 80/20 program or otherwise has units dedicated to middle-class or lower-income renters or owners.
The only issue I see relative to that particular building plot/location becoming residential is that in general there’s a problem of residential density in the area exceeding the ability of the West 79th Street subway stop on the #1 to safely support it, especially in light of the two new high rises going up on the West-77th/78th-Streets block between Broadway and Amsterdam and the recently completed luxury high-rises on Amsterdam between 77th/76th (Equinox’s entrance is on the ground floor) and on Broadway at the corner of West 76th Street (“The Laureate,” with the Duane Reade and the EMS entrances on the ground floor).
The West 79th Street subway stop has become too hazardous relative to emergency personnel egress/access and relative to emergency evacuations. While removing the booth on the uptown-bound (east) side of the station has helped allow more people off the platform proper during rush hour, the stairs still can’t accommodate everyone safely and it’s often a nightmarish crush between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.
80/20 is a SCAM against all hardworking New Yorkers.
Basically, you are increasing the costs for everyone else so that a select few are subsidized – and this is NOT middle income , this is poor people.
Good.We need new luxury housing to offset all of the shelters and supportive housing. I just wish they would bulldoze some crap in the 90s and build the new housing there! In fact, if you don’t like it, find a way to support new luxury housing in the 90s and you can have the shelters near your luxury rent control apartments in the 70s.
THANK YOU, Scott, for a very objective and reasonable discussion of what is becoming THE hot-button UWS issue…growth, change, and development.
Meanwhile, According to “Kickin’ Out Old School,” a page 1/ jump to page 11 article in the April 29th New York Observer, COLLEGIATE IS NEW YORK’S OLDEST SCHOOL…dating back to its very first location when founded in 1628 in a little trading village/seaport called New Amsterdam at the tip of an island some called Manahatta.
According to the article, it went on to be the city school when the English took over in 1664, later became a school for poor parishoners, and did not become the elite private school of today until 1887.
Why mention it? Because to myself and many more this represents one of the absolute joys of living on this island of ours – the fascination of peeling back layers of history to uncover the fascinating past that preceded us.
I work hard in order to afford to live n the UWS. I am tired of the city offering low rent places in the neighborhood to lower income families. If it is too expensive for you to live there find an area that is in your price range and stop sucking all the money from the system.
wait a minute…..the main building on WEA, with the Flemish (?) design is NOT a designated landmark?
it should be! I thought it was part of UWS historic district.
If not, drop everything and get it landmarked ASAP.
please , Gary will read this and order its demolition before we get organized. Happens all the time.
The reason the UWS is enjoying its current “take a number” popularity is because it isn’t (read wasn’t) just like every other hot neighborhood. For a long time, it was the metropolis at its best. Riverside Drive is still the most beautiful boulevard in the city…and West End Avenue the finest avenue. Fifth Avenue sure isn’t what it used to be, plus all that traffic – and Central Park West is a mess. As a personal driver, the only reason I ever use CPW is that Columbus Avenue has been turned into a maelstrom. The bike lanes have put the parked cars out onto a once downtown lane, which, when the delivery trucks come around, puts them out into three lanes, thus causing bumper to bumber conjection from 96th to 66th streets. So I go to CPW, which is two way, full of school busses, construction, and backed up traffic, but yet better than Columbus. I came here over thirty years ago from a small town in Pennsylvania – and I immediately loved the city for its diversity and creativity. Now, on the island of Manhattan, there’s no room for diversity unless you’ve got the mega millions and the creativity is all corporate/dollar driven. In talking to my neighbors, many of them are saying “we moved to the Upper West Side because of what it was – but now it’s not that.” We did have lots of mom & pop stores and restaurants and nice apartments with affordable rents. No more. As a baby boomer growing older, I never put much into the expression “the good old days” – but in the case of our Upper West Side, that may hold the truth.
Very well said, Jerry. The UWS is not what it was when I moved here more than 35 years ago, either. As other commenters here make clear, what was *our* UWS is now available only to the Rich and the Poor — the Middle Class, no more.
The times they are a’changin’.
What a shame,it’s a beautiful building. I don’t think that West End needs a glass tower. Look at the Calhoun School building as an example of how something modern can go so wrong and look so completely out of place.
The school on its website says, “The schoolhouse on West 77th Street is, together with the adjoining West End Collegiate Church, an historic landmark in the City of New York.” The rest of the site is in the proposed extension of the West End-Collegiate Historic District to be voted on by the Landmarks Preservation Commission on June 25 per Landmark West! https://myemail.constantcontact.com/LPC-Announces-Vote-on-West-End-Collegiate-HD-Extension–.html?soid=1102771162711&aid=9YJl1mFbewI