The landmarks committee of Community Board 8 voted unanimously last night to recommend that the Landmarks Preservation issue a certificate of appropriateness for a revised and downsized plan by Friedland Properties to develop a site at 746 Madison Avenue between 64th and 65th Streets.
The revised plan would add three stories to the existing 2-story structure that now houses La Goulue, the restaurant.
The previous plan called for a 14-story, mixed-use building with 12 residential condominium apartments and four floors of commercial space that would have connected with a townhouse designed in 1897 by Grosvenor Atterbury on the southwest corner of the avenue at 65th Street that is also owned by Friedland Properties.
The new design by Page Ayres Cowley, who also designed the previous plan, would contain only commercial space and would not connect with the adjoining townhouse building at the corner. In the earlier plan, the proposed apartments would have an entrance through the corner townhouse building.
Ms. Cowley told the committee that the existing, two-story, cast-iron facade on the building would be restored, as it would have been also in the previous plan, and that the red-brick facade of the upper three-floors of the building would be closely related in color to the existing base.
The new design conforms to existing zoning and building regulations.
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."
The revised plan would add three stories to the existing 2-story structure that now houses La Goulue, the restaurant.
The previous plan called for a 14-story, mixed-use building with 12 residential condominium apartments and four floors of commercial space that would have connected with a townhouse designed in 1897 by Grosvenor Atterbury on the southwest corner of the avenue at 65th Street that is also owned by Friedland Properties.
The new design by Page Ayres Cowley, who also designed the previous plan, would contain only commercial space and would not connect with the adjoining townhouse building at the corner. In the earlier plan, the proposed apartments would have an entrance through the corner townhouse building.
Ms. Cowley told the committee that the existing, two-story, cast-iron facade on the building would be restored, as it would have been also in the previous plan, and that the red-brick facade of the upper three-floors of the building would be closely related in color to the existing base.
The new design conforms to existing zoning and building regulations.
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."
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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