Plans are set for a new $700 million bioscience research facility that the New York City Economic Development Corp. is spearheading for development on Manhattan's East Side.

Design Approved for New Bioscience Center

New York City chose the developer for an 870,000-sq.-ft. research facility on the grounds of Bellevue Hospital. Also, designs are set for a $500 million urban mixed-use redevelopment in Queens.

The plan for a new $700 million biomedical research facility in Manhattan has taken shape with a design calling for three glass-clad research buildings, each 12 to 15 stories high. The complex at the Kips Bay campus of Bellevue Hospital aims to attract the world's top healthcare and pharmaceutical companies.

The plan for East River Science Park - prepared by Hillier Architects of Princeton, N.J., as design architect and New York-based HLW International as architect of record - also maps out retail spaces, a public plaza, and a waterfront esplanade accessible via a pedestrian bridge. The glass façades will have embedded photovoltaic elements.

The New York City Economic Development Corp. selected New York-based developer Alexandria Real Estate Equities over the summer to lease the city-owned land at Bellevue and oversee construction of the facilities. Alexandria is privately financing the project.

The 870,000-sq.-ft. complex will break ground next year on a 15,000-sq.-ft. parcel at Bellevue Hospital's campus, chosen for its proximity to other city healthcare institutions.

Construction will proceed in two phases, with New York-based Turner Construction serving as general contractor and Tishman Construction as owner's representative. The first phase calls for demolition of Bellevue's obsolete laundry building and construction of two office towers with a combined total of 542,000 sq. ft. of laboratory, office, conference, and retail space, as well as a café, and a 520-car underground parking garage. Occupancy for the two buildings is slated for 2008 and 2009.

The second phase involves construction of a 330,000-sq.-ft. laboratory and office building with additional parking. It can only proceed after the city's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner moves 9,000 unidentified remains of victims from the Sept. 11 attacks, which it is storing on part of the site, to a permanent facility that will be part of a planned memorial at the World Trade Center. The memorial is slated to break ground next year.

Flushing Complex Planned

The Queens neighborhood of Flushing is set to add a new $500 million mixed-use development.

Flushing Commons, designed by New York-based Perkins Eastman Architects, will transform a municipal parking lot into a one-acre town square with a fountain plaza. It will entail construction of a 200-room hotel, 500 residential units, 350,000 sq. ft. of retail and restaurant space, a 50,000-sq.-ft. sports complex with a swimming pool, and parking for 2,000 cars. It will also reserve 20,000 sq. ft. for community and cultural tenants and 15,000 sq. ft. for small professional businesses.

The developer is a joint venture of the Rockefeller Development Corp. and TDC Development and Construction, both based in New York. Tishman Construction of New York will manage construction.

Redesign for Liberty Plaza Park

After plans that briefly included transforming it into an underground parking lot or a new subway station, the Financial District's Liberty Plaza Park has been redesigned to recall its original purpose.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the New York City Department of Design and Construction had used the 32,750-sq.-ft. plaza as a staging area until 2003 for efforts to clean up and redevelop the World Trade Center site after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The park is home to "Double Check", a bronze statue of a man with a briefcase that became a symbol of survival and was bedecked with mementos following the Sept. 11 attacks.

Brookfield Properties, which owns the site, raised $8 million in private funds for the restoration, which intends to retain the feel of the original park, a major pedestrian corridor and lunch-time retreat for Financial District employees. The design calls for new granite chess and backgammon tables and a clean-up for the statue.

In addition, the project entails adding a new 70-ft., red-colored steel statue called "Joie de Vivre" in the southeast corner. The design by New York-based Cooper, Robertson & Partners also replaces the original aggregate-studded concrete surface with 18-by-26-in. Atlantic pink granite stones, while adding 500 fluorescent lights set into the pavement and planting a grove of honey locust trees.

Renovation work started this summer on the property, overseen by New York-based Turner Construction. The work includes an excavation of 8 to 20 ft. in order to recompact the ground and create a level base at grade. It also involves installation of a structural slab to support granite panes. Completion is slated for next spring.