The Landmarks Preservation Commission will hold a hearing January 20 on a proposal to cover two low-rise, mid-block buildings in TriBeCa with a "stone cloud."

The buildings are the Second Empire style store and loft building at 78 Leonard Street that was built in 1864-5 and the Italianate style store and loft building designed by James H. Giles that was built in 1860-2.

The buildings were combined some time ago to create a residential condominium project that now wants to add a "rooftop addition" that has been described by the project's architect, Henry Smith Miller of Smith-Miller + Hawkinson Architects as a "stone cloud."

According to an article by Julie Shapiro in the January 2 - 8, 2009 edition of the Downtown Express, "the two-story mesh metal topper for 78-80 Leonard Street will be impossible to see from the street," and "the multi-faceted condo addition looks like a piece of paper that was folded into an oriami pattern and then unfolded again, with creases remaining."

"The 9,350-square-foot addition has no windows but is made of tin, wire glass and corrugated metal," the article continued, adding that "Smith-Miller was inspired by rooftop mechanical equipment and the gritty feeling of darker, less polished materials."

The article quoted Barbara Resnicow of Second Development Services Inc., the developer of the project, as stating that the project has a potential investor but the funding is not definite.

The project was approved by Community Board 1 last month by a vote of 32 to 5 and the article quoted Bruce Ehrmann, the co-chairman of the board's landmarks committee as stating that "we all liked the design very much," adding that the board called the design "arresting and aesthetically breathtaking."

The building at 80 Leonard was derelict until Second Development converted it to apartments in the 1990s and the two buildings now contain 18 vacant units, some of which are duplexes. The rooftop addition will contain 8 apartments.