The Board of Standards and Appeals held a three-and-a-half hour hearing this morning on an application for seven variances for an expansion of the Whitney Museum of American Art.

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 Building Workshop with Cooper Robertson & Partners as associate architects, 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. At the request of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the plan was revised to permit the demolition of only one of the brownstones.

The museum¿s would use only 128,176 square feet of the 230,380 permissible square feet on its site under existing zoning, Michael T. Sillerman of the law firm of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP, which is representing the museum, told the board.

Adam Weinberg, the director of the museum, told the meeting that the expansion program will provide the museum not only with additional exhibition space, but also a 260-seat auditorium, dedicated educational spaces, a loading dock, restoration of the facades of the brownstone buildings and needed renovation work to the Breuer building.

The design approved by the landmarks commission cannot be built within existing zoning regulations relating to street wall, setbacks, height, and rear yards. The rather boxy tower would be clad in a matte stainless steel, Mr. Weinberg said, with glass-enclosed staircases on the south fa¿ade.

Howard Zipser, a land-use attorney who is representing the Coalition of Concerned Whitney Neighbors, which is opposed to the project, argued before the board today that many of the variances could be minimized with a redesign that would lower the height of the planned, mid-block, 178-foot-high tower that would be set back 30 feet from the avenue to permit continued use of the front part of the existing brownstones. Mr. Zipser said that private and non-profit owners should be treated the same and that variances should be the minimum needed, adding that 65 percent of the expanded space would be ¿non-gallery space¿ and that the plans were an ¿aggrandizement¿ and ¿a gilded lily.¿

Mr. Weinberg told the board that Piano¿s plan connects with existing floors in the Breuer building and would include a one-floor setback expansion of the Breuer Museum with a rooftop landscaped sculpture garden. He said that the museum did not want to lose about $1.5 million in revenue from the retail leases in the brownstones, and Commissioner Christopher Collins remarked that it was ¿a bit incongruous¿ for the museum to ask for a blanket variance from a requirement that 75 percent of the streetfront remain retail. Board vice chairman Satish K. Babbar, asked the applicants whether the tower could be shifted to the south and its dimensions altered to minimize variances. Another variance relates to tree plantings and Meenakshi Srinvasan, the board¿s chairperson, suggested that the museum try to work out a landscaping plan with the Department of Parks. She scheduled another hearing for June 20.

In a letter to the board, Elizabeth Ashby, co-chairman of the Defenders of the Upper East Side, which is opposed to the variances, maintained that ¿This application doesn¿t shoot the Special Madison Avenue District in the foot; it shoots it in the heart.¿

The application was vigorously defended at the board meeting today by the directors of the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Studio Museum of Harlem.