New plan doubles Javits space, adds human touch.

The Empire State Development Corp. revealed the designs for the first phase of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center expansion on January 23.

According to the architects behind the project, a team comprised of Richard Rodgers Partnership, FXFowle Architects and A. Epstein & Sons International, their goal was to "humanize" the facility while almost doubling the Center's available convention space.

The new master plan will expand the Javits' convention floor area from 790,000 s/f to 1.3 million s/f, representing a 45% increase.

The plan also calls for the addition of a loading and marshalling facility, the creation of a new Convention Center Headquarters Hotel at 11th Avenue and a public park area between 39th and 40th Streets. The architects will achieve their goal of making the space more welcoming by creating a 100-foot high glass lobby and a 1,000-foot tree-lined promenade in front of the existing Center.

"During the day, it's important that [the Center] is as light as it is at night," members of the team explained.

"So the light will come in through the [new] roof. And the possibility of further expansion is important--with this plan, it is possible to expand north and south."

Funding for the $1.7 billion project will be provided by the City ($350 million), the State ($350 million), the sale of bonds collected by the hotel industry ($645 million) and from the proceeds of the sale of a land site between 33rd Street and 34th Street to a private developer.

The Durst Organization, with whom the ESDC held meetings earlier this month, is a likely buyer.

Work on the project is expected to start by late summer.

After the new designs were presented to the public, ESDC chairman Charles A. Gargano, who also serves as chairman of the New York Convention Center Development Corp., expressed his satisfaction with the architects' work.

"The Javits Center deserves the very best and that's exactly what we were presented with. The Rogers/ Fowle/Epstein presentation showed an unmatched understanding of the project objectives to create a 'world-class,' state-of-the-art, fully functional convention center," he said.