If at first you don¿t succeed, wait a couple of decades.
In his excellent book, "The Architecture of Additions, Design and Regulation," (W.W. Norton & Company, 1999), Paul Spencer Byard recounts plans by The New York Historical Society in 1984 to develop a residential tower designed by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer over its building on Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets using its unused air rights.
The New York Historical Society is now housed in a somber, Beaux-Arts-style structure designed by York & Sawyer in 1908 and expanded in 1938 by Walker & Gillette.
The original plan of the building and a 1938 addition resulted in "not a great building but good enough to become a designated landmark,¿ Mr. Byard noted, adding that the 1984 plan ¿faced a double hurdle - to make a proper contribution to the historic district as well as to the individual landmark.¿ "The design piled up chunks of building on the base...like a realized Byzantine painting of a hill town. Viewed straight on from the park, the elevation was straight and symmetrical over the symmetrical facade of the society....Viewed askance it was asymmetrical , as if the tower were twisting into the lower adjacent buildings even as it stood out like a post to mark its important corner in the district....The expression was adapted from decorative ideas present in the old building but developed with the strength, abstraction, and flatness of scene-painting characteristic of Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer's work. The proposal was found appropriate to the district; the animated and complex tower seemed acceptable in the context of the neighborhood and of its comparably decorated towers...but not to the old building. The central tapered tower firmly fixed the old building like the ground under a rocket. The energetic form and strongly ornamented surfaces of the tower made the new building substantially the most magnetic part of the composition. At the same time, while not mocking, the friendly, scenographic takeoff of the old building's decoration undercut its seriousness, a deflation hard for the old building to survive. Where other asymmetrical, plainer, more deferential proposals might have kept the protected building the object of the new combination, this one took command, sat on it and put it down."
According to an article by Glenn Collins in today¿s edition of The New York Times, the society is game to try to yet another ¿add-on,¿ and this time has turned to Mr. Byard who is a partner in the architectural firm of Platt Byard Dovell White, to design the first phase of renovation of the existing building and a master plan for the development of its air rights with a 23-story tower that would contain 18 condominium apartments.
The article said that the society is seeking a ¿star architect¿ for the tower and that is plans to triple the size of its entrance on Central Park West and move its caf¿ in the basement to a first floor gallery.
The article included a rendering of a 280-foot-high, glass-clad tower at the southern rear end of the society¿s building.
As shown, the proposed tower would be radically different from the earlier scheme that harmonized beautifully with the existing building and, more importantly, with the celebrated Central Park West skyline, making a masterful transition between the twin towers of the San Remo apartment a few blocks to the south and the triple towers of the Beresford apartment house a few blocks to the north.
The New York Historical Society is the second most important cultural institution on Central Park West after the American Museum of Natural History that is directly across from it on 77th Street. 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.
In his excellent book, "The Architecture of Additions, Design and Regulation," (W.W. Norton & Company, 1999), Paul Spencer Byard recounts plans by The New York Historical Society in 1984 to develop a residential tower designed by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer over its building on Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets using its unused air rights.
The New York Historical Society is now housed in a somber, Beaux-Arts-style structure designed by York & Sawyer in 1908 and expanded in 1938 by Walker & Gillette.
The original plan of the building and a 1938 addition resulted in "not a great building but good enough to become a designated landmark,¿ Mr. Byard noted, adding that the 1984 plan ¿faced a double hurdle - to make a proper contribution to the historic district as well as to the individual landmark.¿ "The design piled up chunks of building on the base...like a realized Byzantine painting of a hill town. Viewed straight on from the park, the elevation was straight and symmetrical over the symmetrical facade of the society....Viewed askance it was asymmetrical , as if the tower were twisting into the lower adjacent buildings even as it stood out like a post to mark its important corner in the district....The expression was adapted from decorative ideas present in the old building but developed with the strength, abstraction, and flatness of scene-painting characteristic of Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer's work. The proposal was found appropriate to the district; the animated and complex tower seemed acceptable in the context of the neighborhood and of its comparably decorated towers...but not to the old building. The central tapered tower firmly fixed the old building like the ground under a rocket. The energetic form and strongly ornamented surfaces of the tower made the new building substantially the most magnetic part of the composition. At the same time, while not mocking, the friendly, scenographic takeoff of the old building's decoration undercut its seriousness, a deflation hard for the old building to survive. Where other asymmetrical, plainer, more deferential proposals might have kept the protected building the object of the new combination, this one took command, sat on it and put it down."
According to an article by Glenn Collins in today¿s edition of The New York Times, the society is game to try to yet another ¿add-on,¿ and this time has turned to Mr. Byard who is a partner in the architectural firm of Platt Byard Dovell White, to design the first phase of renovation of the existing building and a master plan for the development of its air rights with a 23-story tower that would contain 18 condominium apartments.
The article said that the society is seeking a ¿star architect¿ for the tower and that is plans to triple the size of its entrance on Central Park West and move its caf¿ in the basement to a first floor gallery.
The article included a rendering of a 280-foot-high, glass-clad tower at the southern rear end of the society¿s building.
As shown, the proposed tower would be radically different from the earlier scheme that harmonized beautifully with the existing building and, more importantly, with the celebrated Central Park West skyline, making a masterful transition between the twin towers of the San Remo apartment a few blocks to the south and the triple towers of the Beresford apartment house a few blocks to the north.
The New York Historical Society is the second most important cultural institution on Central Park West after the American Museum of Natural History that is directly across from it on 77th Street. 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.
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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