Certificate of Appropriateness Testimony
LPC-22-07586
237 Hollywood Avenue – Douglaston Historic District
CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS
A New England Colonial Revival style freestanding house and a contemporary garage designed by Lyle Bouleware and built in 1933. Application is to demolish the garage, remove a tree, modify an entrance, replace windows and a wall, and construct an addition, driveway, and curb cut.
Architect: Sky Architects, LLC
The proposed alterations to 237 Hollywood are inappropriate and should be rejected in full.
This neighborhood and this block in particular are characterized by detached garages set at the rear of the property. This strategy allows for the front yard to be a heavily planted landscape that allows the larger community to read as houses set in a park land. This proposed scheme, with its street facing two-car garage would turn that landscape into a parking lot.
The front entry portico and addition of side lights to the front door is similarly inappropriate and not properly proportioned or detailed. The applicant needs to study these elements and develop an appropriate solution.
The rear yard additions are also poorly proportioned and glommed on to the existing house in an awkward way. This is perhaps being driven by the location of the garage as attached to the building.
HDC therefore asks the Commission to reject this application and ask the applicant to design a project where the rear yard garage/shed is rebuilt in an appropriate size and complimentary set of details. We also ask that the remaining additions be reconsidered in light of the correctly located garage. And finally, that the front entry portico be redesigned using a more studied classical language.
LPC-22-04606
121-123 6th Avenue – Park Slope Historic District Extension II
CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS
Two altered Italianate style rowhouses built c. 1880. Application is to replace windows and install rooftop railings.
Architect: nC2 architecture llc.
HDC is generally comfortable with this proposal. However, there are three items that we believe the applicant should consider or be required to do.
First, the rear facing guard rail on the roof deck should be pulled back from the rear façade at least three full feet to further reduce visibility from Park Place.
Second, the front-facing guard rail needs to be set back 6 feet from the front façade, not the front edge of the cornice. The FDNY does not consider cornices to be part of the required 6-foot landing zone.
Third, the masonry pier at 121 6th should be restored with the idea of restoring the buildings masonry openings to their original size and cadence.
LPC-22-09715
107 South Street – South Street Seaport Historic District
CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS
A building built in 1818-19 and altered in 1855. Application is to amend an approval under LPC 20-06856 for constructing a rooftop addition, altering the front and rear façades and replacing storefront infill.
Architect: OPerA Studio
HDC finds this proposal to be generally appropriate with one major concern. We find the proposed rear elevation to be awkward and neither well resolved nor in keeping with the district or the otherwise sensitive approach to the front of the building. We therefore ask the commission to have the applicant work with staff to develop a rear façade that is less frantic in its fenestration, perhaps more dense in terms of brick work and far more modestly muntined than what is currently proposed. In a word: SIMPLIFY.