July 21, 2009
LPC Docket Number: 098016
Queens, Block: 1009, Lot: 1
303 Manor Road – Douglaston Historic District
A Colonial Revival style freestanding house designed by Hobart A. Walker and built in 1912. Application is to construct an addition, modify a driveway, replace retaining walls and a deck, and install HVAC equipment.
HDC Testimony
HDC finds that many pieces of this application are not harmonious with this Colonial Revival style house or the Douglaston Historic District as a whole.
The addition on top of the enclosed porch that makes up part of the front faзade changes the bulk of the house. Such 1-story sun porches are a typical feature in the district, and they help give the houses a balance – room without being overwhelming and blocky. Just because such additions have been built before,as shown in the examples, does not mean they should continue to be built until every single 1-story enclosed porch in the district is gone.
In contrast to the simple, Colonial Revival style house, the deck is a very complex, confusing structure with too many levels, stairs, latices, and railings. The faux materials (found in much of the proposal) are an unfortunate choice for this district and only heighten the difference between the deck and the historic house.
HDC finds the driveway and retaining wall to be very stiff and unnatural. The gentle slope and stones that exist now are more in keeping with bucolic, natural feel that Douglaston’s original designers sought to achieve.
303 Manor Road is a very charming home with many well preserved details. Alterations to it should be sensitive to its nature and that of the Douglaston Historic District.
LPC Determination: Incomplete
LPC Docket Number: 097873
Manhattan, Block: 174, Lot: 31
361 Broadway – Individual Landmark
A Classical Revival style commercial building designed by W. Wheeler Smith and built in 1881-82. Application is to replace portions of the cast iron facade with glass fiber reinforced concrete.
HDC Testimony
The James S. White Building, one of the city’s largest cast-iron buildings, is notable as one of the architect W. Wheeler Smith’s few works with this iconic material. The designation report praises the individual landmark saying “its elevations, composed of rows of columns supporting heavy entablatures, are adorned with some of the finest and most inventive cast-iron ornament anywhere in New York or the United States.”
Reading the designation report, it makes little sense why massive pieces of a building famous for its cast iron should be replaced with another material. Does the entire entabulatures on five stories on both facades of this corner building really need to be reduced to scrap metal? HDC feels that more documentation of conditions is needed beyond one photo to show that problems requiring such drastic intervention exist. Every attempt should be made to keep the original fabric or at least replace in kind.
HDC does not feel that so much of what the designation report calls “some of the finest and most inventive detail ever cast into an iron-fronted building” should be recast into glass fiber reinforced concrete.
LPC Determination: Approved
LPC Docket Number: 099127
Manhattan, Block: 522, Lot: 14
640 Broadway, aka 172 Crosby, 60-74 Bleecker – NoHo Historic District
A Classical Revival style store, loft and office building designed by DeLamos and Cordes, and built in 1896-97. Application is to create a Master Plan governing the future instillation of storefront infill.
HDC Testimony
HDC is happy to see a Master Plan being proposed for this grand store, loft and office building. In general, the application is headed in the right direction, and we just urge the retention and use of the historic fabric as much as possible. Of the two possible proposals on board LM007 for Crosby Street, HDC would like to see a combination of the two – reusing existing fabric and design details in the more symmetrical first proposal that fits within the storefront opening. We have a quibble with one other little detail. On board LM004, photos of the existing bulkhead show a raised border enframement, not an applied raised panel as proposed in the drawing.
LPC Determination: Approved with modifications
LPC Docket Number: 098652
Manhattan, Block: 609, Lot: 75
159 West 13th Street – Greenwich Village Historic District
A rowhouse built in 1847-1848 and altered in the 20th century. Application is to install windows and a cornice, and re-clad the brick facade.
HDC Testimony
HDC finds that while this proposal has some good features, it is a strange mixture of the 1840s and 20th century designs, a half restoration. Retaining the 20th century windows but adding brownstone lintels and sills feels inauthentic. If the applicant is willing to go through the trouble of recladding the brick facade (as well as reconstruct a cornice) why not take the opportunity to change all the windows, not just those on the parlor level?
LPC Determination: Incomplete
LPC Docket Number: 097994
Manhattan, Block: 821, Lot: 21
33 West 19th St, aka 28 West 20th St – Ladies’ Mile Historic District
A neo-Renaissance style store and loft building designed by H. Waring Howard and built in 1902-03. Application is to construct an addition and replace storefront infill.
HDC Testimony
HDC is strongly opposed to this application that boils down to constructing another building on top of this landmark. 33 West 19th Street is not a base, it is a completed structure with a fully planned and realized design. Part of the charm of the Ladies’ Mile Historic District is its varied heights, and this can only be retained only by preserving the area’s smaller structures. As the designation report points out, this 6-story store and loft form is “characteristic of the later development phase of this district.” This character should be preserved, not smothered in an addition nearly equal in size.
This is a very thoughtful, creative, interesting project, and it could even possibly be a good new building in an historic district, but it should not be added on top of an existing one.
HDC is troubled by the continuing trend of looking at our city’s smaller structures as bases for larger ones, of preying on them rather than appreciating them for what they are. Approving this application would make a mockery of the Commission’s decades of work to keep rooftop additions minimally visible and would signal to other developers that the sky’s limi,t even in historic districts.
LPC Determination: Incomplete
LPC Docket Number: 100318
Manhattan, Block: 1495, Lot: 4
1025 5th Ave – Metropolitan Museum Historic District
The entrance to an apartment building designed by Raymond Loewy and William Smith and built in 1955. Application is to install a new canopy and entryway surround.
HDC Testimony
HDC applauds the applicant for returning the marble frame to 1025 5th Avenue. The frame, which creates a street wall of sorts at this spot on the avenue, was, and will be again, an integral part of the 1955 design.
We find the awning though to be needless, and it takes away from the swooping concrete canopy, the other major piece of this unusual entrance. If something must be here, it should be more transparent so that the view of the original design is not blocked and more stream-lined to fit the mid-century design.
1025 5th Avenue is really a midblock building with a 100-foot arcade and 17-foot long inclined, cantilevered canopy of reinforced concrete connecting it to the avenue. The important design elements that allowed the building to claim its prestigious address should be highlighted, not hidden.
LPC Determination: Approved