Queens Conversion

Developer Transforms Queens Factory into High-End Condominiums

by Diane Greer

A hulking eight-story, 484,000-sq.-ft. factory in Queens - originally built to house a printing facility for Metropolitan Life Insurance - is undergoing a major reconstruction to create residential units.

The project, developed by the Andalex Group of Manhattan, is one of the latest in a wave of conversions of vintage commercial buildings in New York City to residential uses, as well as a prime example of the redevelopment push under way in the borough's Long Island City district along the East River. The building's previous owner was Eagle Electric, a company recently bought and relocated by an out-of-state firm.

When completed later this year, the $80 million condominium building will have 237 lofts and 17 artist studios, all featuring 14- to 17-ft. ceilings, at prices ranging from $485,000 to more than $2 million. Occupancy of the lower five floors of the structure is slated for September, while completion of the building is planned for November.

Located between Thompson Avenue and Court Square, the triangular shape of the 1920s structure is reminiscent of Manhattan's landmark Flatiron Building. The old factory's unique character and the site's proximity to Manhattan and public transit stations attracted Andalex to the property.

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"We looked at this building and said, 'What a great place to live,'" said Alex Silverman, Andalex's COO.

The poured-in-place concrete building has 12-in. slab floors that were designed to shoulder 250-lb.-per-sq.-ft. loads. Giant mushroom columns support the floors, and in many spots, ridges from the clapboard forming system used to construct the building are visible.

The strength of the floors enabled the project team to use two backhoes on the inside of the building during the six-month demolition phase.

"We had in excess of a couple of million dollars worth of structural demolition that had to take place to reconfigure window openings, remove square footage out of the building, and fill in with new structure," said Eric McGovern, president of Pavarini McGovern of New York, the construction manager.

Part of the demolition task was geared toward expanding the courtyard area. The team removed staircases and bathrooms as well as part of the original courtyard's floor, an effort that required a bracing plan for the remaining structure. New York-based Cantor Seinuk Group, the structural engineer, designed the bracing plan in coordination with Pavarini McGovern and the demolition contractor.

Other demolition tasks provided cutouts to satisfy light and air requirements and stripped nonessential items from the building.

"We demolished roughly 50,000 sq. ft.," said Bill Bretschger, Andalex's director of construction.

In removing the spaces on the lower floors and courtyard, zoning rules allowed Andalex to swap that developable floor area to the upper floors, where it expanded the sixth floor by 6,000 sq. ft. and the seventh and eighth floors, which had housed mechanical space and water tanks, by 22,000 sq. ft. each. The team is also extending the vertical travel of the elevators, which previously stopped on the sixth floor, to the eighth floor. It is installing four new elevators in the effort.

Project crews are using two of the original elevators, which the team retained for the duration of construction, in order to alleviate vertical transportation congestion. The team will also use the crane expanding the upper floors to preload heavy and bulky materials onto other floors.

The team also had to reconfigure the lobby entrance along Thompson Avenue due to the changing elevation of the roadway, which rises from the first floor at the west end of the building to the second floor at the east end. The elevation of the lobby entrance, located in the middle of the building, falls between the two floors.

The team was able to address the uneven layout and offer access to the second-floor lobby by removing a portion of the existing second-floor slab, installing a depressed slab at the elevation of the roadway, and building a series of stairs. Structural steel frames support the new elements.

When completed, the second floor will feature the 5,000-sq.-ft. lobby containing a 10 ft. by 10 ft. raised-hearth, stone-base fireplace and 16-ft.-high floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the 6,000-sq.-ft. landscaped courtyard. A spiral staircase will lead down to a 3,000-sq.-ft. game room and 6,000-sq.-ft. health club on the first floor. Art elements in the lobby and public spaces will include use of old electric breaker panels and other industrial equipment found onsite.

Restoration work is also under way on the building exterior. Once repairs are completed, crews will apply a stucco skim coat and paint. A 4,800-sq.-ft. roof deck on top will provide exceptional views of Manhattan.

Andalex worked with Brian Callahan of New York-based Kondylis Designs, an interior design firm, to create a mix of studio and one- to four-bedroom lofts. Due to the unique nature of the building and shape of the floor plates, that design process yielded 122 different layouts.

Callahan leveraged the depth of the floor plates and heights of the ceilings to produce oversized apartments. The spacing of columns and the size of the window bays, which are 12 by 22 ft., determined the dimensions for each unit.

The residences will have 9- by 16.5-ft. window units and master bathrooms measuring 8 by 8 ft., featuring walk-in showers with freestanding tubs. The walls of bathroom and home office areas will use translucent Panelite panels, extending daylight into interior rooms. Lofts on the seventh and eighth floors will feature large terraces.

To mitigate noise from an active railyard next to the site and an elevated subway line, units on the sides of the building facing those features will have "sound pressure level" windows. A portion of the Court Square side of the structure will also have the special windows.

The mix of units will include 17 artist studios below grade on the railyard side of the building. Meanwhile, the structure's first floor will include 17,000 sq. ft. of retail space. The developer is also seeking a variance to build a 40,000-sq.-ft. parking garage in the basement.

Bretschger likens working on the building to dealing with a 1,000-lb. gorilla because of the large scale of routine tasks. For example, drilling thousands of cores through the concrete slab to accommodate piping, ductwork, and other systems must take into account the large capitals - a decorative element resembling the underside of a mushroom - on the tops of all the columns.

At the height of construction, the project should have 600 to 800 workers onsite, McGovern said. One of the biggest hurdles they must face is a tight time frame for construction.

"The pace is very fast," he said. "The client wants the product to market quickly."