The owners of the 1,250-foot-high Empire State Building have criticized the plan of Steven Roth and his Vornado Realty Trust to demolish the nearby Hotel Pennsylvania and replace it with a 1,190-foot-high office tower.

The proposed skyscraper, shown at the right, has been designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli, the firm that designed the Beacon Tower on Lexington Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets for Mr. Roth.

The Hotel Pennsylvania is 22 stories high and was considered the largest hotel in the world when it was built. It is across Seventh Avenue from the former site of Penn Station and both structures were designed by the famous architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White.

Recent attempts to have the hotel designated an official city landmark failed.

The proposed tower was recently entered into the city's official land-use review process and Community Board Five voted 36 to 1 with one abstention to deny the Vornado application, expressing "serious concerns" about "an application that offers few public benefits" in exchange for significant increases in size through special permits. Its vote is advisory.

In a June 11, 2010 letter to Amanda Burden, the chair of the City Planning Commission, Vikki Barbero wrote that "The Commission recently considered the Jean Nouvel/MoMA building, and despite noting the proposed building's exemplary design and the lasting effects that this project would generate for landmarks and cultural institutions, it voted to reduce its size due to its impact on the city skyline and the surrounding neighborhood."

"In comparison," the letter continued, "the 15 Penn Plaza application wholly lacks the MoMA project's distinguished architectural features, produces no benefits for landmark preservation or cultural access, would have detrimental impacts on neighborhood density and traffic, and would notably diminish, not enhance the skyline position of its iconic neighbor, the Empire State Building from the west, thereby fundamentally altering and diminishing New York City's skyline in a way few projects have in decades. Should 15 Penn Plaza not be held to the same standards and criteria as Nouvel/MoMa."

The commission "decapitated" the Nouveau project and insisted its design be lowered by about 150 feet to be more compatible with the Empire State Building.

In a June 7, 2010 letter to Ms. Burden, Peter Malkin of Malkin Holdings, the owner of the Empire State Building, pointed out that the Empire State Building "is not discussed, or even mentioned in the Historical Resources section of the proposed project's Draft Environmental Impact Statement," which states that the standard established distance that should be considered is 400 feet and the distance between them is greater.

"Applicant's exclusion of ESB from 15 Penn Plaza Project's impacts on historical resources may have been appropriate in ordinary circumstances; however, there are not ordinary circumstances. The scale of the 15 Penn Plaza Project is immense, more immense than ESB," Mr. Malkin argued, noting that the CEQR Manual "concedes that a larger study is appropriate for 'projects that result in changes that are highly visible and can be perceived from farther than 400 feet and could affect the context of historic resources some distance away....'"

Mr. Malkin also raised questions about the proposed tower's shadows, height, traffic and possible spire that might interfere with existing transmissions.

In an article today at observer.com, Elliot Brown wrote that "Borough President Scott Stringer gave a conditional non-binding recommendation in favor of Vornado's plan, and the City Planning Commission approved it with minor modifications.

It still needs to be approved by the City Council and it's not clear that Vornado has a tenant and/or financing yet to proceed if it is approved.