$1B residential project kicks off in Gowanus as starchitect reveals vision for 1,000-unit rental tower

BIG is back – and better — in Gowanus.The developers of 175 Third St.tapped Bjarke Ingalls’ much-in-demand architectural firm to design their planned, 1,000-unit, rental apartment tower – and it’s nothing like BIG’s earlier concept for previous site-owner Aby Rosen’s RFR Realty.The new 175 Third St.

from Charney Companies and Tavros will stand 27 stories encompassing over 1 million square feet – the fifth building by the partners on four different sites on the Gowanus Canal’s eastern side.The images on this page reveal Ingalls’ new vision for the first time, which the architect described as “stacked blocks of cascading concrete volumes, cascading down toward the canal waterfront.”“We had our eyes on the site forever,” Charney Companies principal Sam Charney said.“But someone else always owned it” until “the price finally came down [to $164 million] and we knew this was the time.” The purchase closed in May.When RFR bailed, it was expected that Charney and Tavros would choose a different architect.

Instead, they liked Ingalls’ new concept the best of the proposals they solicited from a half-dozen “starchitects.”“We did not like the previous iteration,” Charney told Realty Check.“It was inefficient and hard to build.  It had a red-brick design that kind of drowned out the [red brick] Powerhouse Arts structure next door.”But Ingalls’ new conception “blew us away,” Charney said.

Its textured “architectural concrete” will look as if it’s chiseled out of rock” — an  homage to the area’s industrial past.Chamfered, angled corners at various heights generate “cool outdoor spaces.”A federal-supervised cleanup of the two-mile-long, noxious canal that began ten years ago prompted the city to rezone 82 blocks in the former low-rise manufacturing area for residential use.

The rush to create nearly 9,000 new rental apartments spurred a construction boom.A portion of the once-toxic canal – long a pu...