The Historic Districts Council, one of the city's leading preservationist organizations, last week sent a letter to Robert H. Tierney, the chairman of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, urging the landmark designation of the Hotel Pennsylvania on the east side of Seventh Avenue between 32nd and 33rd Streets.

"Much discussion, planning and money have gone into the planning of the revival of the Pennsylvania Station area. It is ironic that the Hotel Pennsylvania, designed by the same architectural firm [McKim, Mead & White as the station, should not be part of these plans. Additionally, in this boom time of New York City hotels, what was thought to be the largest hotel in the world at the time of its opening should not be consigned to the dustbin of history," wrote Simon Bankoff, executive director of the council.

"After designing Pennsylvania Station and the Farley Post Office, the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White was commissioned in 1917 to design and construct a hotel to accommodate the railroad's passengers. The elegant hotel...opened two years later" and "its Cafe Rouge was one of the most popular nightclubs in the city during the 1930s and 1940s featuring such performers as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, the Dorsey Brothers and the Glenn Miller Orchestra who immortalized in song the hotel's phone number, Pennsylvania 6-5000," Mr. Bankoff wrote, urging that "we respectfully ask that a designation hearing be held for this significant, endangered building."

Last month, Community Board 5 voted 21 to 8 to 8 with two present and not voting to recommend that the Hotel Pennsylvania be designated an official city landmark by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

During its "public session," the board heard testimony from many employees at the hotel including its doorman that the preservation of the hotel was important to save jobs, an emotional issue that directly related to the building's merits as a potential landmark. Richard Collins told the meeting that the last band to play at the hotel was the Buddy Rich band in 1980 with singers Mel Torme and Helen O'Connell.

The board's resolution noted that the chief designer of the hotel at McKim, Mead & White was "William Symmes Richardson, who also helped design Pennsylvania Station, as well as the National City Bank Building in New York, the Girard Trust Company Building in Philadelphia and the Bank of Montreal, Canada." It also noted that Ellsworth Statler was contracted to run to hotel that originally had 2,200 bathrooms, 3,537 beds and the world's first 'high rise' elevators.

The community board's vote is advisory and not binding on the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Nonetheless, its vote and the letter from the Historic Districts Council are likely to slow down the momentum that had been building in recent months to demolish the hotel in the wake of reports that Merrill Lynch wanted to lease the property from Vornado Real Estate Trust for 65 years for $1 billion and erect a skyscraper with large trading floors.