June 19, 2007

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 applications that were before the Commission.

Hearing Date: 6/19/2007
LPC Docket Number: 075264
Bronx, Block: 4336, Lot: 1
New York Botanical Garden - Individual Landmark Historic District
An early 19th-century vernacular style mill building built circa 1840. Application is to construct an addition and install new doors.

HDC Testimony
The Lorillard Snuff Mill on the banks of the Bronx River is one of the most bucolic spots in the city. The early 19th-century mill is now a rare building type in New York City. Alterations to such a special individual landmark should be done with the utmost care and respect.

HDC finds the proposed new doors on the west elevation nicer than what is there now, but feels they are rather formal for this vernacular structure. A simpler, less formularized approach would be more appropriate.

HDC is opposed to the proposed side addition. The present projection off the first floors is more akin to a small retaining wall. The proposed spans the width of the façade, adding bulk to the ground floor, throwing off the proportions and causing the building to lose its powerful height. In the process a considerable amount of historic material is lost. Two bays on the first floor will be lost or covered (there were no floor plans to show if the mill's wall is being removed or to explain the use of the space) and much of the second floor will be hidden behind the terrace fence.

HDC urges the commission to consider these changes carefully and revise the plan so that as much of the mill’s historic fabric and proportions are kept as possible.

LPC Determination: Incomplete

Hearing Date: 6/19/2007
LPC Docket Number: 075562
Manhattan, Block: 572, Lot: 73
59 West 8th Street - Greenwich Village Historic District
A Queen Anne style rowhouse built in 1875. Application is to legalize the installation of signage without LPC permits.

HDC Testimony
HDC is opposed to the legalization of the installation of this signage without LPC permits. The illuminated silhouette created by neon light behind a large, aluminum sign is not appropriate to the Greenwich Village historic district. Its legalization may lead to neighboring businesses' requests for something similar, and there will be no reason to refuse their signage. We urge the commission to require appropriate signage in historic districts.

LPC Determination: Denied

Hearing Date: 6/19/2007
LPC Docket Number: 077471
Brooklyn, Block: 2118, Lot: 11
85 South Oxford Street - Fort Greene Historic District
A Romanesque Revival style church designed by Grimshaw & Morrill and built in 1861-1862. Application is to install a barrier-free access ramp and signage.

HDC Testimony
While HDC feels the placement of the ramp is appropriate, we do not approve of the plain, rather institutional railing with no relationship to the rest of the building or its design. The cast iron railing approved last year for the ramp at the Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims in Brooklyn Heights is a fine example of marrying necessity and design. We urge that a similar approach be taken here.

As for the signage, we are concerned about the stretch banner holder that would be anchored into historic fabric with six bolts. We recommend that a different type of holder be attached to the mortar with fewer bolts.

The church has done a wonderful job of restoring and caring for their historic structure, and we hope to see it continue with improvements such as these that are truly fitting to the landmark.

LPC Determination: Incomplete

Hearing Date: 6/19/2007
LPC Docket Number: 074961
Manhattan, Block: 145, Lot: 7501
105 Chambers Street - Individual Landmark Historic District
An Italian Renaissance style commercial building designed by King and Kellum and built in 1856-1857. An individual landmark within the Tribeca South Historic District. Application is to install window openings and install a rooftop addition.

HDC Testimony
HDC approves of the rooftop addition as it is small enough. We feel though that the new window openings are a tight squeeze right under the roofline. As they are now, the windows on this rather prominent façade fit very comfortably and have not changed much since the tax photo was taken. If these windows must be added, we would like to recommend not adding the last two on each end as they come closest to the roofline.

LPC Determination: Incomplete

Hearing Date: 6/19/2007
LPC Docket Number: 077968
Manhattan, Block: 513, Lot: 36
101 Prince Street - SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District
A commercial style building designed by Thomas Lamb and built in 1910-1911. Application is to install new storefront infill.

HDC Testimony
HDC does not support this application for storefront infill. We feel the depression-era, aluminum cafeteria storefront with its lunch window is an important piece of this building's, and this district's, history. If the storefront is to be changed, it should not be to a large, blank storefront that could be found in any shopping mall. The design of a new storefront should at least reflect, if not restore, a more historic appearance. Again, we are faced with an application that lacks historic photos, but there are a number of basic details that would be appropriate and attractive. There should be a fuller bulkhead, a transom, mullions, and a defined doorway, not a clear glass box. We feel the only proper storefront infill is one the recalls the history of the building and its district. This is not that storefront.

LPC Determination: Incomplete

Hearing Date: 6/19/2007
LPC Docket Number: 077744
Manhattan, Block: 593, Lot: 49
12 Gay Street - Greenwich Village Historic District
A Federal style house built in 1827-1828. Application is to construct a rear addition.

HDC Testimony
HDC is opposed to this application for a rear yard addition, one that tears away distinctive historic additions and fabric and threatens the stability of neighboring landmarks. The removal of not one but two artist's studio windows goes against the prevailing respect granted by Commissioners for early 20th-century alterations in the Greenwich Village Historic District. While one might not normally think of this rear as visible, its sidewall is an important façade in a unique courtyard and is even visible to the public through back windows of ground floor shops across the space.

The proposed excavation of the sub-basement endangers neighboring Federal-era buildings which also tell the story of the neighborhood's development from its creation in the early 19th century through the 20th century, including 14 Gay Street, the home of the McKenney sisters of "My Sister Eileen". As mentioned in prior testimony, the condition of the soil and the neighboring foundations combined with the vibrations and settlement of excavation could easily damage the structures. To ask the commission to alter one's landmark building is the owner's prerogative; to do so at the risk of neighboring historic homes is not.

LPC Determination: Incomplete

Hearing Date: 6/19/2007
LPC Docket Number: 077225
Manhattan, Block: 627, Lot: 8
32 Gansevoort Street - Gansevoort Market Historic District
A Renaissance Revival style warehouse designed by Charles R. Behrens and built in 1893. Application is to install new storefront infill and signage.

HDC Testimony
HDC does not approve of this application for new storefront infill as it adds nothing to the warehouse or the Gansevoort Market Historic District. Admittedly, how to translate a loading dock to a storefront is a challenge, but a wall of glass nothingness is not the answer. Loading docks were not just open space, their roll down doors added dimension and stability to the building and the street wall. The doors on either side of the shop window should match, as seen in the designation photo, and not be predominantly glass. We also recommend considering reconstructing the canopy to help to reduce the vacant feel. Like we saw in the SoHo storefront application, the character of ground floors is being lost in industrial neighborhoods to overly sleek (or empty, depending on how you look at it) storefronts that leave the street looking like a mall. A more creative design is required, and the building and the business will be better for it.

LPC Determination: Incomplete

Hearing Date: 6/19/2007
LPC Docket Number: 078044
Manhattan, Block: 822, Lot: 39
160 Fifth Avenue - Ladies' Mile Historic District
A neo-Renaissance style office, store and loft building designed by Robert Henderson Robertson and built in 1891-1892. Application is to install new storefront infill and signage and to construct a rear yard addition.

HDC Testimony
HDC is concerned about the new storefront infill which obliterates the memory of a main entrance on Fifth Avenue. While the proposed storefronts are relatively handsome, they create two unimposing store entrances and put the main entrance to the building on the side street. The building's address is Fifth Avenue, the most fashionable avenue address when it was constructed, not the side street. While we understand that there will be new stores on the Fifth Avenue façade, we feel one of those entrances should recall the original to help preserve the orientation of the building and its place on this block. Again, this application did not include an historic photograph, but luckily Jack Taylor has supplied a photo from 1911 that clearly shows the entrance and its Ionic columns. We urge that historic design be used in this application to alter an historic building.