The Hunters Point Community Library is one of the finest public buildings New York has produced this century. But it cost more than $40 million, took a decade and almost died. — The New York Times

Amazon on Thursday canceled its plans to build an expansive corporate campus in New York City after facing an unexpectedly fierce backlash from some lawmakers and unions, who contended that a tech giant did not deserve nearly $3 billion in government incentives.

The company, as part of its extensive search for a new headquarters, had chosen Long Island City, Queens, as one of two winning sites, saying that it would create more than 25,000 jobs in the city. — The New York Times

All eyes have been on Long Island City since its partial triumph in Amazon’s urban beauty pageant. [...]

Queens native Kris Graves has kept his eye on Long Island City continuously since moving there ten years ago. Photographing what presents itself outside his door in Hunters Point South and as he walks around the neighborhood, Graves never intended to create a record of a vanishing scene (RIP 5Pointz notwithstanding). Instead, his photos, accumulating over time, represent an additive process. — Urban Omnibus

Skyline Tower, the Hill West Architects-designed, 778-foot-tall tower became the first in Queens to pass $1 billion in total sell out. Plus, the property sits across from One Court Square, where Amazon is leasing one million square feet of office space before moving to its new HQ2 complex on the waterfront. Now, there are new renderings of Skyline Tower, showing off the interiors, views, and new subway entrance at the future tallest tower in Queens. — 6sqft

For years, suburbia has offered these companies acres of disposable, cheap, anonymous office parks: mostly one- or two-story concrete structures surrounded by loads of surface parking. These sites minimized costs, maximized security and allowed companies to scale up, contract or split into different units quickly — at the same time they promoted sprawl and traffic jams and transformed once-quaint bedroom communities south of San Francisco into phenomenally expensive places to live. — The New York Times

Officials lured Amazon to New York with an extensive pitch, complete with four suggested neighborhoods. In exchange for 25,000 new jobs, Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio are offering Amazon nearly $3 billion in incentives. And while Amazon selected the Queens neighborhood of Long Island City as its new home, officials had proposed bringing Amazon’s campus to the Farley Building, 3 World Trade Center, Brooklyn Height’s Watchtower building, Bjarke Ingels’ The Spiral, and even Governors Island. — 6sqft

After conducting a yearlong search for a second home, Amazon has switched gears and is now finalizing plans to have a total of 50,000 employees in two locations, according to people familiar with the decision-making process.

The company is nearing a deal to move to the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens [...]. Amazon is also close to a deal to move to the Crystal City area of Arlington, Va., a Washington suburb, one of the people said. — The New York Times

[...] a judge has ruled that a New York developer must pay $6.7 million to a group of graffiti artists to compensate for painting over their work without warning in 2013. The decision represents a decisive victory for street artists in a case that pitted their rights against those of a real estate executive.

The artists sued the developer, Gerald Wolkoff, for violating their rights after he whitewashed their work at the famous 5Pointz art mecca in Long Island City to make way for condos. — artnet

Was the street art covering 5Pointz, a largely empty warehouse in Long Island City, Queens, significant enough to preserve under US federal law? A federal judge in Brooklyn in currently considering the arguments in a case that tests the limits of the Visual Artists Rights Act (Vara), and could soon decide whether a developer Gerald Wolkoff and his companies violated the act when he tore down the graffiti-covered building to construct residential towers and what, if any, damages they will pay. — The Art Newspaper

Wolkoff granted permission to artists to paint on the building in 1993, when Long Island City wasn’t hot property....Fast forward to 2013, New York real estate was exploding. The building’s location was highly desirable. — Quartz

Here’s our first peek at Simon Baron Development, Quadrum Global and CRE Development’s three-tower Long Island City development slated to rise alongside the former Paragon Paint factory building at 45-40 Vernon Boulevard. Permits for the first tower were filed with the DOB back in June and detail a 28-story, 296-unit rental tower designed by SHoP Architects. — 6sqft.com

A micro apartment is typically less than 350 square feet, but the term “micro” is getting an expansion (figuratively and literally) in Long Island City. A new rental complex will offer 57 two- and three-bedroom units ranging from 490 to 735 square feet, according to the Wall Street Journal. The project at 37-10 Crescent Street is being developed by Ranger Properties. — 6sqft.com