August 3, 2010
LPC Docket Number: 109241
Manhattan, Block: 228, Lot: 1
357 Canal Street – SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District
A store and loft building designed by W.T. Beers and built in 1855. Application is to install storefront infill.
HDC Testimony
This proposal will do much to improve 357 Canal Street, and in general HDC applauds the application. We do though have a few small comments we would like the Commission consider. In order to match that of the sister building 359, the storefront munton bar should be lowered slightly. The transom over the door on the Canal Street façade’s far left bay is out of proportion and a second transom bar like those on the neighboring buildings should be considered.
On the Wooster Street façade, brick might be better than existing roll down gates, but this area was never intended to be just a plain wall. The gates rolled up to reveal open stores during business hours. Bricking the openings in makes the solid façade even more permanent, not to mention the loss of depth and voids once provided by the stores. HDC asks that another design be considered, possibly with storefronts or display boxes, to enliven this piece of the street front.
LPC Determination: Approved
LPC Docket Number: 105632
Manhattan, Block: 550, Lot: 77
Washington Mews – Greenwich Village Historic District
A private street. Application is to reconstruct the street bed and sidewalks.
HDC Testimony
The Washington Mews are a charming slice of Greenwich Village history where the buildings are complimented by the cobbled street. HDC is wary of seeing wholesale alteration of the entire streetbed. No matter how carefully planned and executed, or possibly because of such carefulness, the patina and nonconformity of the existing will at best be diminished, at worst it will be lost and resemble a Hollywood set. Would it be possible to alter certain problem areas and retain the rest of historic street as is? Is it possible that only the sidewalks need to be ADA accessible? Or even just part of the sidewalk as #7 is to be the only ADA entrance? Certainly every roadbed in the city does not need to meet ADA standards.
LPC Determination: Approved with modifications
LPC Docket Number: 108591
Manhattan, Block: 1416, Lot: 7
211 East 61 Street – Treadwell Farm Historic District
A rowhouse built in 1875, and altered in the English Regency style by Harold Sterner, between 1940 and 1966. Application is to alter the primary façade.
HDC Testimony
Unlike a proposal last week in this district which took an out-of-character 1960’s brick face façade and returned it to its tax photo appearance that matched others in its row, this proposal just seems to pick pieces off buildings on the block to combine to make a pleasant façade, but not one with any real history on this house.
What is historic here is the charming façade design by Harold Sterner, a New York City artist and architect whose most famous work is, or was, Amster Yard. Although this façade came along a few decades after most of the district’s other alterations, it is very much in keeping with their quirky design and spirit that give these two blocks their special sense of place. HDC encourages the retention of the existing details, large and small, that add up to create a lovely, contextual rowhouse in the Treadwell Farm Historic District.
LPC Determination: Denied