The New York Historical Society has decided not to build a tower over its facility that occupies the Central Park West blockfront between 76th and 77th Streets.

It had been planning to erect a 23-story building that would be partially cantilevered over its existing, a somber, Beaux-Arts-style building.

The planned tower would provide about 75,000 square feet of expansion space on five floors for the institution and 18 floors of residential condominium apartments and it would have risen on an empty lot it owns at 7-13 West 76th Street just to the west of its limestone-clad building whose original center section was designed in neo-classical style in 1904 by York & Sawyer and expanded with wings at the north and south in 1937 by Walker & Gillette.

The tower plan, designed by Platt, Bayard, Dovell & White, however, met with considerable opposition from some civic groups and preservationists. The plan would have doubled its gallery space, added an elevator and improved circulation.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission approved proposed changes to the existing building's facade last year but that application was not about a new tower.

In 1984, the commission voted against a plan by the society to erect a tower over its existing building that had been designed by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer. That very handsome design would have created an excellent transition between the San Remo and the Beresford apartment towers on the Central Park West skyline, landmarks designed by Emery Roth. The Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer design would have recalled Emery Roth's great design for the Ritz Tower on the northeast corner of Park Avenue and 57th Street although it would have been lower and a bit squatter.

In his excellent book, "The Architecture of Additions, Design and Regulation," (W.W. Norton & Company, 1999), Paul Spencer Byard, a partner with Platt, Bayard, Dovell & White, recounted the 1984 plans and noted that the proposed "central tapered tower firmly fixed the old building like the ground under a rocket," adding that "The energetic form and strongly ornamented surfaces of the tower made the new building substantially the most magnetic part of the composition."

An article in today's edition of The New York Times by Glenn Collins said that the society now plans a $55 million renovation that will take three years and create a ground floor cafe on 77th Street and a children's gallery in the cafe's former space in the basement.

The article quoted Louise Mirrer, the society's president, as stating that "we respect our neighbors and our community and we like to get along with them," adding the decision not to proceed with a major expansion was not related to economics and community criticism. The renovation, she continued, "will make the society more accessible, more welcoming and more compelling."

"Dr. Mirrer said the interior construction plans would not violate restrictions imposed by the city and the state, which have contributed more than $25 million for prior improvements inside the building since the early 1990s, when the neglected and nearly bankrupt society closed its doors for two years," the article continued.

The society has some very important collections, most notably "The Course of Empire" series of large oil paintings by Thomas Cole, the founder of the Hudson River School of landscape painting, and many watercolors by James Aububon.

It has a very notable collection of American paintings in its Henry R. Luce III galleries and many other important documents and works of art.