Planning the gateway to Hoboken’s north end

Recent controversies swirling over the Christie administration’s involvement in pushing a mega-development in Hoboken have focused attention on one of the last frontiers for redevelopment in this mile-square city. The North End Redevelopment Area is a 19-block portion of town that is currently zoned for industrial use and is one of the few neighborhoods that has been largely untouched by Hoboken’s development boom. It is the entrance to Hoboken at the north end of town, just south of the Lincoln Tunnel. This site fronts the Weehawken Cove along the Hudson River. This underutilized land provides an opportunity to create an exceptional gateway into the north end of town and a new development that reflects Hoboken’s best urban attributes.

Hoboken’s renaissance began in the 1970s with the restoration of brownstones and other properties built at the turn-of-the-century. These buildings have provided the town with its remarkable architectural heritage and neighborhood ambience. By the 1980s, real estate developers were filling up empty lots and former industrial areas with new construction. Hoboken is ideally located along the Hudson River at its eastern border with the Palisades Cliffs to the west. It sits directly across from Manhattan with easy access via mass transit. These features sparked a red-hot Hoboken real estate market. Developers dubbed Hoboken the sixth borough of New York City.

This gateway redevelopment area highlights the need for a vision and well-reasoned plan to rebuild. The vision should be guided by the qualities that make Hoboken such a successful urban community. Hoboken’s turn-of-the-century buildings were typically three to five stories in height, very much a human scale. Front doors and windows faced the street, abutting front lot lines at the perimeter of each block. Rows of buildings circled these blocks making for the dense urban character. The footprints for these buildings typically covered the front 50 percent of the lot, leaving a backyard at the rear that connected to all the others, a quadrant of open space at the interior of each block. Ground floor retail exists throughout much of town, making shopping possible via a short walk rather than driving one’s car to a shopping center.

Although much of Hoboken’s urban, human-scale character has remained intact, there are some exceptions. In the 1960s, blocks of historic buildings were razed to make way for Church Towers and Marine View Towers. These projects followed the failed “tower-in-the-park” concept, with tall buildings set back from the street surrounded by private open space that is devoid of life. Some of the more recent residential development in the formerly industrial northwest portion of town is more in keeping with Hoboken’s scale and character but is marred by the ground floor parking, frequently exposed at street level. Also, much of the architecture is rather monotonous, lacking the remarkable variety found on most Hoboken streets.

Last year, walkscore.com designated Hoboken as the nation’s most walkable city. It is one of the characteristics that residents most appreciate and enjoy. Only 20 percent of residents own a car. An estimated 56 percent of Hoboken’s working men and women commute via public transportation using easy access to trains, buses, light rail and ferries. This is a feature that needs to be replicated at the North End Redevelopment Area.

Mixed use development promotes walkability and lively neighborhoods. Thus, the development needs to provide for a good mix of residential, retail and office. The North End is best suited for a predominantly residential development. The Hoboken Master Plan completed ten years ago supports this concept, stating, “Any new development in former industrial areas in the western section of the City will take the form of residential neighborhoods, not isolated buildings, that boast shopping at the transit stops and mixed-use development.” The failure of the strictly commercial development project at Lincoln Harbor, just north of Hoboken in Weehawken, should serve as a warning. This Hartz Mountain project began in the 1980s but later stalled. Only recently have the developers finally opted to add a residential component.