2 Cooper Square: Review and Ratings

Review of 2 Cooper Square by Carter Horsley

Atlantic Development Group, which is headed by Peter Fine, has changed its renovation plans for the Samuel Tredwell Skidmore House at 37 East 4th Street from a single-owner townhouse to a 10-unit rental building, according to an August, 2010 article by Pete at curbed.com.

The 1845 Greek Revival building is a city landmark and it is adjacent to Atlantic's large and very handsome, new rental building just to the east on Bowery.

The new building, which has been designed by GKV Associates, is known as 2 Cooper Square. It has 134 apartments and it has brown-brick masonry façades with rounded corners and its top 9 floors are setback on a five-story base.

The city is planning to block off Bowery for several blocks south of 8th Street and convert it to a pedestrian plaza, which is likely to make this area considerably more attractive as there are several nearby new buildings of distinction including the Morphosis-design academic building for Cooper Union, the Cooper Square Hotel and 445 Lafayette Street.

An article by Albert Amateau in the July 20-26, 2005 edition of The Village said that "the developers who control the landmarked but dilapidated Tredwell Skidmore House on E. Fourth St. near Cooper Square, asked the Landmarks Preservation Commission on July 12 for permission to build an 18-story residential tower on the adjoining vacant lot," adding that "the commission declined to take any action after expressing serious concerns about Atlantic Development Group s plans, especially since court-ordered repairs on the 1845 Tredwell Skidmore house at 37 E. Fourth St. have not been completed."

"'We complained bitterly last April that the landmark building had been allowed to deteriorate for 20 years in the hopes [by the owner] that it would eventually prove to be unsaveable,' said Doris Diether, a member of the Community Board 2 landmarks committee. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, the Historic Districts Council, the Municipal Art Society, the Society for the Architecture of New York and the Noho Neighborhood Association chimed in on the chorus of protest. Indeed, the Landmarks Preservation Commission went to court last year to compel the then owner, the Sol Goldman Estate, to stabilize the building and make repairs. The Goldman Estate put a new roof and added structural steel supports to stabilize the Tredwell Skidmore house but other court-ordered repairs have not been done.

"Meanwhile, Atlantic Development acquired a 99-year lease on the building and the adjoining lot to the east. Atlantic also acquired the development rights of the vacant property to the west, between the Tredwell House and the Old Merchant's House, a designated landmark built 13 years before the Tredwell House. The latter of the two lots, where the Department of Environmental Protection is constructing a shaft for the city's Third Water Tunnel, is to become a city park when the water tunnel project is completed at the end of 2007. Atlantic seeks to transfer the development rights to the vacant lot east of the Tredwell Skidmore house for the new project and proposes to completely restore the landmark for use as a single-family dwelling."

According to the article, "The landmark commissioners also said they found the size of the proposed building, 177 feet tall on the Cooper Square side, to be excessive....Commissioners also objected to the synthetic limestone façade of the proposed building. But they were especially unwilling to sign off on the project until the Tredwell House is restored to as good a condition as it was when it was designated a landmark in 1970. The Samuel Tredwell Skidmore House was built in 1845 by a merchant cousin of Seabury Tredwell, who owned what is now known as the Old Merchant's House, built in 1832 at 29 E. Fourth St. The Old Merchant's House, also a designated landmark, was restored to nearly original condition, with furnishings from the period, and is maintained as a museum by a nonprofit organization."

David W. Dunlap described the dilapidated Tredwell house at 37 East 4th Street in a December 28, 2004 article in The New York Times as "a three-dimensional, bricks-and-mortar definition of forlorn."

The new, "post-modern," rental building at 2 Cooper Square contrasts dramatically with some of the very modern new towers on the Bowery and around Cooper Union such as the Cooper Square Hotel, the new academic building by Morphosis and 445 Lafayette Street by Gwathmey-Siegel.

It has a rooftop swimming pool, a club lounge with a fireplace, a 15-person screening room, a fitness center, a meeting room, 24-hour concierge service, a bicycle room and an on-site building manager.