The condo conversion of a [landmarked church in the Upper West Side](http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/12/10/loathed_uws_church_conversion_is_a_nogo_at_landmarks.php ""Loathed UWS Church Conversion Is a No-Go at Landmarks"") might be stalling out.  The design team heading the renovation of 361 Central Park West, previously known as 1 West 96th Street, hasn’t received the approval of the necessary parties in order to commence construction on a building that renowned architect Robert A.M. Stern has described as, “one of the city’s most compelling religious structures in the Classical manner.”

Rendering of Building Three's Interior [All images via 6sqft] As with many cities, New York’s cityscape is constantly evolving.  This goes doubly true considering the bevy of new construction megaprojects rising up in Manhattan and waterfront Brooklyn and Queens.  Manhattan’s planned clusters of high-rises, which are sometimes divisively glassy in their aesthetics, approach their designs with the optimism of crystalline growth.

2014 is nearing closure, but there are several mega-projects that will still be in progress when your calendar flips back to the beginning.

Image via Bjarke Ingels Group Post-Sandy, NYC was forced to face the reality of natural threats from the sea. Two years later, a design and architecture firm called BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group), proposed “Big U;” a plan to safeguard areas greatly affected by such storms, like East Village and the Lower East Side. However, where funding for programs for other sections of Lower Manhattan will come is unclear.

George Bellows Dempsey and Firpo via Wikimedia Commons The new Whitney Museum, designed by Renzo-Piano and currently under construction at the southernmost end of the High Line, is slated to open in the Spring of 2015. Recently, architect Scott Newman of Cooper, Robertson and Partners and Larissa Gentile (building’s project manager) gave a detailed project overview as part of Archtober presentation. The new museum is located at Gansevoort and Washington Streets.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

Micro-unit apartments first came on the scene in Japan as [Japanese architects creatively found](http://www.wired.com/2014/11/micro-apartment-designed-muji-masters-simplicity/ ""A Micro Apartment Designed by Muji, the Masters of Simplicity"") ways to fill small plots with space in Japan’s premium locations.

Image via Pelli Clarke Pelli Trinity Church was granted one of the highest-valued real estate deals in New York City some three hundred years ago by Britain’s Queen Anne giving the church 215 acres of land in downtown Manhattan.