Several have suggested, that we've lost the battle & won the war.
Possibly.
Nothing like 50 West 66th Street can be permitted again under the new rules created in response to this project. That is good news for the Upper West Side, and the City at large.
The egregious 17, 18 & 19th floors combine to rise approx. 167-feet, (or the height of an NYU dormitory). If filed today, the mechanical floors could each rise up to 25-feet and only repeat after another 75-feet of floor area. That is progress.
Unfortunately, the neighbors, Central Park, and the skyline will pay for that progress.
Several have suggested that we are impeding housing.
Hardly.
This structure will house just 127 apartments across 548,535 square feet, in the second densest neighborhood in America. Initial unpublished pre-listings price this tower competitively with Central Park South towers (which are half full).
Several have suggested that this is a whole lot of nothing.
Precisely.
Over 37% of the rise of this building is purely mechanical write-offs, or as some put it; "nothing". The rules are clear, that developers are to calculate the minimum deduction, and that was not the case at 50 West 66th Street. It evaded every city and state check-and-balance in place.