Kramer Levin Secures Zoning Variance for Distinctive Washington Heights Building

On June 20, Kramer Levin secured a zoning variance from the NYC Board of Standards and Appeals on behalf of Youngwoo & Associates for the construction of a new 22-story, commercial building in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. The project is located at the intersection of 181st Street and Amsterdam Avenue and will include hotel, office and retail uses. The building, which has been designed by MVRDV, a prominent architecture firm based in the Netherlands, takes the distinctive form of a series of stacked volumes that rise in height from the south to the north. The new building will mark a distinctive gateway into Manhattan and the Washington Heights neighborhood, and will be visible for those traveling towards Manhattan on the Washington Bridge and the Cross Bronx Expressway. The variance allows commercial use in a residential district (on part of the site), modifies height and setback, and allows the floor area ratio otherwise applicable to community facility use to be applied to commercial use, resulting in increase in the allowable commercial floor area.