A spokesperson for the Landmarks Preservation Commission confirmed to CityRealty.com Monday night that the commission has decided not to hold a hearing on the possible landmark designation of the Hotel Pennsylvania on the east side of Seventh Avenue between 32nd and 33rd Streets.
The hotel is owned by Vornado Real Estate Trust and there have been reports that it wanted to demolish the hotel and develop a large office building on the site with air rights transferred from the Farley Post Office on Eighth Avenue.
Vornado has entered a joint venture with Related Companies to redevelop the post office and the plan included a relocation to the western half of the post office site of Madison Square Garden that would permit a major renovation of Penn Station.
The owners of the Garden, however, have recently asked its architects to prepare renovation plans for the existing Garden.
While the landmarks commission's decision not to consider the Hotel Pennsylvania as a candidate for landmark designation is good news for Vornado's plans and while state officials maintain they are still hopeful that the Garden will relocate, other components of the Bloomberg Administration's very ambitious plans for the Far West Midtown area are still in flux.
Funding for an expansion of the Javits Convention Center and for a second station of the No. 7 line subway extension - both critical components of plans to improve the area, which has been rezoned for massive new commercial and residential development - has not been finalized.
Furthermore, Brookfield Properties did not submit a second bid for the redevelopment of the MTA rail yards this week and has recently disclosed that it plans to build a $600 million platform over rail yards to the east for the development of about 5 million square feet of offices. Brookfield was one of five development ventures that submitted plans this summer to the MTA and its plan was the overwhelming favorite of surfers on the WiredNewYork.com website.
Its plan for the MTA Yards was designed by several different architects and included two office towers at its eastern end designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The new Brookfield plan to the east includes two office towers designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill that are remarkably similar to the ones in their MTA proposal.
Last December, the Historic Districts Council, one of the city's leading preservationist organizations, sent a letter to Robert H. Tierney, the chairman of the commission, urging the designation of the Hotel Pennsylvania as a landmark.
"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."
In November, 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.
The hotel is owned by Vornado Real Estate Trust and there have been reports that it wanted to demolish the hotel and develop a large office building on the site with air rights transferred from the Farley Post Office on Eighth Avenue.
Vornado has entered a joint venture with Related Companies to redevelop the post office and the plan included a relocation to the western half of the post office site of Madison Square Garden that would permit a major renovation of Penn Station.
The owners of the Garden, however, have recently asked its architects to prepare renovation plans for the existing Garden.
While the landmarks commission's decision not to consider the Hotel Pennsylvania as a candidate for landmark designation is good news for Vornado's plans and while state officials maintain they are still hopeful that the Garden will relocate, other components of the Bloomberg Administration's very ambitious plans for the Far West Midtown area are still in flux.
Funding for an expansion of the Javits Convention Center and for a second station of the No. 7 line subway extension - both critical components of plans to improve the area, which has been rezoned for massive new commercial and residential development - has not been finalized.
Furthermore, Brookfield Properties did not submit a second bid for the redevelopment of the MTA rail yards this week and has recently disclosed that it plans to build a $600 million platform over rail yards to the east for the development of about 5 million square feet of offices. Brookfield was one of five development ventures that submitted plans this summer to the MTA and its plan was the overwhelming favorite of surfers on the WiredNewYork.com website.
Its plan for the MTA Yards was designed by several different architects and included two office towers at its eastern end designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The new Brookfield plan to the east includes two office towers designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill that are remarkably similar to the ones in their MTA proposal.
Last December, the Historic Districts Council, one of the city's leading preservationist organizations, sent a letter to Robert H. Tierney, the chairman of the commission, urging the designation of the Hotel Pennsylvania as a landmark.
"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."
In November, 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.
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.
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