CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS
BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN
115555- Block 744, lot 10-
353 West 20th Street – Chelsea Historic District
A Greek Revival/Italianate style rowhouse built in 1852-53. Application is to construct a rear yard addition and rooftop addition.
HDC is opposed to this application as it removes far too much historic fabric and character from the rear façade. While the commission provides greater leniency for alterations to façades that are not visible from the public way, the removal of virtually all of the wall and replacing it with glass and steel is too much. It creates a façade that has no relation to its neighbors or to the building itself. HDC asks that a redesign incorporate some acknowledgement that this is a Greek Revival-Italianate style rowhouse from 1852 in Chelsea
CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS
BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN
114862- Block 777, lot 77-
51 West 83rd Street – Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District
An Anglo-Italianate style rowhouse built in 1847. Application is to construct rear yard and rooftop additions, and excavate the rear yard.
HDC finds this application to be inappropriate for a number of reasons. The proposed would remove a considerable amount of historic fabric and replace it with an extremely glassy façade. The rear yard extension would extend out eleven feet, considerably more than neighboring buildings. The rooftop addition, while not visible, when considered with the rear yard addition is just all too much for one rowhouse.
CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS
BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN
118434- Block 1378, lot 21-
711 Madison Avenue – Upper East Side Historic District
A neo-Grec style rowhouse designed by Charles Baxter and built in 1877, altered in the 20th century. Application is to alter the East 63rd Street façade.
HDC is concerned that this proposal destroys too much historic fabric and rearranges a 19th-century façade all for the whim, not the necessity, of a retail tenant. This rear five-story extension with ground floor entrance and storefront was added to 711 Madison Avenue in 1884, seven years after the main building’s construction, and the two match in their materials, design details and proportions. While the application claims the side-entrance will be replicated, that is no match for original material, especially on the ground floor where every nuance is readily seen. The loss of the existing copper and glass storefront will also be a noticeable departure from the historic conditions. With the first two stories of the avenue façade now missing, it seems a shame to lose what remains on the same floors on the street façade.
CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS
BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN
117288- Block 1381, lot 69-
2 East 67th Street – Upper East Side Historic District
A neo-Italian Renaissance style apartment building designed by Rosario Candela and built in 1927-28. Application is to establish a Master Plan governing the future installation of through-the-wall air conditioning units.
While HDC is happy to see provisions for the removal of through-the-wall-air conditioning units, we are concerned about allowing further installations of such features and the removal of limestone, a key component in Rosario Candela’s neo-Italian Renaissance style apartment building at 2 East 67th Street. The various installations and deinstallations will result in a hodge-podge of conditions, something Master Plans are created to remedy. It seems that, if central air conditioning is the eventual goal, more temporary, less intrusive measures such as through-the-window units should be used in the mean time.