Daily News from New York, New York • 40

SUNDAY NEWS, MAY 17, 1970 114 ilhe Lixparaooing yiN fcifemm aiifw il1 4 I Xi Air view from NEWS plane by Geor Matt on, Al DeBello, p.lot UNITED NATIONS 'W, I ft Ji llMp mHi.hi'i l-Mii ftit ifr- -ff y- T. 1 mnn m-nmnnTir-i-iri riM-ur-i mmnimiMMM 11 umiiiil T3 to viev of controversial UN expansion area from which 600 residents and 100 small businesses will be displaced to make way for center to meet needs of space-cramped UN mission personnel. Outlined in white, $350 million project runs from 43d to 45th Sts. between First and Second with small corridor from 45th St. to Hammarskjold Park.

Map at right shows only buildings that will not be razed. They are (I) parking area owned by Uganda, (2) United States Mission to UN, (3) Church Center for the UN, (4) Boys' Clubs of America, (5) the Manor and (6) Cloister, Tudor City apartment houses legally exempted from use by non-profit project. 43d St. NEWS map by staff artist Williams A problem of diplomatic growing pains has involved residents of the East 40s in a bitter debate with a tax-exempt, non-profit firm which wants to evict them to clear the way for a UN Center UN tenants as opposed to those charged outsiders. The relative space to be used hy UN-related activities and that to go to private commercial tenants.

The relocation of the COO families now in the project area. The fate of Waterside, a financially-hard-pressed housing development that is supposed to house most of the displaced tenants. In the planning stages for 10 years and bogged down in a tight monev By GEORGE NOBBE TlIH MILLION United Nations expansion project, slated for the East lus and known ol "ficialiy the UN enter. ha Keen laWe'ed an arrogant abuse of Muer, a land K'ab and an outright fraud by its increasingly vocal opjKnents. Its prownent however, insist that the cramped international diplomatic community must have more space if it is to stay in New-York.

They aiue that the project will be a redevelopment marvel that ran only improve a decaying iieifrhlorho m1." Regardless of who is rijrht, (he controversial project remains one of the most maligned and widely mi iinil.T-!....,! vi-nliiivs iindi-rtakon in miiltown M.inh it in inrnt yvars. In addition, i i he i.lr.l for a Rprie-s court tli.it could delay its scheduled II'TC. completion date indefinitely. Involved in The pi. criven approval Iy an IS to 1 vote of the Hoard Kstimatf.

is a block area bounded on the we-t hy Secotnl on the north by Kast on the eat bv First ami on the sou'h bv St. Also included is a narrow corridor of warehouses and apartment real estate that runs from the middle of th- St. block through to Dag Hatn-marskjold Park at East 7th St. In all, the project will displace close to f00 families, most of them in the two East 41th St. buildings of the Beaux Arts apartment hotel.

Some 100 businesses, mostly small shops and restaurants, and about T0 buildings are scheduled to be razed. The only structures now standing within the irregular borders of the UN market, it would rise on a platform over the East River between 25th and 30th Sts. The possible loss of in real estate taxes now generated by the properties scheduled for demolition. Long-range concern over what might happen should the UN decide to move or be disbanded. Vagueness in the enabling legislation over the status of the project after its bonds are paid off and the possibility that it might become an enormously profitable, long-term real estate speculation.

The list of fears and objections comes from such opponents of the UN Center as the Turtle Bay Association, the Save Our Neighborhood Committee; Rep. Edward Koch, City Councilman Carter Burden and Assemblyman Andrew Stein, among others. Generally, they are unmoved by the shortage of space at the UN and they do not share the sponsor's feeling that New York has a host's obligation to help the international body, at least not at the expense of its own residents. The project grew out of talks between Mayor Lindsay, UN Secretary General Thant and former U.S. Ambassador Arthur Goldberg.

Historically, it got off the ground when the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Ford Foundation each contributed $100,000 to the Fund for Area Planning and Development. The money was used for preliminary planning and architectural work. Two years ago, the state legislature created the UN development district, which not only enabled the United Na-i i Center project area that will escape the wrecker's hall are: The Church Center for the United Nations. The Boys' Club of America. The United Spates to th UN.

A small parking area owned hy Uganda. Two adjoining Tudor C'rv hiii'd nL's. the Cloister and the Manor, on East St. The rest, including the relatively new American Field Services headeti on Ka-st St. and the hujie MAI office building at the southeast corner oT 4 St.

and Second will come down. In their places will rise a glass-sheathed building consisting of four 40-story towers. Three of them will provide office space for UN personnel and the fourth will contain a TCII-room hotel. Plans also call for a bus terminal, parking for H0 cars. 2S0 apartment units and hotel apartments; shops, exhibition halls, auditoriums, restaurants anil meeting rooms.

To accomplish all this, 4 Ith St. between Second and First Aves. will be closed. The dominant glass towers, designed by Kevin Dinkeloo Associates, will be an architectural spectacular of reflecting panels. The project's sponsor is the nonprofit United Nations Development Corp.

It was created in U'tiH by the state legislature and empowered to sell million in tax-free, 40-year bonds with which to finance the scheme. Its president and only salaried officer is Thomas Appleby, a self-styled urban strategist who worked on redevelopment projects in Washington and New Haven before coming here. He envisions the UN Center as a sort of international city, interconnected by-walkways and multi-level concourses and lush with verdant enclosed parkland to be enjoyed by diplomat and New Yorkers alike. Although he anticipated opposition to the plans and is not bothered by it, Appleby concedes that the criticism that now swirls about the project could have been avoided if the corporation had paid as much attention to public relations as it did to its site plans. Most of the opponents' fears, real or imaginary, have to do with: Population density, building size, and traffic congestion.

The fate of 12 buildings in the Tudor City complex. The possibility that the whole Tudor City-Turtle Bay area might eventually be swallowed up by still more UN expansion. Precedent-setting zone changes, made specifically to clear the way for the UN Center, that might be cited hy private real estate operators as a basis for other, strictly commercial, building ventures. The effect of the demolition on the city's dwindling housing. The personal interest and financial involvement of the nearby Ford Foundation, a heavy backer of the Center for some time.

The relative rents to be charged.