The Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing today on a revised and downsized plan by Friedland Properties to made an addition to an existing two-story building at 746 Madison Avenue between 64th and 65th Streets.

The previous plan called for a 14-story, mixed-use building with 12 residential condominium apartments and four floors of commercial space that would have connected with a townhouse designed in 1897 by Grosvenor Atterbury on the southwest corner of the avenue at 65th Street that is also owned by Friedland Properties.

The revised plan would add only three stories to the existing 2-story structure that now houses La Goulue, the restaurant.

The new design by Page Ayres Cowley, who also designed the previous plan, would contain only commercial space and would not connect with the adjoining townhouse building at the corner. In the earlier plan, the proposed apartments would have an entrance through the corner townhouse building.

The landmarks committee of Community Board 8 voted unanimously June 16 to recommend that the Landmarks Preservation issue a certificate of appropriateness for a revised for Friedland Properties.

The new design conforms to existing zoning and building regulations.

Ms. Cowley told the committee that the existing, two-story, cast-iron facade on the building would be restored, as it would have been also in the previous plan, and that the red-brick facade of the upper three-floors of the building would be closely related in color to the existing base.

Most of the commissioners felt that the new plans were attractive and an improvement, but some were a bit dismayed to learn that the guidelines of the Madison Avenue Special Zoning District did not permit recesses between the building whose roofline aligns with its neighbors. Several of the commissioners would have liked one-and-a-half-story curved elements at the north and south ends of the mid-block building to be retained, keeping the building's profile relatively independent of its neighbors.

The commission did not take a vote and Robert B. Tierney said that its staff would work closely with the City Planning Department to see if the district's guidelines might be amended to accommodate their concerns.

A statement by the Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts, said the new plan was "certainly an improvement," but added that "it would be a loss to the district to lose the charm of this quirky 2-story building."

A statement by the Municipal Art Society stated that it is "unable to support the proposal for demolition because "this case will undoubtedly be cited as precedent in the future, and we wonder how the commission would be able to deny other proposals to demolish designated buildings for a more profitable use? While the applicants may claim this is not a demolition, it clearly is. While they plan to restore and retain the very significant cast iron storefront, it will be used as an architectural remnant applied to a new building....The filling in of the sides has a surprisingly negative impact. It effectively eliminates the Neo-Georgian wings."

An article by Christopher Gray in the January 6, 2007 edition of The New York Times noted that in 1885 Temple B'nai Jeshurun erected a Byzantine-Moorish-style synagogue on the site designed by Rafael Gustavino and Schwarzmann & Buchman.

In 1917, the synagogue was replaced by a four-story school that was erected by William H. Chesebrough and designed by Rouse & Goldstone and that building, Mr. Gray noted, kept the shell of the synagogue that subsequently was used as a dance studio and hall by Helen Moller.

In 1937, the top two floors the building were removed and in the 1940s the Navy League of the United States occupied the upper floor as a workroom where women sewed cloths for the children of enlisted Navy men.