NEWS: Glassing in a landmark lobby
From the New York Daily News
Landmark lobbying
By PAUL D. COLFORD
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Sunday, January 7th, 2007
The lobby of AT&T’s former headquarters is one of the most magnificent spaces in the city, so unusual that it was granted landmark status six months ago.
But now the panel that deemed it “one of the great monumental classical interiors” must decide whether the new owner can build three stores and escalators inside 195 Broadway.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission will review plans for the templelike space – with its forest of marble columns – at a hearing tomorrow morning. Then there could be months of discussion before the commission grants or rejects the request by L&L Holdings Co. for permission to make the changes.
L&L Chairman David Levinson, who bought the 29-story building in 2005 and won protective status for its exterior and interior in July, declined to comment. His spokesman said it was too soon to identify stores that might move in.
Illustrations filed with the Landmarks Commission by L&L’s architects, Gabellini Sheppard Associates, show the largest of the three shops would cover 4,360 square feet.
Two new escalators near the 195 Broadway entrance and another off Fulton St. would link the lobby to the subway and a lower Dey St. concourse, which will connect the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Fulton Transit Center and the World Trade Center PATH station. Glass panels would enclose the stores and outline a pedestrian galleria cutting across the building’s lobby from Dey to Fulton Sts.
The use of glass appears to reflect the owner’s wish to preserve views of the lobby’s coffered, 40-foot ceiling and its expanse of columns, marble flooring, alabaster chandeliers and polished bronze.
But some preservationists are concerned the retail outlets would ruin an architectural gem.
“You would still be dividing up a dignified space that relies on being large and whole,” said architect Robert Kornfeld of the Historic Districts Council, which is opposed to the plan.
“When you picture that space with counters and tables and cash registers, it’s going to be like the interior of a department store, except with glass partitions all over the place.”
Downtown Community Board 1 recently offered qualified support for L&L’s plans.
In a 36-to-3 vote, the board recommended that “much of this program be approved” but expressed concern about how merchandise and signs would be displayed.
Constructed between 1912 and 1922, the building was AT&T’s headquarters until the telephone giant sold it to developer Peter Kalikow in 1983 and moved to 550 Madison Ave. Tenants now include Thomson Financial and Morgan Stanley.