The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing yesterday on plans to demolish the two-story building at 746 Madison Avenue and replace it with a 14-story, mixed-use building planned by Friedland Properties.
Friedland Properties is also asking the commission to issue a report to the City Planning Commission relating to an application to waive mid-block transition height limits for the project.
The proposed building, which is between 64th and 65th Streets, has been designed by Page Ayres Cowley and would contain 12 residential condominium apartments and four floors of commercial space that connect to a townhouse designed in 1897 by Grosvenor Atterbury on the southwest corner of the avenue and 65th Street that is also owned by Friedland Properties.
The apartments would have an entrance through the townhouse on 65th Street.
The proposed, red-brick building would have a 15-foot setback above the 5th floor to honor the street-wall context on the avenue. It has oculi at some of its corners and would utilize less than the site's available development rights.
Several preservation groups testified that they could not support the demolition of a "contributing" building within an historic district. All buildings in such districts are separated into "contributing" and "non-contributing" categories that relate to their architectural and historic significance.
"Although this application is proposing to salvage the storefront of the existing two-story structure and reincorporate it into the proposed building, what we will have is a new 14-story building with a historic remnant. This is not a 12-story rooftop addition; it is the demolition of a style building," declared the spokesperson for the Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts.
"The demolition and addition to the two-story building divorces the cast iron facade from its historic fabric and transforms the reading of the building. As a result, the restored storefront looks applied rather than preserved. Many committee members felt the three-story addition directly above the historic facade overwhelms and flattens the base of the building," declared Lisa Kersavage, director of advocacy and policy for the Municipal Art Society.
The building originally was a four-story school erected in 1917 and its top two floors were removed in 1937.
"While we admire much about the architect's design," Roger Lang said, speaking on behalf of the New York Landmarks Conservancy, "This survivor deserves better than just a recycle storefront as mitigation. To be sure, the 1937 alterations were unfortunate; but they could just as readily be reconstructed instead of forgotten." Mr, Lang also said that "we think the height of the proposal is excessive and inappropriate."
"The added bulk will interfere with views of a picturesque French Renaissance Revival building to the south, and of the tower of the Pierre beyond," declared Christabel Gough, the secretary of The Society for the Architecture of the City.
"The application...avoids contemporary styling, but is a pale imitation of the Georgian, in decoration, not in form, due to its curious embrace of the corner building and its rather humble, half-hidden entrance around the back, on the side street," she continued.
A letter signed by 229 residents of 64th and 65th Streets and Madison Avenue was entered into testimony in opposition.
Robert Propp, a resident in the area, however, said he would "love to see the new building" rather than the "ugly" rears of buildings to the east, adding that he was "sorry for people that might lose views," but that that was not a legitimate "concern."
John Tashjian, another nearby resident, described the proposed building's design as "quite appealing" and representative of "strong, responsible architecture."
Robert Shapiro declared that the proposed building was "good architecture" that would "certainly enhance the neighborhood."
Friedland Properties is also asking the commission to issue a report to the City Planning Commission relating to an application to waive mid-block transition height limits for the project.
The proposed building, which is between 64th and 65th Streets, has been designed by Page Ayres Cowley and would contain 12 residential condominium apartments and four floors of commercial space that connect to a townhouse designed in 1897 by Grosvenor Atterbury on the southwest corner of the avenue and 65th Street that is also owned by Friedland Properties.
The apartments would have an entrance through the townhouse on 65th Street.
The proposed, red-brick building would have a 15-foot setback above the 5th floor to honor the street-wall context on the avenue. It has oculi at some of its corners and would utilize less than the site's available development rights.
Several preservation groups testified that they could not support the demolition of a "contributing" building within an historic district. All buildings in such districts are separated into "contributing" and "non-contributing" categories that relate to their architectural and historic significance.
"Although this application is proposing to salvage the storefront of the existing two-story structure and reincorporate it into the proposed building, what we will have is a new 14-story building with a historic remnant. This is not a 12-story rooftop addition; it is the demolition of a style building," declared the spokesperson for the Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts.
"The demolition and addition to the two-story building divorces the cast iron facade from its historic fabric and transforms the reading of the building. As a result, the restored storefront looks applied rather than preserved. Many committee members felt the three-story addition directly above the historic facade overwhelms and flattens the base of the building," declared Lisa Kersavage, director of advocacy and policy for the Municipal Art Society.
The building originally was a four-story school erected in 1917 and its top two floors were removed in 1937.
"While we admire much about the architect's design," Roger Lang said, speaking on behalf of the New York Landmarks Conservancy, "This survivor deserves better than just a recycle storefront as mitigation. To be sure, the 1937 alterations were unfortunate; but they could just as readily be reconstructed instead of forgotten." Mr, Lang also said that "we think the height of the proposal is excessive and inappropriate."
"The added bulk will interfere with views of a picturesque French Renaissance Revival building to the south, and of the tower of the Pierre beyond," declared Christabel Gough, the secretary of The Society for the Architecture of the City.
"The application...avoids contemporary styling, but is a pale imitation of the Georgian, in decoration, not in form, due to its curious embrace of the corner building and its rather humble, half-hidden entrance around the back, on the side street," she continued.
A letter signed by 229 residents of 64th and 65th Streets and Madison Avenue was entered into testimony in opposition.
Robert Propp, a resident in the area, however, said he would "love to see the new building" rather than the "ugly" rears of buildings to the east, adding that he was "sorry for people that might lose views," but that that was not a legitimate "concern."
John Tashjian, another nearby resident, described the proposed building's design as "quite appealing" and representative of "strong, responsible architecture."
Robert Shapiro declared that the proposed building was "good architecture" that would "certainly enhance the neighborhood."
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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