March 16, 2010
LPC Docket Number: 105885
Manhattan, Block: 847, Lot: 16
873 Broadway – Ladies’ Mile Historic District
LPC Docket Number: 105886
Manhattan, Block: 847, Lot: 7501
888 Broadway – Ladies’ Mile Historic District
A second Empire Commercial style store and loft building designed by Griffith Thomas and built in 1868 and 1888. A Commercial Palace style store and warehouse building designed by William Wheeler Smith and built in 1882. Application is to install an electrical sidewalk vault.
HDC Testimony
HDC asks that more thought be put into protecting these granite sidewalk slabs, historic paving materials called out in the Ladies’ Mile Historic District Designation Report as elements that help contribute to the district’s character. In many cases, these materials are contemporaneous with the buildings they front.
First, alternate sites where there is no existing historic fabric should be explored for the proposed electrical sidewalk vaults. At 873 Broadway, can the vault be set against the building where there is now concrete, as is planned at 888? Or the stretch of concrete just to the west? If relocation of the vaults is truly not an option, we ask that the granite slabs themselves be relocated and reused. Can a piece of it be used in place of the tinted concrete to surround the vault at both locations? Commissioner Vengoechea’s idea of using some other stone in place of the tinted concrete should also be considered. While concrete can sometimes be tinted to match the color of a stone, it cannot match the texture. Certainly, other locations in the Ladies’ Mile, including just around the corner on Broadway, could use removed granite. We are happy to hear that relocation and reuse is planned now.
Historic districts and their historic fabric require a different level of thought and caret than may usually be required in similar projects elsewhere. It is an extra effort well worth it though, and we urge that it be made here in the Ladies’ Mile Historic District.
LPC Determination: Incomplete
LPC Docket Number: 101538
Manhattan, Block: 1120, Lot: 38
12-14 West 68th Street – Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District
A Queen Anne style house designed by Louis Thouvard and built in 1895. Application is to modify an addition to the 1925 studio building which was constructed without LPC permits.
HDC Testimony
HDC’s stance remains what it was last spring when a legalization was proposed for the constructed addition – this is not a proposal the Commission would approve if this had not already been built. The extra floor changes the massing of the historic 1925 addition by disrupting not only its relationship with the 1895 building so that it is no longer subordinate as the commission always asks new additions to be, but it also radically alters the way the building relates to its landmarked neighbors.
The proposal calls for removing the addition and rebuilding it, slightly shorter with new details. HDC asks that this work be cut by half. Once the illegal addition is removed, leave it off, and return the 1925 structure to its original form.
LPC Determination: Incomplete
LPC Docket Number: 105764
Manhattan, Block: 1493, Lot: 60
20 East 82nd Street – Metropolitan Museum Historic District
A French Beaux-Arts style townhouse designed by Richard W. Buckley, and built in 1901. Application is to install a gate at the entrance.
HDC Testimony
While HDC understands the special security needs of the mission, we are opposed to placing a gate where none was historically.
The examples of stoop gates in the area all swing in; they have areaways large enough to accommodate them. The stoop of 20 East 82nd Street, on the other hand, begins right behind the newel posts making an in-swing gate impossible. Steps, such as setting the gate back, have been taken to minimize how far the gate would swing out on to this busy, narrow sidewalk at a site so close to a tree pit. The proposal though is still essentially to put a gate where one never existed, one that will interfere with the sidewalk and the sense of place of the block. We appreciate the design which mimics the existing ironwork but find the height, 7’ 10”, troubling – too tall to be neighborly, but not necessarily tall enough or solid enough to do any more good than a shorter gate.
If a stoop gate is approved here, it must not be used as a precedent for any other application. The commission has a long tradition of not approving stoop gates and other security metal work throughout the city, especially here on the Upper East Side, and instead encouraging applicants to find alternatives that will meet their needs and the landmark’s.
LPC Determination: Approved with modifications
LPC Docket Number: 104760
Manhattan, Block: 1390, Lot: 17
960 Madison Avenue – Upper East Side Historic District
A neo-Grec style rowhouse designed by James frame and built in 1877-78 altered in 1916 with a two-story storefront extension. Application is to alter window openings.
HDC Testimony
Although labeled green in the Madison Avenue Storefront Master Plan, this proposed alteration is so drastic that it does not meet the standards of those very liberal guide lines for a staff level permit. The existing punched openings relate nicely to the upper floors of one of the most intact building on the block. The tax photo shows elegant casement windows in these openings which if added would add charm and distinction to this two-story storefront extension. Instead of a design that purely meets present-day commercial whims, HDC urges a plan that respects and appreciates the existing history of the landmark.
LPC Determination: Approved with modifications