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The Landmarks Preservation Commission today granted a certificate of appropriateness for a 8-unit, residential condominium building at 41-3 Bond Street that has shutters on its front facade and a very modern glass and metal rear facade.

The 8-story project is being developed by Adam Gordon, who recently acquired the famous Bouwerie Lane Theater on the north side of the same street at 54 Bond Street on the northwest corner at The Bowery.

Steven Harris is the architect for the new building and he also designed Mr. Gordon's townhouse at 92 Jane Street.

The new, limestone-clad building will be distinguished by its traditional-looking, metal window shutters on the second through the seventh floors. The design also calls for a deep overhang above the set-back top floor to create shows like a cornice although it does not extend beyond the building line. In addition, the building's elegant design calls for a very thin glass canopy that would protrude about 8 feet in front of the building and be hung from rods that diagonally attach to the building's facade.

The design also has flowerboxes in all the windows on the second through the seventh floors.

The building would be the first new one in the recently designated extension of the NoHo Historic District that has made such famous other recently designed and built buildings on the same cobblestone block as 25, 40 and 48 Bond Street landmarks.

At its June 17, 2008 first hearing on the project, Pablo E. Vengoechea, vice chairman of the commission indicated that perhaps the building's 110-foot-six-inch height could be lowered a bit and Commissioner Joan Gerner suggested that perhaps some limestone could be inserted beneath the canopy and above the ground floor windows.

The revised design approved today is about 4 feet lower, and the architect inserted a 15-inch-high limestone strip beneath the project's canopy.

In addition, in response to comments by Commissioner Steven Byrns that the facade was almost too jewel-like, Mr. Harris roughened up the rustication of the limestone facade on the ground floor.

Mr. Vengoechea, however, remarked that while he considered the design "very handsome," he was concerned that "the changes were not enough and a little too subtle" for what has been an "industrial" neighborhood.

Commissioner Margery Perlmutter, however, said that she regarded the design was an "interpretation," adding that "the neighborhood's becoming an elegant residential neighborhood, that's part of the reality."

Commissioner Libby Ryan said she felt "it fits in well" and Robert Tierney, the commission's chairman, said he "enthusiastically supports" the revised design and most commissioners stated that they felt that a web-like backing for the ground-floor piers that the architect offered as an "industrial" touch was discretionary.
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.