Taller Towers, Fewer Homes

New boutique condo towers, some with fewer apartments than the buildings they replace, are squandering high-density sites in Manhattan, urban planners say.

In New York City, where space is at a premium, developers tear down residential buildings to create new ones that climb higher and higher into the sky — projects that could create thousands of apartments to help alleviate the city’s affordable housing crisis.

But on the Upper East and West Sides of Manhattan, a bundle of high-rise, low-density towers represent a contradiction: big towers with few units, sometimes fewer than the buildings they replace. Urban planners say the developers are squandering the precious few sites left in Manhattan’s high-density neighborhoods, where substantially more units could be built. Continue Reading……..