The Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public meeting last night at the Puffin Room Gallery at 435 Broome Street on a proposed extension of the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District and plans to put it on its calendar for formal consideration June 23.

The extension of the district was originally proposed in 2006 by the Metropolitan Chapter of The Victorian society of America and the proposal has been endorsed by Community Board 2, the SoHo Alliance and Friends of SoHo.

It would include 72 buildings on the west side of West Broadway between Houston Street and the southwest corner of Broome Street and on the east side of Crosby Street from just south of Spring Street to the south side of Howard Street as well as the buildings on the north side of Broome Street between Crosby and Lafayette streets and the buildings on the south side of Howard Street between Broadway and Crosby Street.

The SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District was designated in 1973 and contains the world's largest concentration of Victorian full and partial cast-iron-fronted facades on 26 blocks south of Houston Street.

In a 47-page document about the proposed extension, the Victorian Society's Metropolitan Chapter noted that "the boundaries of the designated historic district do not reflect wither the full complement of distinctive cast-iron-fronted buildings or the natural borders of the nineteenth-century commercial district that gave rise to this and other characteristic architecture."

Ever since the designation of the district, Margot Gayle, one of the society's founding members, was "concerned about the future of the cast-iron-fronted buildings that were excluded from the district's boundaries," and a committee of the society concluded that the district's boundaries "are indeed arbitrary and the buildings on the district's eastern and western edges are worthy of inclusion in an expanded historic district."

"As a matter of principle," the report continued, "historic districts should include both sides of a street" and "it is fortunate that over thirty years after the designation of the Soho-Cast Iron Historic District, the areas that should have originally been included within the boundaries of the district, but which were excluded, still retain much architectural integrity."

The proposed extension would include some very fine buildings such as 28 Howard Street.

28 Howard Street was designed D. & J. Jardine in 1872 for F. G. Frazer and its Crosby Street facade divided the building's 12-bay, Italianate/Neo-Grec facade into three sections by incorporating unusual panels of horizontal reeding with the result "a striking and lively facade," the report said, adding that the architectural firm "although relatively unknown today, was one of the most creative firms in the post-Civil War era."

Another standout is 134-140 Grand Street on the northeast corner of Crosby Street which was designed in 1869 in the French Second Empire style by William Field & Son for Charles Hastings. The report noted that "in the 1960s, much of the detailing on the mansard roof, including the elaborate dormers, bull's-eye windows, urban and finials, was removed" and "more recently in 2004, the mansard roof was partially restored with faux slate shingles."

Other highlights of the proposed district are 425-7 Broome Street at the corner of Crosby Street which was designed in the Neo-Grec style in 1874 by Edward H. Kendall and the Italianate style building at 386-8 West Broadway designed in 1871 by Robert Mook, one of seven buildings designed by Mook for Amos R. Eno.