PUBLIC HEARING TESTIMONY
LPC-26-01231
59-39 70th Avenue – Central Ridgewood Historic District
CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS
A Renaissance Revival style two-family house designed by Louis Berger & Company and built c. 1909. Application is to legalize and modify the installation of windows and HVAC equipment, and legalize recladding and altering the rear extension without Landmarks Preservation Commission permit(s).
HDC finds the self-adhesive PVC muntins to be an inappropriate method of creating the illusion of double hung windows. We also object to the vinyl siding cladding on the rear extension; it should be returned to a more historically appropriate material.
Action: No action.
LPC-26-01458
465 East 17th Street – Ditmas Park Historic District
CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS
A Colonial Revival style house designed by Arlington D. Isham and built in 1901. Application is to construct a front porch and portico.
Architect: Boschen Design, Architecture
HDC finds alterations to the porch to be appropriate given that the porch has already been altered. We do, however, object to the horizontal widening of the balcony and portico as it encroaches upon the bays. We believe that disrupting the bays will reduce their legibility, and is therefore inappropriate.
Action: No action.
LPC-26-02253
1 Grand Army Plaza – Grand Army Plaza – Scenic Landmark
ADVISORY REPORT
A plaza originally established in the 1860s and expanded and redesigned by Carrere and Hastings in 1913-1916. Application to install light poles and related equipment.
Architect: Central Park Conservancy
HDC would like to note the care that the Central Park Conservancy has given to this plaza and its restoration, however, HDC finds the proposal for four 25 foot poles with floodlights and large photocell control boxes to be an inappropriate method for illuminating this scenic landmark.
We urge the DOT to research other precedents for lighting historic plazas and landmarks and to create a more sensitive and thoughtful solution for the lighting of this plaza.
Action: Unanimously approved for favorable report with the recommendation that the control boxes be lowered and the color and location of poles explored.
LPC-25-09484
27-29 Great Jones Street – NoHo Historic District Extension
CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS
An Italianate style store and loft building designed by Louis Burger and built in 1868-70 and a Renaissance Revival style store and loft building designed by Charles W. Clinton and built in 1891. Application is to replace the granite sidewalk.
Architect: Atelier Garcia
HDC finds this proposal to be inappropriate. The water infiltration issue should be addressed and the sidewalk replaced in kind.
Action: Application denied.
LPC-26-01649
831-837 Madison Avenue – Upper East Side Historic District
CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS
A no-style building remodeled in 1956 (no. 831), two neo-Grec style rowhouses designed by Charles Buek & Co. and built in 1885-1886 (nos. 833 and 835), and a Queen Anne style rowhouse designed by Thom & Wilson and built in 1884 (no. 837). Application is to demolish 831 Madison Avenue and construct a new building on the site, construct rear yard and rooftop additions at nos. 833, 835 and 837 and combine the buildings, and replace storefronts.
Architect: David Chipperfield Architects
HDC finds this proposal to be inappropriate and should be denied. The new building and the rear yard expansions are completely out of scale with the surrounding buildings on the block. This proposal represents the opposite of why the characteristic and historic streetscapes of Madison Avenue were designated in the first place.
Action: No action.
