CHINATOWN REVOLT

Chinatown Revolt 

The Architect's Newspaper, Mar. 4, 2016.

“It’s possible because this area was not protected,” Jei Fong said. “It’s an as-of-right building, but it’s really the zoning protections that prevent these things from happening.”

Surrounded on every side by public housing and low-income tenants, and built on an urban renewal site purchased for $103 million formerly occupied by a Pathmark grocery store, it will be joined by a separate 13-story “poor door” building designed by Dattner Architects, providing the required 205 affordable units. (Pegged at 60 percent of the area median income, a two-bedroom would start at $1,081.)

At Gracie Mansion, activists demanded a new model. They dubbed 252 South Street the “Extell Tower from Hell” and donated its photo to Mayor de Blasio on a placard. “We have a gift for you,” they shouted. “You are evil to give us this building. We reject it, and we are giving it back.”