GTS Approved (somewhat) by Community Board
From Chelsea Now
C.B. 4 to Seminary: Ninth Ave. building still too….
By Albert Amateau
Community Board 4 on Wednesday reaffirmed its response to the new plans for the General Theological Seminary’s proposed mixed-use seven-story building for Ninth Ave. and for a smaller academic building on 20th St. in the seminary’s Chelsea Sq. campus.
In a six-page statement to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the community board said “yes” to the scale of the project, reduced from 17 stories originally proposed nearly two years ago, but the board said it still has problems with the amount and treatment of glass in the design.
The community board’s June 6 statement to Landmarks was passed with a vote of 33 in favor, two opposed and one present but not eligible to vote. Nearly 20 people at the full board meeting made critical comments about the amount of glass in the project.
With the reduction in scale, the project being developed for the seminary by the Brodsky Organization and designed by Polshek and Partners needs only the L.P.C. certificate that it is appropriate for the Chelsea Historic District.
The Ninth Ave. building will have 57 residential condo units, which are expected to generate income to partially fund the long-deferred restoration and maintenance of the seminary’s mostly 19th-century buildings within “The Close,” between 20th and 21st Sts. and between Ninth and Tenth Aves.
The Ninth Ave. project will also include a new seven-story library that wraps around 21st St. The residential and library complex will be separated by a tall glass enclosed entry for the residential part.
On the 20th St. side of The Close, on the site of an existing tennis court, a new five-story brick building will contain academic and administrative space. The east side of the brick building will be faced with rusticated Manhattan schist to match a 19th-century building to the east, and a glass atrium between the old and the new buildings will form a new main entrance to the Seminary, replacing the current one on Ninth Ave.
The community board found the design of the Ninth Ave. building “inappropriate because of the size and treatment of the larger glass elements of the building.” The wide unbroken glass strip extending upward from the new Ninth Ave. residential entrance and the glass atrium on 20th St. were a special problem for board members concerned with the context of the seminary established by the 19th-century architect Charles Haight.
The top two set-back floors of the Ninth Ave. building also has too much glass and metal elements, according to the community board statement.
The long 22-month gestation of the latest plan has put pressure on the seminary and Brodsky to get the project underway as soon as possible, because construction costs are rising and are likely to result in further reduced revenue for the seminary’s preservation project.
Indeed, the community board’s statement to Landmarks said, “The board recognizes that the structures proposed in the current application will make at best only a small contribution to the financial needs of the seminary and the fulfillment of the preservation plan for the historic buildings. The board is deeply concerned about the survival of the General Theological Seminary, which has been at the center of the community since its beginnings and has helped maintain its identity across years of change.”