NEWS: 980 Madison Avenue nearing the midpoint
Drama Resumes on East Side Over Aby Rosen’s Proposal
BY DAVID LOMBINO – Staff Reporter of the Sun
January 15, 2007
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/46651
The drama surrounding a developer’s proposal to build a 22-story elliptical glass tower on top of the limestone Parke-Bernet Gallery building on Madison Avenue between East 76th and East 77th streets will resume tomorrow in front of the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
In a telephone interview yesterday, the developer, Aby Rosen, said he is willing to modify the design of the proposed apartment building, including the use of more masonry and changing the color of the building to “champagne” from silver. He said the changes would make the proposed modern addition harmonize better with its base, a five-story building built in 1949.
“There will be changes,” Mr. Rosen said. “We want to hear feedback from the commissioners and come back with something that is more in line with their views.”
Tomorrow, the Landmarks Commission can vote to reject the proposal, propose modifications, or approve it outright. Mr. Rosen and his architect, Lord Norman Foster, will present the original designs and answer questions from the Landmarks commissioners. Mr. Rosen said he prefers a postponement and the chance to work collaboratively with the commissioners. Preservation groups and some neighbors are seeking immediate, decisive rejection.
Since renderings were first revealed in early October, the project has been the talk of the neighborhood. Proponents say the sleek modern design would enliven the neighborhood, while critics say it is out of character with the rest of the Upper East Side Historic District. More than 200 people crammed into a Landmarks public hearing last fall, and the commission has received more than 600 letters and e-mails concerning the project, some in favor, some against.
In the interview, Mr. Rosen said the Landmarks Commission should allow developers to expand buildings in historic districts, enabling the city to blend the new with the old.
“If we freeze all those and don’t find a way to add vertically, we will be living in a medieval town in 50 or a hundred years,” Mr. Rosen said. “We need to find a way to grow.”
His project has received strong support from several prominent members of the neighborhood’s cultural elite, including financier Ronald Perelman, art dealer Larry Gagosian, and artist Jeff Koons, who say the building would spark the neighborhood’s fading reputation as a creative force. They back Mr. Rosen’s argument that an “iconic” modernist building and the addition of public art space breath fresh air into the artistic community. Last fall, the Whitney Museum announced it would seek to expand Downtown and abandon decade-old plans to add to its existing space on Madison Avenue.
“The galleries are fleeing, the restaurants are not there. Every street has no life. By 7 o’clock it’s dead there,” Mr. Rosen said. “Now the Whitney is going Downtown, it is even more important to have this.”
The proposed tower, across the street from the Carlyle Hotel between 76th and 77th Streets, would contain about 18 full-floor units and duplexes spread on a total of 22 floors. In addition, Mr. Rosen has proposed to restore the Parke-Bernet gallery to its original condition, and add 45,000 square feet of public gallery space and roof garden, spaces, he notes, that are comparable to the size of the Whitney Museum’s gallery space.
Mr. Foster’s designs include the “Gherkin” building in London and the new Hearst Tower on Eighth Avenue in Midtown. To go ahead, the addition to the building at 980 Madison Avenue would have to receive approval by the Landmarks Commission and then pass muster with the City Planning Commission and the City Council.
The Community Board that represents the neighborhood rejected the proposal in an advisory vote in October by a margin of 20 to 13. At a contentious board meeting, one area resident, Daniel Goldberg, called the tower “a glass dagger plunged into the heart of the Upper East Side.”
The executive director of the Historic Districts Council, Simeon Bankoff, said the commission’s decision is crucial for the future of the city’s more than 80 historic districts.
“This will do irreparable damage to the streetscape of Madison Avenue, all for the benefit of the developer and the 18 families who get to live there,” Mr. Bankoff said. “They are attempt to bend the law to create a palace for plutocrats.”
If Mr. Rosen’s project is approved, he said a precedent would be set that would severely threaten the power of the commission in rejecting rooftop additions.
“If this is allowed, it opens up the door to see every building as a platform for a tower thrusting out of it,” Mr. Bankoff said.
The New-York Historical Society, he noted, is “already revving up their campaign” for a similar tower addition to its building on Central Park West.
Two years ago, Mr. Rosen, the president of RFR Holding LLC, bought the Parke-Bernet Gallery, the former home of Sotheby’s, for about $120 million. Mr. Rosen has said the total cost of adding the tower would be about $180 million, and he doesn’t expect to begin construction until 2008 or 2009. Mr. Rosen considers himself a preservationist, and has received accolades for his restoration of two landmarked Park Avenue office buildings, the Lever House and the Seagram Building. The high-pitched landmarks battle prompted writer and preservationist Tom Wolfe to pen a 3,496-word op-ed in the New York Times, “The (Naked) City and the Undead,” slamming the Landmark’s Commission and mocking Mr. Rosen and his plans. That essay prompted a cover story this week in the Village Voice, “Has Tom Wolfe Blown it?” suggesting the author’s op-ed was an attempt at self-promotion.
Mr. Rosen called Mr. Wolfe’s oped “insulting ” and the act of someone who was trying to revive a dying career.
“This is a man who has lost a little of his luster,” Mr. Rosen said. “White suits alone won’t keep in you in the limelight.”
The Landmarks Commission will hear Mr. Rosen’s case tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. at the Surrogate’s Courthouse near City Hall.