January 6, 2009

Statement of the Historic Districts Council before the Landmarks Preservation Commission
Certificate of Appropriateness Hearing

The Historic Districts Council is the advocate for New York City’s designated historic districts and neighborhoods meriting preservation. Its Public Review Committee monitors proposed changes within historic districts and changes to individual landmarks and has reviewed the following application that was before the Commission.

Hearing Date: 1/6/2009
LPC Docket Number: 085453
Brooklyn, Block: 5181, Lot: 77
455 East 17th Street - Ditmas Park Historic District
A Colonial Revival style free-standing house designed by A.White Pierce and built in 1902. Application is to legalize facade alterations performed without LPC permits.

HDC Testimony
HDC does not feel these illegal alterations are ones that the Commission would have approved had this been brought through the proper channels. While the reintroduction of a porch is an improvement, the details are off. Other than being a covered porch, the design of the installedinstalled bears little resemblance to the original in details such as the bow shape, columns and balustrade. The removal of other ornament such as the small window surround on the second floor, the Corinthian columns of the attic porch and the gable trim dulls down the vibrant original design of this historic home. HDC urges the applicant to work with staff to restore these elements and improve the details of the porch.

LPC Determination: Incomplete

Hearing Date: 1/6/2009
LPC Docket Number: 092736
Manhattan, Block: 40, Lot: 14
48 Wall Street - Individual Landmark Historic District
A neo-Georgian style skyscraper designed by Benjamin Wistar Morris and built in 1927-1929. Application is to install signage

HDC Testimony
HDC is happy that the former Bank of New York and Trust Company building has found fitting tenant in the Museum of Financial History, and vice versa, that the museum has found a home that is so fitting to its topic. Overall though, we find that there is too much signage. We could approve of the banners and signage on the door surround as they would not obscure any significant architectural details of this Individual Landmark, but not the signs that partially obscure the stone tablets and their inscriptions “THE BANK OF NEW YORK founded 1784.” The applicant might consider temporary sidewalk signage similar to what is used by businesses and institutions throughout the area in landmarked and nonlandmarked buildings. The Bank’s history is a vital piece of the country’s financial history as well as that of lower Manhattan. As preserving history is the part of the mission of both the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the Museum of Financial History, HDC asks that this small piece be left uncovered.

LPC Determination: Mixed - see notes

 

Hearing Date: 1/6/2009
LPC Docket Number: 094853
Brooklyn, Block: 208, Lot: 216
146 Columbia Heights - Brooklyn Heights Historic District
A neo-Grec style house built in 1880. Application is to construct a deck and modify window openings.

HDC Testimony
While the addition of some sort porch-like feature is not objectionable, HDC feels the project should take more the form of a balcony than a deck. Balconies of neighboring buildings as well as those presented as precedents are all shallower, supported by brackets and lighter in design looking more like filigree than heavy iron work. With the very prominent visibility of this fa?ade along Brooklyn Heights’ Promenade, HDC urges the details of this addition be very carefully considered.

LPC Determination: Approved

 

Hearing Date: 1/6/2009
LPC Docket Number: 087559
Manhattan, Block: 1503, Lot: 69
1107 Fifth Avenue - Carnegie Hill Historic District
A neo-Renaissance style apartment building designed by Rouse & Goldstone and built in 1925. Application is to establish a master plan governing the future replacement of windows.

HDC Testimony
HDC would like to thank the applicant for contacting us earlier in the application process and explaining this project.

While we understand the applicant’s reasoning for this master plan, HDC believes 1107 Fifth Avenue did not originally have the hodge podge of windows described. Rather, we see the lack of detail in most of the windows on these elevation drawings as a sign that the window design is to be repeated throughout. This is a common practice, particularly in the days before AutoCAD, when details like masonry or roofing patterns were drawn in only one section. The note that indicates the windows on the fourth floor of the 92nd street facade do not have muntins would suggest that the other windows do.

As with other large apartment buildings of this era, fenestration and window design are key elements. The one-over-one windows are certainly an improvement over the single panes that exist, but requiring the changing of other nicely detailed windows is problematic. HDC requests that a Master Plan with more divided lights harkening closer to the original design be created.

LPC Determination: Approved w/mods

Hearing Date: 1/6/2009
LPC Docket Number: 091209
Manhattan, Block: 142, Lot: 12
27A Harrison Street - Individual Landmark Historic District
A Federal style townhouse built in 1819. Application is to legalize the removal of shutters without LPC permits.

HDC Testimony
Typically, HDC does not approve of legalizations. Even in the case of alterations we would normally approve of as proposals, we usually simply do not comment. In this case though, we come out in support of legalizing the removal of shutters.

The story of the Washington Street Houses and the extreme measures taken to save and move them are impressive, but their bicentennial-era rehabilitations were necessarily not the most esteemed restorations. Paul Goldberger commented in his 1979 book “The City Observed: New York”, “There are facades at Disneyland that look more real...” Further alterations should move the homes towards a more authentic appearance, not a pretend version. There is certainly plenty of historic precedent for buildings of this type and time with interior, not exterior shutters. Here at the end of another holiday season, we all know the line that refers to interior shutters, “I tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.”

We ask that on this rare occasion when a very old violation improves the character of a building, that it be legalized.

LPC Determination: Approved

 

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