The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission will hold a hearing January 22 on an application to demolish the two-story building at 746 Madison Avenue and replace it with a 14-story, mixed-use building planned by Friedland Properties.
Friedland Properties is also asking the commission to issue a report to the City Planning Commission relating to an application to waive midblock transition height limits for the project.
The proposed building, which is between 64th and 65th Streets, has been designed by Page Ayres Cowley and would contain 12 residential condominium apartments and four floors of commercial space that connect to a townhouse designed in 1897 by Grosvenor Atterbury on the southwest corner of the avenue and 65th Street that is also owned by Friedland Properties.
The apartments would have an entrance through the townhouse on 65th Street.
The red-brick building would have a setback above the 5th floor to honor the street-wall context on the avenue block.
An article by Christopher Gray in the January 6, 2007 edition of The New York Times noted that in 1885 Temple B'nai Jeshurun erected a Byzantine-Moorish-style synagogue on the site designed by Rafael Gustavino and Schwarzmann & Buchman.
Several years later, John Jacob Astor wanted to build a stable on the adjacent corner lot but withdrew his plans after synagogue officials and residents in the area protested, according to Mr. Gray, who added that the town house on that site was built by Frederic Betts.
In 1917, the synagogue was replaced by a four-story school that was erected by William H. Chesebrough and designed by Rouse & Goldstone and that building, Mr. Gray noted, kept the shell of the synagogue that subsequently was used as a dance studio and hall by Helen Moller.
In 1937, the top two floors the building were removed in an alteration designed by Kenneth B. Norton and in the 1940s the Navy League of the United States, according to Mr. Gray, occupied the upper floor as a workroom where women sewed cloths for the children of enlisted Navy men.
Friedland Properties, of which Lawrence and Melvin Friedland are principals, proclaims on its website that it is "the largest landlord on the gold coast of Madison Avenue."
One of the retail tenants now on the site is La Goulue, a popular restaurant.
Friedland Properties is also asking the commission to issue a report to the City Planning Commission relating to an application to waive midblock transition height limits for the project.
The proposed building, which is between 64th and 65th Streets, has been designed by Page Ayres Cowley and would contain 12 residential condominium apartments and four floors of commercial space that connect to a townhouse designed in 1897 by Grosvenor Atterbury on the southwest corner of the avenue and 65th Street that is also owned by Friedland Properties.
The apartments would have an entrance through the townhouse on 65th Street.
The red-brick building would have a setback above the 5th floor to honor the street-wall context on the avenue block.
An article by Christopher Gray in the January 6, 2007 edition of The New York Times noted that in 1885 Temple B'nai Jeshurun erected a Byzantine-Moorish-style synagogue on the site designed by Rafael Gustavino and Schwarzmann & Buchman.
Several years later, John Jacob Astor wanted to build a stable on the adjacent corner lot but withdrew his plans after synagogue officials and residents in the area protested, according to Mr. Gray, who added that the town house on that site was built by Frederic Betts.
In 1917, the synagogue was replaced by a four-story school that was erected by William H. Chesebrough and designed by Rouse & Goldstone and that building, Mr. Gray noted, kept the shell of the synagogue that subsequently was used as a dance studio and hall by Helen Moller.
In 1937, the top two floors the building were removed in an alteration designed by Kenneth B. Norton and in the 1940s the Navy League of the United States, according to Mr. Gray, occupied the upper floor as a workroom where women sewed cloths for the children of enlisted Navy men.
Friedland Properties, of which Lawrence and Melvin Friedland are principals, proclaims on its website that it is "the largest landlord on the gold coast of Madison Avenue."
One of the retail tenants now on the site is La Goulue, a popular restaurant.
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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