Braced for Change as Tishman Transforms West 44th

Over the past six months what used to be a dirty little hole near Times Square has been transformed into a gaping pit. More changes are in store as steel and concrete reshape the southwest corner of Eighth Avenue and 44th Street. Recent filings show that the Tishman hotel project going up on that site has not one, but two architects. First up is Gensler and Associates, of JetBlue fame, who will do the hotel portion, now officially slated for 22 stories (but with other sources saying it will rise up to 34). Then, there is Edelman Sultan Knox Wood, the gang in charge of the low-rise residential portion: 9 units of affordable housing made necessary by some nasty landlord harassment back when the ratty old Globe Hotel sat on this site. No renderings have surfaced, and it's still only a rumor that this will become an Intercontinental. But whatever rises here will mean some big changes from the drugs and porn, the mainstays on this dirty corner back in the crazy '80s.
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· Tishman's Times Square Tear Down [Curbed]
· Theaters See a Lifeline Above as Developers Pursue Midtown Opportunities [NYT]For more stories from Curbed, go to curbed.com.