I touched on this one in last week’s news updates, but now I have some images to go along with it. Plans brought forth by Avramis Real Estate and designed by Collegetown favorite Sharma Architecture show not one but two buildings, one 6 stories and one 4 stories. The sketch plan can be found here. The buildings are split up according to zoning – one occupies the 6-story MU-2 zone, the other the 4-story CR-4 zone. Neither requires parking, although a small amount is provided between the two structures.
The buildings on the MU-2 portion consist of three older homes originally built around 1900-1920, and periodically updated to reflect a changing Collegetown, such as the bump-out in front of 306 College that houses Collegetown Liquor. Not exactly devoid of charm, but the alterations have been enough to compromise their historic value. These house 36 bedrooms.
The CR-4 portion has 4 homes, all late 1800s to early 1900s, and house 32 bedrooms. Once again, not without their charms, but pretty run down.
The MU-2 building, called “304 College Avenue”, will house 64 apartments with 117 bedrooms. The CR-4 building will house 38 apartments with 85 bedrooms. So the site will see a net gain of 134 bedrooms (202-68).
304 College almost doesn’t look like a Sharma to me. The mosaic tiling is a feature that makes it stand out, although I personally am not the biggest fan. It’s boxy and bulky, but not offensive.
Not much to say about the Catherine Street building, the design still has yet to be fully rendered. But it looks pretty standard for Jagat Sharma’s work, the Fontana Apartments or 211 Linden come to mind.
Ithacating in Cornell Heights 
I’m with you on the design. Replace those weird mosaic walls (which will look horribly dated in 30 years) with more bay windows and this will be perfect.
Also, are there retail spaces in the bottom or is that just lobby? Kind of hard to imagine Collegetown without that liquor store (though presumably it could always relocate to one of the many empty storefronts in the neighborhood).
There is some retail in the MU-2 building, which is required by zoning. Looks to be two spaces, one of about 800 sq ft, and one of 1,000 sq ft.
BC predicted this, for those of you keeping score at home.
[…] few more projects were proposed – more Collegetown housing (some more likely than others), the Tompkins Financial Corporation HQ, 210 […]
Would you be open to sharing the ‘Ithaca Projects’ google map .kml?
– aculhane@u3advisors.com
[…] few details worth noting: – The Avramis project planned for 302-306 College Avenue is being called “Avenue […]
[…] zone, and was told there was “no way in hell” it would happen; B. Nothing scheduled for 302-306 College Avenue, aka “Avenue 102”, until at least mid-2018. The rumor mill says the Avramis family, who […]
[…] lot coverage no parking) and a large CR-4 zoned parcel (four floors, 50% coverage, no parking). In fact, back in 2014, the Avramises proposed a two-building development that would have resulted in…. The Jagat Sharma-designed proposal never began formal review. The off-record commentary was that […]