The LPC voted unanimously yesterday to issue a negative advisory report about the proposal of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to build a subway ventilation plant at Mulry Square at Greenwich Avenue and Seventh Avenue South.
The design called for a 19-century-style low-rise building with a concrete base containing embedded 9/11 commemorative Tiles for America, one of the city's finest memorials to the 2011 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. The tiles had been hung on a wire fence on a vacant lot at the site.
The "Tiles for America" were small and very colorful painted plaques that were created to commemorate the heroism that occurred in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2011 and they were mounted on a chainlink fence on the prominent vacant lot. Their proposed incorporation into the proposed ventilation building around the base was very attractive and well conceived.
An article by Elizabeth Finkelstein, the director of preservation and research for the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation at the organization's website June 1, 2011 said that the MTA "is proposing to embed the Tiles for America and some chain link fence into the eye-level concrete band around the base of the building" and that "timed lights will illuminate the tiles at night."
"The latest design still involves a 'floating' faux-historic facade over a concrete plant, but the height of the facade has been dropped to reveal the concrete plant behind it. The windows also now have glass, which was left out of prior designs," the article said.
"GVSHP has long been a critic of the MTA's design, and has urged them to hire an outside design firm and to consider options such as other locations or placing the plant underground, as they have in some cases. We have also urged the MTA to look towards other successful models of similar structures they have created in the past in our neighborhood, such as the MTA Substation at Greenwich Avenue and 13th Street," the article said, adding that "thus far, however, the MTA has stubbornly refused."
An article by Sara Polsky at ny.curbed.com today said there was "No word yet on whether the MTA plans to make further revisions to the ventilation plant."
The design called for a 19-century-style low-rise building with a concrete base containing embedded 9/11 commemorative Tiles for America, one of the city's finest memorials to the 2011 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. The tiles had been hung on a wire fence on a vacant lot at the site.
The "Tiles for America" were small and very colorful painted plaques that were created to commemorate the heroism that occurred in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2011 and they were mounted on a chainlink fence on the prominent vacant lot. Their proposed incorporation into the proposed ventilation building around the base was very attractive and well conceived.
An article by Elizabeth Finkelstein, the director of preservation and research for the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation at the organization's website June 1, 2011 said that the MTA "is proposing to embed the Tiles for America and some chain link fence into the eye-level concrete band around the base of the building" and that "timed lights will illuminate the tiles at night."
"The latest design still involves a 'floating' faux-historic facade over a concrete plant, but the height of the facade has been dropped to reveal the concrete plant behind it. The windows also now have glass, which was left out of prior designs," the article said.
"GVSHP has long been a critic of the MTA's design, and has urged them to hire an outside design firm and to consider options such as other locations or placing the plant underground, as they have in some cases. We have also urged the MTA to look towards other successful models of similar structures they have created in the past in our neighborhood, such as the MTA Substation at Greenwich Avenue and 13th Street," the article said, adding that "thus far, however, the MTA has stubbornly refused."
An article by Sara Polsky at ny.curbed.com today said there was "No word yet on whether the MTA plans to make further revisions to the ventilation plant."
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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