The land-use committee of Community Board 8 voted last night to approve plans by the Whitney Museum of American Art to ask for seven zoning variances from the city¿s Board of Standards and Appeals for a major expansion of the museum.
The 25 to 11 vote is likely to be the last major hurdle for the museum as the institutional expansion and landmarks committees of the board were evenly split last month over the endorsement of the plans, which were approved in May by the city¿s Landmarks Preservation Commission. The museum is presently housed in a masterpiece of Brutalist architecture by Marcel Breuer on the southeast corner of Madison Avenue and 75th Street.
The proposed expansion, designed by Renzo Piano, would be on the remainder of the blockfront on the avenue where the museum owns several brownstones. The initial plan by Mr. Piano called for demolition of the two brownstones closest to the museum to create an entrance to a tower that would be setback about 30 feet from the avenue and behind the facades of the remaining brownstones. The landmarks commission requested that the plan be revised to permit the demolition of only one of the brownstones and the museum revised its plans accordingly.
The museum acquired the brownstones not long after it moved into the Breuer building in the late 1960s. One well-known English architect not long after had proposed a sensational tower to replace the brownstones with a slanted glass base topped by a black-metal clad tower with interchangeable panels with different geometric window patterns.
The museum later commissioned Michael Graves to design an expansion and several of his designs that included building next to and over the Breuer building met with considerable controversy and were eventually abandoned.
The design approved by the landmarks commission cannot be built within existing zoning regulations relating to street wall, setbacks, height, and rear yards.
Howard Zipser, a land-use attorney who is a member of the Coalition of Concerned Whitney Neighbors, told the meeting last night that it was highly unusual for any project to seek 7 variances and that several of them could be resolved by reducing the bulk of the planned expansion.
Elizabeth Ashby, a member of the community board and co-chairman of the Defenders of the Historic East Side, proposed a resolution that would deny the variances unless the new building was no taller than the existing Breuer building, arguing that the variances effectively waive ¿all the features of the Special Madison Avenue District zoning.¿ The Breuer building is 97 feet high 8 inches high on the avenue and the proposed addition setback from the avenue is 178 feet high. Her resolution was defeated by a vote of 24 to 12.
The museum¿s plan uses ¿little more than half of what is permitted¿ under existing zoning regulations.
Adam D. Weinberg, the director of the museum, told the meeting that the expansion program will provide the museum not only with additional 4,000-square feet of exhibition space, but also a 260-seat auditorium, a loading dock and restoration of the facades of the brownstone buildings. In response to earlier comments from speakers in opposition to the plan about a rooftop crane, sidewalk trees, and potential loss of retail space in the brownstones, Mr. Weinberg told the meeting that a 27-foot-high rooftop crane was always in the drawings, that the museum must have retail activity on the avenue or it would need to raise an extra $40 or $50 million, that Marcel Breuer did not want trees blocking his building but that the plan will add three trees to the six that already exist in front of the other properties, and that the loading dock will accommodate large trucks only a few times a year.
Mr. Weinberg told CityRealty.com that Mr. Piano¿s design for the tower calls for it to be clad in gray-colored, matte, metal panels.
The 25 to 11 vote is likely to be the last major hurdle for the museum as the institutional expansion and landmarks committees of the board were evenly split last month over the endorsement of the plans, which were approved in May by the city¿s Landmarks Preservation Commission. The museum is presently housed in a masterpiece of Brutalist architecture by Marcel Breuer on the southeast corner of Madison Avenue and 75th Street.
The proposed expansion, designed by Renzo Piano, would be on the remainder of the blockfront on the avenue where the museum owns several brownstones. The initial plan by Mr. Piano called for demolition of the two brownstones closest to the museum to create an entrance to a tower that would be setback about 30 feet from the avenue and behind the facades of the remaining brownstones. The landmarks commission requested that the plan be revised to permit the demolition of only one of the brownstones and the museum revised its plans accordingly.
The museum acquired the brownstones not long after it moved into the Breuer building in the late 1960s. One well-known English architect not long after had proposed a sensational tower to replace the brownstones with a slanted glass base topped by a black-metal clad tower with interchangeable panels with different geometric window patterns.
The museum later commissioned Michael Graves to design an expansion and several of his designs that included building next to and over the Breuer building met with considerable controversy and were eventually abandoned.
The design approved by the landmarks commission cannot be built within existing zoning regulations relating to street wall, setbacks, height, and rear yards.
Howard Zipser, a land-use attorney who is a member of the Coalition of Concerned Whitney Neighbors, told the meeting last night that it was highly unusual for any project to seek 7 variances and that several of them could be resolved by reducing the bulk of the planned expansion.
Elizabeth Ashby, a member of the community board and co-chairman of the Defenders of the Historic East Side, proposed a resolution that would deny the variances unless the new building was no taller than the existing Breuer building, arguing that the variances effectively waive ¿all the features of the Special Madison Avenue District zoning.¿ The Breuer building is 97 feet high 8 inches high on the avenue and the proposed addition setback from the avenue is 178 feet high. Her resolution was defeated by a vote of 24 to 12.
The museum¿s plan uses ¿little more than half of what is permitted¿ under existing zoning regulations.
Adam D. Weinberg, the director of the museum, told the meeting that the expansion program will provide the museum not only with additional 4,000-square feet of exhibition space, but also a 260-seat auditorium, a loading dock and restoration of the facades of the brownstone buildings. In response to earlier comments from speakers in opposition to the plan about a rooftop crane, sidewalk trees, and potential loss of retail space in the brownstones, Mr. Weinberg told the meeting that a 27-foot-high rooftop crane was always in the drawings, that the museum must have retail activity on the avenue or it would need to raise an extra $40 or $50 million, that Marcel Breuer did not want trees blocking his building but that the plan will add three trees to the six that already exist in front of the other properties, and that the loading dock will accommodate large trucks only a few times a year.
Mr. Weinberg told CityRealty.com that Mr. Piano¿s design for the tower calls for it to be clad in gray-colored, matte, metal panels.
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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