The Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously recommended today that the City Council approve a transfer of air rights from the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen building at 20 West 44th Street to 516 Fifth Avenue on the northwest corner at 43rd Street.
The transfer will permit the society to undertake a major restoration and renovation of its landmark facility and create a fund for its ongoing maintenance and it provides RFR Holdings, of which Aby Rosen is a principal, with about 60,000 square feet of development rights for its 678-foot-high, mixed-use project at 516 Fifth Avenue.
The society's building was designed by Lamb & Rich in 1891 for the Berkeley Preparatory School. Several years later, the society acquired the building and commissioned Ralph Townsend to enlarge it.
RFR is also purchasing about 53,000 square feet of development rights from the Princeton Club at 15 East 43rd Street, and about 81,000 square feet of development rights from the Century Association, a landmark cultural club building designed in 1891 by McKim Mead & White, at 3 East 43rd Street.
The transfers from these three sites will enable RFR to erect a building with some retail space, 241 hotel rooms and a score or so residential condominiums on the top 11 floors of the 55-story tower. Pelli Clarke Pelli, which designed One Beacon Court, the Museum of Modern Art Tower and the Wintergarden at the World Financial Center at Battery Park City, and the Sea Hawk Hotel and Resort in Fukuoka, Japan, is the architect of the proposed tower.
The new tower is setback on a clear-glass-clad base that is designed to complement the famous, landmark bank building on the southwest corner at 43rd Street that was designed in 1954 by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and is one of the hallmarks of mid-20th Century modern architecture in the city.
According to Michael Sillerman, the attorney representing the developers before the commission, the proposed tower needs some public approvals relating to setbacks and bulk. The rendering shown at today's hearing indicated that the rectilinear, setback tower will be clad in reflective glass.
Robert Tierney, the commission's chair, noted that the "74-711" application to permit the air rights transfer in exchange for a significant restoration and preservation plan for the landmark building was "totally more than adequate," adding that the commission was not discussing the "interesting and provocative" proposed new tower.
A statement read by the Municipal Art Society of New York, however, maintained that the new project's glass tower clashed with the dominant stone aesthetic of Fifth Avenue in midtown. "It has been the long-standing policy of MAS to encourage the continuation of the expression of stone along Fifth Avenue," it maintained, adding that "glass and steel buildings change the nature of the internationally-renowned avenue." The statement also noting that "the Manufacturers Hanover Trust building, an individual landmark, is obviously an exception" and "is revered precisely because it stands out about the Fifth Avenue buildings." The society therefore asked the architects to explore ways to incorporate stone into the new building's design to keep the context of Fifth Avenue intact."
Fifth Avenue, of course, has had previous glass "incursions" such as Olympic and Trump Towers and 717 Fifth Avenue whose Steuben Glass fountain and plaza were destroyed in an expansion some years ago.
Andrea Goldwyn speaking on behalf of the New York Landmarks Conservancy supported the preservation plan for the society and suggested it seek to have its impressive, skylit, library atrium designated an official city interior landmark. She also noted that her organization regrets the "demolition of several fine older structures" that are not protected by the City's Landmarks law at the site of the proposed new tower.
The transfer will permit the society to undertake a major restoration and renovation of its landmark facility and create a fund for its ongoing maintenance and it provides RFR Holdings, of which Aby Rosen is a principal, with about 60,000 square feet of development rights for its 678-foot-high, mixed-use project at 516 Fifth Avenue.
The society's building was designed by Lamb & Rich in 1891 for the Berkeley Preparatory School. Several years later, the society acquired the building and commissioned Ralph Townsend to enlarge it.
RFR is also purchasing about 53,000 square feet of development rights from the Princeton Club at 15 East 43rd Street, and about 81,000 square feet of development rights from the Century Association, a landmark cultural club building designed in 1891 by McKim Mead & White, at 3 East 43rd Street.
The transfers from these three sites will enable RFR to erect a building with some retail space, 241 hotel rooms and a score or so residential condominiums on the top 11 floors of the 55-story tower. Pelli Clarke Pelli, which designed One Beacon Court, the Museum of Modern Art Tower and the Wintergarden at the World Financial Center at Battery Park City, and the Sea Hawk Hotel and Resort in Fukuoka, Japan, is the architect of the proposed tower.
The new tower is setback on a clear-glass-clad base that is designed to complement the famous, landmark bank building on the southwest corner at 43rd Street that was designed in 1954 by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and is one of the hallmarks of mid-20th Century modern architecture in the city.
According to Michael Sillerman, the attorney representing the developers before the commission, the proposed tower needs some public approvals relating to setbacks and bulk. The rendering shown at today's hearing indicated that the rectilinear, setback tower will be clad in reflective glass.
Robert Tierney, the commission's chair, noted that the "74-711" application to permit the air rights transfer in exchange for a significant restoration and preservation plan for the landmark building was "totally more than adequate," adding that the commission was not discussing the "interesting and provocative" proposed new tower.
A statement read by the Municipal Art Society of New York, however, maintained that the new project's glass tower clashed with the dominant stone aesthetic of Fifth Avenue in midtown. "It has been the long-standing policy of MAS to encourage the continuation of the expression of stone along Fifth Avenue," it maintained, adding that "glass and steel buildings change the nature of the internationally-renowned avenue." The statement also noting that "the Manufacturers Hanover Trust building, an individual landmark, is obviously an exception" and "is revered precisely because it stands out about the Fifth Avenue buildings." The society therefore asked the architects to explore ways to incorporate stone into the new building's design to keep the context of Fifth Avenue intact."
Fifth Avenue, of course, has had previous glass "incursions" such as Olympic and Trump Towers and 717 Fifth Avenue whose Steuben Glass fountain and plaza were destroyed in an expansion some years ago.
Andrea Goldwyn speaking on behalf of the New York Landmarks Conservancy supported the preservation plan for the society and suggested it seek to have its impressive, skylit, library atrium designated an official city interior landmark. She also noted that her organization regrets the "demolition of several fine older structures" that are not protected by the City's Landmarks law at the site of the proposed new tower.
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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