The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission on Tuesday asked Vornado Realty Trust to revise its renovation plans for the interior of the former Manufacturers Hanover Trust building on Fifth Avenue at 43rd Street whose interior had been designated a landmark last month, according to an article today at nytimes.com by Robin Pogrebin.
The commission made its recommendations, the article said, following public testimony at a hearing during which several preservationists argued that the proposed changes to the interior of the 1954 building, originally by Gordon Bunshaft of the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), would amount to "sacrilege."
Vornado wants to move the twin escalators in the lobby and to create two entrances on Fifth Avenue as part of a redesign by SOM, Bunshaft's firm. The building is to be occupied by Joe Fresh, a Canadian clothing and accessories store, and by another retailer yet to be determined, the article said.
In October, the building attracted attention when its sculptural screen of 800 floating metal panels by the artist Harry Bertoia was dismantled and removed. Frank Mahan, a Skidmore architect, said on Tuesday that the screen would be replaced with a new one inspired by Bertoia's. the article said.
Vornado acquired the site in 2009 from J. P. Morgan Chase, the successor company to Manufacturers Trust.
An article yesterday by Pete Davies at ny.curbed.com noted that to fulfill Joe Fresh's "long list of changes, the existing 'cage-like transparent structure with floating mezzanine would be cut in half."
"Preservationists are worried that the alterations would destroy what Theodore Grunewald, founder of the ad hoc Coalition to Save MHT, which led the successful effort to obtain landmark designation of the interior, calls the 'carefully crafted sequence of progressively-unfolding spaces and compromise the delicately-balanced minimalist composition of this masterpiece of International Style Modernism,'" the article said.
It was only one month ago that the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the interior of the Manufacturers Trust Company building at 510 Fifth Avenue as a protected space, and already the commissioners are being asked to OK some major changes. Owner Vornado Realty Trust wants to tear out the original escalators, move the entryways, demolish a polished black granite wall and split the space to ready it for retail. Standing in Vornado's way are some of the original details not removed pre-landmarking (the building already lost its 70' enameled metal screen by sculptor Harry Bertoia). Architectural preservationists, concerned that the integrity of the transparent building is in eminent danger, will be lining up at tomorrow's public hearing in an effort to protect what remains.
"Of particular concern," the article continued, "is the relocation of the entry doors from 43rd Street to Fifth Avenue, which would shift the balance of Bunshaft's entrance. Also objectionable to the preservation-minded is the demolition of the original side-by-side escalators rising behind glass along Fifth Avenue and their replacement with a new scissor-configured set, aligned with the altered entryways and crowded up against the new demising wall....Vornado's take: these changes are seen as viable adaptive re-use, in line with the original intent expressed by Manufacturers that the bank be 'an easily convertible type of branch building.'"
The commission made its recommendations, the article said, following public testimony at a hearing during which several preservationists argued that the proposed changes to the interior of the 1954 building, originally by Gordon Bunshaft of the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), would amount to "sacrilege."
Vornado wants to move the twin escalators in the lobby and to create two entrances on Fifth Avenue as part of a redesign by SOM, Bunshaft's firm. The building is to be occupied by Joe Fresh, a Canadian clothing and accessories store, and by another retailer yet to be determined, the article said.
In October, the building attracted attention when its sculptural screen of 800 floating metal panels by the artist Harry Bertoia was dismantled and removed. Frank Mahan, a Skidmore architect, said on Tuesday that the screen would be replaced with a new one inspired by Bertoia's. the article said.
Vornado acquired the site in 2009 from J. P. Morgan Chase, the successor company to Manufacturers Trust.
An article yesterday by Pete Davies at ny.curbed.com noted that to fulfill Joe Fresh's "long list of changes, the existing 'cage-like transparent structure with floating mezzanine would be cut in half."
"Preservationists are worried that the alterations would destroy what Theodore Grunewald, founder of the ad hoc Coalition to Save MHT, which led the successful effort to obtain landmark designation of the interior, calls the 'carefully crafted sequence of progressively-unfolding spaces and compromise the delicately-balanced minimalist composition of this masterpiece of International Style Modernism,'" the article said.
It was only one month ago that the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the interior of the Manufacturers Trust Company building at 510 Fifth Avenue as a protected space, and already the commissioners are being asked to OK some major changes. Owner Vornado Realty Trust wants to tear out the original escalators, move the entryways, demolish a polished black granite wall and split the space to ready it for retail. Standing in Vornado's way are some of the original details not removed pre-landmarking (the building already lost its 70' enameled metal screen by sculptor Harry Bertoia). Architectural preservationists, concerned that the integrity of the transparent building is in eminent danger, will be lining up at tomorrow's public hearing in an effort to protect what remains.
"Of particular concern," the article continued, "is the relocation of the entry doors from 43rd Street to Fifth Avenue, which would shift the balance of Bunshaft's entrance. Also objectionable to the preservation-minded is the demolition of the original side-by-side escalators rising behind glass along Fifth Avenue and their replacement with a new scissor-configured set, aligned with the altered entryways and crowded up against the new demising wall....Vornado's take: these changes are seen as viable adaptive re-use, in line with the original intent expressed by Manufacturers that the bank be 'an easily convertible type of branch building.'"
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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