Greater East Midtown in Manhattan has long been an epicenter for business in New York City. With more than 60 million square feet of office space, it is home to numerous Fortune 500 companies and more than 250,000 jobs. As tenants push for amenities and services that the area’s aging building stock can’t supply, long-term changes are in order. Working in conjunction with the New York City Department of City Planning (NYCDCP) and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), VHB prepared Draft and Final Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) for the zoning text and zoning map amendments that will transform the 78-block area of Midtown Manhattan into a thriving ecosystem for businesses. As a mayoral priority involving a fast-track EIS, the zoning changes proposed will move forward the construction of approximately 16 new office buildings over the next 20 years, totaling six million square feet of new commercial development.
To meet an aggressive, six-month schedule, VHB applied technology solutions and worked daily with the City’s technical resources and zoning leaders to streamline preparation of Draft EIS analyses to meet City guidelines. For example, the detailed analyses focused on 17 technical areas, including the traffic analysis of a 119-intersection study area using Synchro software.
