Michael Stern
Founder and chief executive officer of JDS Development Group, building in New York City and Miami
The builder, the firm and the ground they build on
Michael Stern founded JDS Development Group in 2002 and leads it as chief executive, building in New York City and Miami. This encyclopedia documents his four New York towers and the city around them: Steinway Hall and West 57th Street, the savings banks of Downtown Brooklyn, the East River shore at Kips Bay, where the copper towers rise where a Con Edison plant once ran,4 and the Art Deco telephone buildings of Ralph Walker. Three of the four have been recognized by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, whose yearly awards judge recently finished towers on what they add to the city around them.1 The entries also follow the rules that shaped the skyline, including the air rights transfers and lot mergers that the Municipal Art Society’s skyline study names as a main route to larger towers.2 In Brooklyn the story reaches back to a civic center where many older buildings still stand as landmarks.3 In Miami the entries follow Brickell and the Miami River.
- CTBUH, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Awards Program
- MAS, the Municipal Art Society, Accidental Skyline: Skyline
- Brownstoner, Past and Present: Downtown Brooklyn in 1901
- Wikipedia, Waterside Generating Station
JDS Development Group
Set up in 2002, the firm buys its sites, develops them and builds them itself, and it has worked with designers ranging from SHoP Architects and Studio Sofield to Jean Nouvel and Field Operations.
Read the company entryFour towers, twelve entries
111 West 57th Street, The Brooklyn Tower, The American Copper Buildings and Walker Tower each open onto a building entry and to shorter studies of the hall, bank, waterfront and telephone frame each one grew from.
Browse the buildingsSix entries to start with
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Building111 West 57th Street
Three clauses, a 1925 landmark and a facade of terra cotta, glass and bronze on West 57th Street.
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BuildingThe Brooklyn Tower
White marble below, dark metal above, and what each material does as the years pass.
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BuildingThe American Copper Buildings
Two bent towers in raw copper on the Manhattan shore of the East River, and the bridge that meets them where they lean closest.
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BuildingWalker Tower
A 1929 Chelsea telephone building whose final use before its conversion was telecom offices plus a live data center.
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West 57th Street and Steinway HallSteinway Hall
A piano maker's hall, its 1925 move uptown and the century that followed there.
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Brickell and the Miami RiverBrickell History
A pioneer store, a postmaster's counter and a bedrock circle behind the Brickell name.
Ten subjects, from West 57th Street to Miami Beach
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Subject 01West 57th Street and Steinway Hall
A concert hall, a gallery row, a piano showroom and the thin residential spires of recent years.
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Subject 02New York's Tall Buildings, a History
Setback laws, a two week sketch for the Empire State Building and the categories that measure height today.
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Subject 03Downtown Brooklyn and the Dime
Savings bank temples, a pedestrian mall, a widened avenue and a theater district.
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Subject 04Ralph Walker, Chelsea and Hell's Kitchen
An Art Deco architect, the buildings he made for the phone company and two West Side neighborhoods.
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Subject 05The East River and Kips Bay
Power stations, a postwar superblock and early bridges linking one building to the next.
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Subject 06Brickell and the Miami River
A pioneer homestead, a river greenway, a new zoning code and a skyline still filling in.
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Subject 07Miami Beach, Water and Wind
Raised streets, new pumps and the building code written for hurricane country.
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Subject 08The Architects and Designers
A Pritzker laureate, a Gilded Age office, a park maker on the waterfront and the studios in between.
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Subject 09Materials and Craft
Baked clay, cast metal, weathering copper, quarried stone and the glass wall.
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Subject 10Landmarks and the City's Rulebook
A lost station, a saved terminal and two zoning codes behind the city's silhouette.
On Medium, WordPress and Blogger
Michael Stern writes about air rights, zoning, preservation review and the structure of tall buildings, and his latest posts from Medium, WordPress and Blogger follow here.
All writing