Ithaca Builds

Mapping, photos and information for Ithaca construction and development projects

Project Updates

Breckenridge Place Site Photos

June 20, 2013 // by Jason Henderson

Western facade looks completed, and they’re closing in on completing the eastern half of the northern side. I imagine that doing the eastern and southern sides will be more tricky since there’s less room to maneuver the lifts and those sides have Seneca St. and Cayuga Street. Cayuga’s side has a decent setback, but Seneca is State Route 79, so beyond the setback and parking lane, it’s typically fast moving cars and truck traffic, which has been held-up further east for a couple weeks with the new sewer and water service work for the Seneca Way project.

 

Belle Sherman Cottages Modular Build Photos

June 20, 2013 // by Jason Henderson

I was kindly invited to visit the morning of a modular assembly, so here are photos of the crane hoist, modular section, and the modular seam (once inside). The art of this sort of construction assembly is fitting the pieces together perfectly so that all your seams line up. These sections are about 10′ x 30′ give or take a few feet. Some shifting and settling occurs when the units are being trucked from Pennsylvania, but everything must come together just right once it’s on site. After leveling a few floor assemblies, it’s easy to see how this can get complicated because there are many more considerations when fitting these in, primarily that the distance is so much greater than a typical floor joist, so your multiplication factor for being off by just a bit turns into a lot more than that. All in all, they appeared very well constructed, and once inside, it didn’t seem like I was walking into something that was once four separate pieces.

The modular seam

Commons Rebuild Site Photos

June 18, 2013 // by Jason Henderson

Bank Alley demolition is coming along, and the crossings were being paved with fresh asphalt today. It’s quite a spectacle seeing an excavator as big as the one they’re using carefully maneuver between historic buildings and overtop the barriers, all the while people are going on as usual. I can’t imagine downtown Ithaca without the Commons being the major pedestrian crossroad.

New Earth Living on Five Mile Drive

June 17, 2013 // by Jason Henderson

The New Earth Living website has posted information on their upcoming project on 619 Five Mile Drive called “Amabel,” a proposed new series of pocket neighborhoods that would be much larger than the recently completed Aurora Pocket Neighborhood. In this preliminary design, five neighborhoods consisting of six or seven households share a common house, gardens, and shed/garage space. Planned technologies include strong insulation, solar power, and rainwater harvesting, much like the Aurora Pocket Neighborhood employs. Ithacating’s Article observantly notes that although this area has seen many single-family homes built recently, there’s nothing quite like this proposal.

The site is about a mile from downtown Ithaca (as the crow flies), so residents could travel down Floral Ave (13A), cross the bridge, and they’d be on the West side. The walking route down Floral Ave then to the Commons is about two miles. The surroundings are suburban; Calvary Cemetery is across the street, and just down the road is the bottom of Bostwick Rd, which has the Ithaca City School District Bus Garage and the Tompkins County Highway Department & Facilities Division.

amabel_prelim

Purity Apartments Parking, Transit & Planning

June 16, 2013 // by Jason Henderson

If you’ve got some time to kill, these are all good reads on the Purity project. Bruce Lane’s memorandum spells out the intentions and major challenges in this project, and the applicant memorandum by John Snyder delves into the design and planning board issues that have been brought forward throughout the site plan review process. There’s no doubt about the risk in doing a project like this on the West End, but the development team has some great answers to the questions brought forward by the planning board. Let’s hope they can work it out- this looks to be a high quality building.

 

Bruce Lane’s (Owner) Memorandum on the project:
 

 

Applicant Memorandum by John Snyder (architect) & Lisa Nicholas (Senior Planner, City of Ithaca), JoAnn Cornish (Director of Planning & Economic Development, City of Ithaca):
 

 

SRF Associates Parking Evaluation:
 

 

TCAT Map and Email correspondence with Doug Swarts about the bus stop:
 

339 Elmira Rd- Sold at Auction

June 16, 2013 // by Jason Henderson

Well, well, we’ve got a change of hands on this parcel- there were three registered bidders, and it sold for $143k. There was a surveyor out there when I was taking pictures. This was a former one-story commercial building that contained a thrift store for the Salvation Army, but they sold it in 2009 for $175k. Not sure what the plans are, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough. Site is .59 acres, zoning is SW-2, so the developer could conceivably go as high as 60 feet.

339_Elmira_Rd6121

Purity Apartments Renders

June 16, 2013 // by Jason Henderson

Here are some new exterior and interior renders from John Snyder Architects, including a view looking south showing the building’s profile:

 

Here’s a previous render looking north:

Cayuga Place Two Site Photos

June 16, 2013 // by Jason Henderson

Not much change; there are a few more piles of dirt and stone, but I thought I’d post anyway. When I ran by there were a few gentlemen in discussion, so maybe they’re assessing the soil conditions.

Fairfield Inn Site Photos

June 14, 2013 // by Jason Henderson

There’s fresh asphalt in the parking lot, and what looks like a finished facade. On the outside, all they’ve got left is striping, the swoop and entrance face work, and landscaping, so the finish-work on the interior must be the main focus right now.