Community Board 2 voted unanimously last night to recommend that the Board of Standards & Appeals grant a variance for a planned building at 363-371 Lafayette Street in NoHo if the proposed design is modified to preserve light for the adjoining building at 20 Bond Street where Chuck Close, the artist, has a studio.

Mr. Close, who is a quadriplegic, is one of the most famous contemporary American artists and is best known for his very large portraits of friends some of which appear almost pixilated. In the evening Contemporary Art Sale May 10, 2005 at Sotheby's, a Close portrait sold to the Eli Broad Foundation for $4,832,000, an auction record for the artist.

Many leading figures in the art world have written in support of his concern that his studio's light and air will be severely impacted by the new development.

The site of the planned new building was formerly partially occupied by Jones Diner.

The building proposed for 363 Lafayette Street would have 14 apartments and has been designed by BKSK Architects for 363 Lafayette LLC which is connected with Olmstead Properties of which Samuel Rosenblatt is a member.

Negotiations between Olmstead Properties, the developer, and tenants at 20 Bond Street have been underway in recent months and on October 12 a revised design was presented to the Zoning Committee of Board 2, which last night's resolution described as "a creative and novel design - setting back floors 2 and 3 and cantilevering floors 4 through 6 over the open area, which will keep the new building from blocking many of the windows at 20 Bond St., and, in addition, creating skylights on the roof of the first floor retail to permit light into the first floor studio at 20 Bond Street."

The resolution supported that design revision and also called for the elimination of balconies that partially block some windows at 20 Bond Street. The resolution also noted that the develop "has a demonstrable hardship with the long, narrow, wedge-shaped lot over the subway.

An article by Lincoln Anderson in the July 12-18, 2006 edition of The Villager indicated that "the main part of the new building, which Close says would be about 10 feet away from his building, would effectively put his studio at the bottom of 'a pit.'"

According to Mr. Anderson's article, the artist's studio "has excellent northern light, thanks to original skylights at the uptown end that had been blotted out with tarpaper when he moved in, but which he uncovered." "There is also western light from two windows on his studio's western all, again windows that were original to the building, he says, probably once windows for men's and women's bathrooms when the place was a sweatshop."

The rendering at the right of the planned new building was published today on the website of The New York Observer.

The Board of Standards & Appeals has calendared October 24 for a hearing for an 8-story building planned for 363 Lafayette Street.