Not at all the case. Architecture firms live and die by ADA guidelines. Those are hefty lawsuits if you design something not compliant. Fines can be in the millions. If there's nowhere to sit it's because the client, in this case the stakeholders on this project mandated it. Architects don't get to decide stuff like that.

LOL its definitely different when you live here. It's no different than say LA or Miami where there are moments where you're like "this is breathtaking" like taking the ferry in across the river or a spring walk on Fifth Ave along the park and other moments where you're like "this place is a dump."

I agree. But even moving MSG across the street would be a HUGE win for the city. Finally get to handle that mess that is Penn Station properly.

I'd probably do Paulus Hook, Liberty Harbor or Downtown before the heights or Hamilton Park. For starters your closer to transit. The ferry, light rail and Path are all right there. Also there's more of a youthful scene especially around liberty harbor down where Grove Street ends. Paulus Hook is nice but quiet but the light rail and ferry make it convenient.

That being said $3200 for a 2br is a tough ask in Jersey City at least in any of the newer developments. I mean the studios in my building are starting at that. You'd probably more realistically be looking at the newer developments in Bayonne or possibly up in Weehawken or West New York or Guttenberg which might be better for a Hudson Yards commute anyway.

Really nice. The only issues are if you have to go to Manhattan a lot. Your choices are basically the ferry which doesn't run all hours or you have to do a musical chairs of taking the light rail to the Hoboken PATH station and then taking the PATH. That's the reason I didn't end up there. It's too convoluted to easily get into the city if you don't take the ferry. Timing all those trains up is a pain and super inconsistent during non business hours. But the neighborhood is lovely.

If you have to work or spend a lot of time in Manhattan especially if you're there late I'd recommend Jersey City. It's slightly more expensive but the transit options are much better. There's PATH trains to both 6th Avenue (up to 33rd Street) and World Trade Center where you can easily hit a ton of lines in the city. Jersey City is also slightly easier to get in and out of if you have a car (not by much) and of course there's just way more there overall. Restaurants, shops, hotels, bars, JC is a big city.

As far as flooding yes it can be an issue. I don't know if it's an issue at Port imperial specifically as most of that development is post Sandy. But Edgewater floods for sure and Hoboken took it on the chin. But that entire drive up the river through Weehawken, Guttenberg, West NY and Edgewater, along the river is beautiful and it would be a great place to live all things considered. In a lot of ways you get a suburban lifestyle directly across from Manhattan.

I'd say any of the Paulus Hook or Liberty Harbor places fit your bill perfectly. Lenox, Quinn, Madox, Windsor, Portside Towers all come to mind specifically. Extremely quiet neighborhoods. Footsteps to the ferry, 5 minute walk to Grove Street, or if you're closer to the Liberty Harbor side, you can hop on the lightrail to Exchange Place too. Haus25 is very nice too off Columbus. Its very, very close to Grove Street station, but a bit on the pricey side. Basically you'd be good pretty much anywhere in downtown Jersey City east of Jersey Avenue. I would describe that part of JC as almost sleepy despite the density. One night I walked back from Hoboken to Liberty Harbor and could probably count the number of people I ran into on the street and this was a Saturday night. Everything closes early, its not a raging town like Hoboken is. The bars in Paulus Hook close at like 10:30.

At your budget you might even see if there's something available at 99 Hudson, which is basically across the street from Exchange Place.

I don't really think noise will be much of an issue unless you live in the building that has the Beerhaus on the ground floor. The light rail bell chimes occasionally but that's about it. Just be prepared that parking in the area is around $250 for people who live there, but I actually found a deal at the Montgomery Street surface lot for $180 if you're okay with not being in a garage.

The other area you might look at are some of the newer buildings in Newport especially closer to Hoboken. 75 Park Lane, 2 Shore Lane, The Beach at Newport. It is very, very quiet up there, you're a quick five-ish minute walk to the Hoboken PATH station and you get stunning views of Manhattan. Again the light rail runs through that area too and the mall and super markets are very close. You also don't have the traffic problems that you get in Paulus Hook where things get very congested especially on weekends and especially on Grand Street.

This. The only reason I can tolerate the driving here is because I used to live in Miami which somehow managed to be worse. A lot worse. But it's a lot of the same asshole behavior. The only difference is that in Jersey you actually can get pulled over and people here at least understand the concept of street legal vehicles and sidewalks aren't for cars whereas South Florida was a total free for all. But go figure half the people down there are from Jersey.

Yea. There's also a very good chance we (or our nascent AI overlords) blow ourselves to smithereens long before the climate becomes a major issue. It almost happened last year. If Putin had used a nuclear weapon in the Ukraine it's curtains for all of us.

Fantastic neighborhood. Ferry is like walking distance. PATH is maybe five minutes to Grove Street. Tons of bars and restaurants nearby. You can definitely do worse.

Huh?

My rent is like $2950 a month in Downtown JC. There are PLENTY of people in NYC paying 4K+ for a one bedroom. That's actually the average right now. Just going on apartments.com and typing in New York City and you'll quickly see (at least on those listings) the average is between 3500-4500. Doing the same for Jersey City shows rents at Newport for as low as $1700. 225 Grand in Paulus Hook right by the ferry is showing a studio for $2,400 right now, which actually makes me want to consider moving.

And still light years better than the MTA which is the sad part. Yes the MTA has OMNY and a few other things they get sort of right, but the overall quality and experience is not good.

That's insane. Have them check the meter. I live not too far away from there in a five year old 1br and I set my wall unit at 76. My bill is only $93 for January.

12 minutes isn't too bad I guess.

I don't think it's that dramatic. But it's hard to say. Rent prices are driven by a myriad of factors in a given market. What often happens is that there's more concessions in the off periods. Maybe two months off which seems to be common these days.

It's a nice neighborhood and there are handful of bars or whatever nearby. But by and large Jersey City is nothing near what Hoboken is. And the problem with Hamilton Park is it's a bit of walk to the PATH at either Grove Street or Newport so it's not especially easy to get to Manhattan either. If you're okay walking 15 minutes to downtown JC you'll find a few places that are good. Down by the waterfront and in Paulus Hook there's a few bars there like Taqueria and Zeppelin Hall down at Liberty Harbor that are good spots but that's a good walk, possibly an Uber from Hamilton Park. There's also some rooftops along the Hudson but again that's a hike. If you're dead set on Hamilton Park I guess you could walk through the mall and hit the light rail to Hoboken (sort of a weird walk back at night though) and that's still maybe 15 minutes.

For reference I lived in Paulus Hook down by the marina which is a wonderful neighborhood, but the light rail goes right through the middle of the neighborhood so it was easy to get places and Grove Street PATH was only a five minute walk. Even though the Paulus Hook bars aren't exactly raging and close often before midnight the ease of being able to get either to Manhattan or Hoboken made it worth it. I could be in the heart of the village in 15 minutes because I was so close to the PATH. And price wise it's not really any more expensive than Hamilton Park area at the low end at least, and a lot quieter.

Well I don't think the Bjarke Ingels tower is going to get built at World Trade Center anyway. I think Silverstein is going back to the Foster design which the foundations already exist for. Either way nothing will be built until it makes sense to do so and they find an anchor tenant.

As far as the B.I.G. building being adapted for Jersey City, I don't see JC getting a big office tower soon. There's just not any demand for office buildings in general unless some company moved it's headquarters here instead of New York City and I'm not sure how well that building as designed would be adapted for residential use. The floor plates are probably too big.

Also the images you posted don't do the B.I.G. building justice. It's actually a decent concept that people just didn't like at WTC because it looked too precarious.

Architect here. Adding more glass is not an example of cutting corners. That would be going the wrong way cost wise. Also it's highly unlikely major changes to the facade would be part of a value engineering effort given how difficult it can be to get projects approved and all of the redesign (and fees) that would trigger. Also you can clearly see here in the concept renderings from Perkins Eastman, the architecture firm, the intent was always for the building to dematerialize into glass.

Also here is a quote from Ming Wu, the lead architect on the project:

"Rather than Art Deco, I’d say, if anything, the design is something of a transitional nature. It is very solid at the base with a lot more limestone present in the lower reaches of the building. Stone is a material people relate well to. It has a warmth to it. As you get into the body of the tower, the stone becomes a series of strong vertical linear stone, pilaster lines alternating with glass. Then, you’ll see it next year sometime, as the cladding rises up in the building, at the top upper reaches of the building, it becomes very glassy. The building concludes with a very transparent top, a monumental lantern in the sky. It has a very modern sensibility."

Personally I don't mind the idea I think it's just poorly executed. There needs to be some sort of transition or cornice detail or something rather than the glass just abruptly ending. Also glass is one of those materials that disappears at night so the building looks somewhat decapitated. An office building where all the lights inside were left on would be a different look but residential units are often dark.

Yea. I've had some late evening or night flights out of there where Precheck was closed altogether. But that's really the only airport that I've noticed that.

It's worth it at busy airports like EWR, ATL (especially Atlanta where even the Precheck line is super long) and LAX. The only issue I've run into is that at FLL the TSA Precheck line isn't open late a lot of times.

LOL. Yea if you didn't have the Manhattan skyline right in front of you you'd feel like you were deep in central NJ or somewhere.

Not really. I'm literally out there every night. I'd say 30 on average, but again I'm going at times when there's no traffic. Morning rush hour would be a different story.

True dat

It's tough to choose. Are you bringing a car? If so Jersey City is going to be the better bet because it's cheaper to park there. I got a deal at one point for $180 downtown (normally it's around $250 but much more in Hoboken). If I had to do it again I might choose Hoboken but I'm not 100% sure.

For me Hoboken is a more happening scene. Washington Street in Hoboken is like a mile long strip of bars and restaurants. It's a very active social scene there and people are mostly in your age group. Downtown Jersey City is very nice and some areas like Paulus Hook and Hamilton Park are beautiful, reminiscent of Brooklyn Heights with tree lined Brownstones. Downtown Jersey City also has a lot of decent restaurants and some cool bars, but compared to Hoboken I would describe it as almost sleepy. I've seen bars call last call at 11. The other thing with JC is there is a lot more variance in quality of neighborhoods. Hoboken is generally uniformly nice but JC can go real hood real fast. You can find deals in places like Journal Square but those neighborhoods haven't arrived yet.

The nice thing with JC is accessibility to New York. To get to Manhattan is five minutes on the PATH train. That's true of Hoboken as well but the problem with Hoboken is the PATH station is on the extreme south side of town so depending you could be doing a lot of walking. JC has multiple PATH stops. Also the areas along the river downtown like Newport and Paulus Hook and Exchange Place are safe and quiet with spectacular views of lower Manhattan. The ferries are right there too.

The one thing to be aware of with both JC and Hoboken is that unless you take the Pulaski Skyway, which can be a horrific traffic nightmare, every road in and out is a toll road and the tolls arent cheap. I go to the gym in Florham Park which is near Madison (both are beautiful, picturesque, upscale towns just watch the cops because they ticket like crazy out there) and I can get out that way via the Pulaski Skyway avoiding tolls in around 25 minutes with no traffic from downtown JC. Hoboken would add a few minutes to that depending on traffic. Also driving in snow is something to have to consider. It hasn't snowed yet this year but your job is kinda in the mountains (foothills really) so when it does snow you're gonna really be dealing with tough driving conditions.

The other thing to note is that if you spend time in Manhattan as I'm sure you will ferries from NJ are generally more expensive going to Manhattan. $8 one way. Also while the PATH uses the same MetroCard as the NYC subway it's a different system so you have to pay separately (I use Smart pass for the PATH and Google pay via OMNY ap for the subway and just use my phone to swipe me through the turnstiles in the city). Also Uber drivers aren't really supposed to operate in two states at a time so sometimes you get some push back Ubering back from the city. In JC the PATH train always runs and is almost always clean and safe but Hoboken hours can be a crap shoot especially on weekends. The Port authority is not kind to Hoboken for some reason with PATH hours. Also don't drive into Manhattan. The Holland Tunnel toll is like $15. If there's any disadvantages to NJ it's all the damn expensive tolls everywhere.

You might also consider just up the road from Hoboken in Edgewater or Weehawken which are super nice with great views and generally safe and quiet. The light rail runs through to take you to the PATH or the Weehawken ferry can take you to Manhattan (ferries are the cheat codes - awesome way to get into town).

From a price standpoint neither Hoboken or JC is cheap but both are cheaper than Manhattan and Brooklyn. Of the two Hoboken is more expensive overall, it's just a hip, trendy place. Parking can get near NYC prices ($500 a month because of limited availability). You'll get better deals in JC, but it's slightly less happening overall. But honestly who cares? You're a ten minute ride from the West Village and you can party your heart out in the city as much as you want. The World Trade Center is literally two minutes from Exchange Place in Jersey City and from there you can catch almost all the Manhattan subways anywhere you want to go.

The only downside to being single in NJ (and I think this is less a factor for women than men) is that the NJ stigma is real with people in New York. No one is coming to hang in Jersey City and probably not that often in Hoboken. Most people in Manhattan couldn't even tell you where the PATH train stations were in town even though there's like three on Sixth Avenue. I can't tell you the number of Tinder profiles that say "I don't come to New Jersey," even though it's faster to get there than to Brooklyn or Queens, quieter, often safer, and your place will be 10x nicer than anyone you know in the city (probably with a washer and dryer in your apartment) people still will not come to NJ unless they're from there. Again I think men are more willing to venture to Jersey but with women, as a guy I can tell you telling a woman I live in JC is akin to saying I live in St Louis. I've had to accept that either I'm the one always going into the city or if I find someone it will be in Hoboken or JC or somewhere on this side.

Maybe try Bayonne. 57k won't go far in Jersey City but as long as you're on the light rail you might be okay.

Do you have to go to New Jersey? There are apartments in New Rochelle that are in the low $2000s. Brand new. And parking is cheaper and you're on the Metro North. That might be a better deal.

Yea and with all the incentives right now there's a good chance it could be less than that. I've seen as low as $500 deposit and one or two months off (usually the first two full months) recently. Jersey City is not New York City. You shouldn't be paying a broker fee there unless you're trying to get something super specific. Most of the newer buildings are managed buildings especially downtown, Newport, Journal Square and Paulus Hook areas. Those are typically simple to move into. Much more like what you're used to elsewhere. Similar with Edgewater or Weehawken or the new developments in Bayonne.

Be careful with your movers though. The NYC area is notorious for movers jacking up extra costs for availability of truck parking, walk-ups, distance the truck has to park from your place, availability of an elevator (I've seen companies charge because they had to use an elevator which is crazy). Assume at least $1000 in contingency for stupid fees. I know one company that charged extra because they tried to take the Pulaski Skyway which doesn't allow trucks and had to be diverted onto surface streets. (The only way in and out of JC is either toll roads or the skyway).

Also if you're bringing a car, Jersey City is much much cheaper to park than Manhattan but not cheap. The surface lot on Montgomery and Marin near city hall I found deals for $180 because of an internet special (but it's uncovered which sucks when it snows) but you could easily be in the $250-$350/month range to house your car (which is still half of what it costs in Manhattan or Brooklyn). Also beware the tolls are ridiculously expensive so learn the surface streets and trying to drive into Manhattan via the Holland Tunnel will cost a small fortune. PATH train is your friend so the closer you are to a station or a ferry the better. The ferries are awesome and my favorite way to get across, however they are expensive. $8 one way which is almost triple what the New York ferries cost.