The Landmarks Preservation Commission today held a hearing on a proposed residential condominium development at 19-25 West 20th Street in Chelsea by Extell Development.

The company wants to erect a 15-story building on a vacant lot at 19 West 20th Street and add three residential floors to the six-story garage building that was erected in 1926 at 25 West 20th Street.

The garage operator has a long-term lease on the building and the three "spill-over" residential floors will be accessed from the new "infill" building. The lower two of the three planned added floors would be set back five feet from the garage facade and the top floor 15 feet.

Beyer Blinder Belle is the architect for the project, which would contain 18 residential condominium apartments.

Community Board 4 recently voted 26 to 1 with one abstention to recommend that the commission deny a certificate of appropriateness for the project because it was concerned that the combination of the two building lots was a circumvention of the city's regulations to prohibit "sliver" buildings and existing height regulations. The board's resolution also criticized what it termed "disharmonious building materials that have no relationship with the historic architectural fabric of the area."

The commission and some civic organizations, however, felt that many aspects of the proposal were appropriate.

The Historic Districts Council told the commission it found the restoration of the historic garage and the proposed signage "very appropriate" and was "pleased the see the rooftop addition to the garage defined on the exterior as a separate entity from the new building."

"However," it continued, "we feel it that it does not relate well enough the garage below in color, materials, or design details," adding that the addition "should be set back more and its design reconsidered to harmonize more with the original building."

The council liked the tripartite division of the facade of the new building but felt that its wide canopy was not appropriate and that the penthouse "either be forgotten all together or redesigned as a set back piece of the building."

Leo J. Blackman, vice president of The Drive to Protect the Ladies' Mile District, told the commission that his organization found the penthouse on the new building "too prominent" but said it appreciated that the applicant "has changed the initial design to incorporate many of our concerns."

Jack Beyer told the commission that old windows on the rear facade of the garage would not be replaced but bricked up and Stephen Byrns, a member of the commission suggested that louvers might be better than bricks. Mr. Byrns also suggested that corner windows on the east facade near the top of the new building be repeated on the west facade where they don't exist, likening them to "lanterns." Mr. Byrns said that the rooftop addition was too visible and "monolithic."

Pablo E. Vergoechea, vice chairman of the commission, said that the entrance base needed to be higher and that the cornice treatment needed to be more pronounced.

Commissioner Elizabeth Ryan remarked that the "infill lot is too narrow and the building is squeezed up and out of it and spills over."

Robert Tierney, the chairman of the commission, invited the applicant to come back after studying the suggestions, adding that the application is "almost there."