November 13, 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: 11/13/2007
LPC Docket Number: 082432
Manhattan, Block: 1378, Lot: 14
710 Madison Avenue - Upper East Side Historic District
An Italianate, neo-Grec style rowhouse designed by Gage Inslee,
built in 1871 altered in 1915 to accommodate a storefront at the
first and second floors. Application is to replace the storefront.
HDC Testimony
HDC compliments the applicant on a very clear, well-documented
presentation. The historic photos, representations of existing
conditions and renderings of the proposed all clearly illustrate
that this proposed storefront is inappropriate and should be rejected.
The Madison Avenue Storefront Master Plan clearly codes the second
floor as red, the category which “requires the retention
and restoration of historic storefronts.” The present storefront,
if not completely the original 1915 alteration to the 1871 rowhouse,
is very close in design to the spirit and historic in nature.
There is absolutely no justification for its alteration. On the
first floor, the present storefront is charming and perfectly
suitable for any business. If alterations must be made to the
first floor, they should preserve important details like the corner
entrance and reflect the historic second floor.
HDC strongly urges denial of this application that seeks to remove
important historic details completely changing the character of
a corner building on Madison Avenue in the Upper East Side Historic
District.
LPC Determination: Incomplete
Hearing Date: 11/13/2007
LPC Docket Number: 081451
Brooklyn, Block: 262, Lot: 17
29 Garden Place - Brooklyn Heights Historic District
A Gothic Revival style rowhouse built in 1846. Application is
to construct a rear yard addition and create a new window opening.
HDC Testimony
229 Garden Place is a beautiful home, an excellent, relatively
intact example of the small houses that define this area of the
Brooklyn Heights Historic District. HDC is uncomfortable with
the amount of historic material that will be lost with this application
for a rear yard addition. We question if some of the fabric, such
as the stone lintels, could be reused. The fenestration of the
addition is appropriate but should align with the fenestration
of the upper floors. There seems to be discrepancies in the drawings.
The addition appears flat in the elevation drawing, but in section
the parapet is set back and the roof is slightly sloped. We feel
a flat façade would be more fitting. HDC would also like
to see the number of lanterns reduced and the railing design simplified.
As they are now, these details combined lend the rear yard addition
the look of a front façade.
LPC Determination: Approved w/mods
Hearing Date: 11/13/2007
LPC Docket Number: 082296
Manhattan, Block: 615, Lot: 43
15 Bank Street - Greenwich Village Historic District
A Greek Revival style rowhouse built in 1851. Application is to
construct a rooftop addition and alter the rear façade.
HDC Testimony
The small scale of buildings such as 15 Bank Street is an important
characteristic of the Greenwich Village Historic District that
should be preserved. The additional floor atop 13 Bank Street
is awkward in its proportions, and this application proposes to
copy the errors of the not so distant past next door. HDC recommends
that the applicant instead consider a set back rooftop addition
rather than an entire new floor.
While the new stoop is being handled as a restoration at staff
level, HDC feels that its design does not meet the restoration
rules. The stoop no longer existed by the time of the tax photo,
but the image clearly shows the stoop of the sister building at
13 Bank Street with drip molding around the doorway (a detail
HDC pointed out in testimony in 2001 when this doorway was being
redesigned.) Although these rowhouses were built primarily in
the Greek Revival style, it is not surprising that in 1851 this
Gothic Revival detail would be included. We recommend that the
tax photo be looked at more closely for the restoration of the
door surround, the door itself and other details.
LPC Determination: Approved
Hearing Date: 11/13/2007
LPC Docket Number: 080834
Manhattan, Block: 824, Lot: 37
174-176 Fifth Avenue - Ladies' Mile Historic District
An early 20th-century commercial style store and loft building
designed by J. Eckmann and built in1927-1928. Application is to
replace windows.
HDC Testimony
While the base of this 20th-century commercial style store and
loft building has changed over the past eighty years, little has
changed on the upper facade. HDC would like to see this kept and
objects to the proposed window replacements. Pivot windows, a
detail that presently exists and is common in such buildings of
this era, should be installed flanking the large fixed window.
We would also ask the commission and staff to ensure that the
moldings and glazing proportions remain the same.
LPC Determination: Approved
Hearing Date: 11/13/2007
LPC Docket Number: 082971
Manhattan, Block: 1044, Lot: 22
314 West 54th Street - Individual Landmark Historic District
A Renaissance Revival style courthouse building designed by John
H. Duncan and built in 1894-1896. Application is to construct
a rear yard addition and replace a wall at the rear of the site.
HDC Testimony
HDC objects to this addition for its inappropriate materials,
scale and design. The reflective metal and enormous amounts of
glass proposed do not compliment the brick and stone façade.
The scale is rather large and bulky for an addition just housing
a staircase and elevator shaft. Its asymmetrical design does not
reflect the orderly Renaissance Revival style of the former Eleventh
Judicial District Courthouse, neither its proportionate, ornate
front nor the simpler rear façade. The wall proposed is
certainly nicer than the existing, but like the addition does
not relate to the individual landmark. The addition is completely
visible and appears to be intended a new entrance. If this is
what is intended, HDC recommends that a much more sympathetic
design, rather than an opposing one, be created.
LPC Determination: Approved
Hearing Date: 11/13/2007
LPC Docket Number: 082920
Manhattan, Block: 1383, Lot: 63
12 East 69th Street - Upper East Side Historic District
A townhouse built in 1883, and redesigned in the neo-Classical
style by William Welles Bosworth in 1913. Application is to legalize
the replacement of windows without LPC permits and to alter the
front façade and stoop.
HDC Testimony
This application for façade alterations is the same design
proposed in January. At that time, HDC opposed the prettying up
of the buildings and asked for historic photos to be included
to guide any restoration work. Commissioners expressed concerns
about the design sighting their commitment to preserving important
early 20th-century alterations and had "philosophical difficulty
with embellishing simple design." While the historic photos
finally presented here are grainy, they do indeed show a flat
surface, making the proposed rustication inappropriate. HDC continues
to believe that the simpler present façade is more appropriate
than the proposed whose design is not guided by the building itself
but is a rather unsuccessful piecing together of details from
other buildings (which are either much larger residences or commercial
buildings). The townhouse presently has a simple, dignified elegance
that should be appreciated and preserved.
LPC Determination: Modified
Hearing Date: 11/13/2007
LPC Docket Number: 080877
Manhattan, Block: 1493, Lot: 68
1009 Fifth Avenue - Metropolitan Museum Historic District
A Beaux-Arts style mansion designed by Welch, Smith & Provot
and built in 1899-1901. Application is to modify the roof and
existing bulkheads, construct a stair tower and install a barrier-free
access ramp.
HDC Testimony
The Benjamin N. and Sara Duke House is an amazing building with
a beautiful, ornate roof. HDC finds the proposed alterations including
modifying the existing bulkheads and the construction of a stair
tower too distracting from this distinctive piece of the building
The additions are quite visible, including from the main viewing
points along 5th Avenue just in front of the Metropolitan Museum
of Art. The stair tower in particular feels far too massive and
should not be taller than the existing roofline. Could an exterior
staircase rather than this bulky tower be used to meet codes?
Similarly, can a different type of elevator be used to further
reduce the size of the elevator bulkhead proposed?
We do not feel the barrier-free access ramp proposed is in the
best spot. The mote area of this Beaux-Arts style mansion is a
specific design element typical to this building type and location.
The few steps up to the main entrance are rather shallow and this
spot seems a better location for a ramp, similar to the one at
the near by Neue Gallery.
As this new museum develops, HDC recommends that it look to the
other cultural institutions along Museum Mile for examples of
how to sensitively operate from an historic mansion.
LPC Determination: Incomplete
Hearing Date: 11/13/2007
LPC Docket Number: 079331
Manhattan, Block: 1906, Lot: 32
229 Lenox Avenue - Mount Morris Park Historic District
A Beaux-Arts style house designed by Clarence True and built in
1899. Application is to construct a rooftop addition, install
a barrier-free access lift, and replace windows.
HDC Testimony
HDC compliments the applicant on the excellent restoration plans
for this lovely building. We are impressed with the amount of
restoration that will be occurring including the replacement of
the balustrade and finials (although we would like to request
that terra cotta tiles rather than asphalt shingles be used on
the rather small roof surface). We approve of the barrier-free
access lift and the window replacements. HDC believes though that
the 2-story rooftop addition is far too large for this relatively
small house. Commissioners have regularly turned down such proposals
that ask too much of smaller homes. Of course, a rooftop addition
this large is very visible from the rear, all the more so because
of the schoolyard on that side of the block. HDC urges the applicant
to design a 1-story rooftop addition instead.
LPC Determination: Incomplete
Hearing Date: 11/13/2007
LPC Docket Number: 081530
Brooklyn, Block: 254, Lot: 62
100 Remsen Street - Brooklyn Heights Historic District
An apartment building designed by Rollin Caughey and built in
1949. Application is to create a master plan governing the future
installation of windows.
HDC Testimony
HDC objects to this master plan for the future installation of
windows. The original window design, still predominate, should
be used, including the upper transom bar. Typical to the period,
windows are a crucial design element of this building and HDC
urges that this detail be retained.
LPC Determination: Incomplete
Hearing Date: 11/13/2007
LPC Docket Number: 070044
Brooklyn, Block: 2827, Lot: 36
43 Herbert Street - Individual Landmark Historic District
A Romanesque Revival style station house and stable designed by
George Ingram and built in 1886. Application is to construct a
rooftop bulkhead.
HDC Testimony
HDC approves of the rooftop bulkhead with a few modifications.
We feel a hipped roof would be less visible and more in keeping
with the former 19th Police Precinct’s Romanesque Revival
design. We would also like to see copper on the roof as it is
more important to use the correct material than to match that
of the existing roof (which we hope in the future will also receive
a copper surface).
LPC Determination: Approved
Hearing Date: 11/13/2007
LPC Docket Number: 072063
Queens, Block: 8023, Lot: 8
316 Knollwood Avenue - Douglaston Historic District
A ranch house built in 1960. Application is to legalize the installation
of a new entrance door, rebuilding of retaining walls and the
stoop, and the installation of a railing on the stoop without
LPC permits.
HDC Testimony
HDC believes that alterations to a building should reflect the
character of the original design and that these alterations seeking
to be legalized are not sympathetic to this 1960 ranch house or
the Douglaston Historic District. The pseudo-neo-Victorian door
is too ornate and would not have been approved if it had come
before this commission as a proposal. Similarly, the balustrade
is oversized and inappropriate. HDC urges that more suitable details
be found.
Finally, we also question whether the window is a legal alteration
from the picture window featured in the designation photos and
in the district’s designation report.
LPC Determination: Approved w/mods
Hearing Date: 11/13/2007
LPC Docket Number: 078269
Queens, Block: 8017, Lot: 14
318 Kenmore Road - Douglaston Historic District
An English Tudor style house designed by Josephine Wright Cahpman
and built circa 1915. Application is to install posts
and gates.
HDC Testimony
To start, I would like to state that Kevin Wolfe, the architect
on this project, is a member of HDC's Board of Advisors.
HDC feels that the openness of landscapes is an important feature
of the Douglaston Historic District, one that should preserved
by limiting the use of gates and fences in the neighborhood. While
these gates are handsome, they feel rather large, particularly
the double gates at the driveway. HDC requests that only the gate
at the entry path to the home, if any at all, be approved. By
our count, there are only two legal sets of driveway gates in
the district.
LPC Determination: Approved
Hearing Date: 11/13/2007
LPC Docket Number: 072851
Manhattan, Block: 904, Lot: 45
130 West 42nd Street - Individual Landmark Historic District
A neo-Gothic style skyscraper designed by Helmle and Corbett and
built in 1916-1918. Application is to create new window openings,
demolish a one-story rooftop addition on the south wing, and construct
a new rooftop addition, and modify the storefronts.
HDC Testimony
The designation report for the Bush Tower points out the “innovative
treatment” of the secondary elevations with “trompe
l’oeil colored brick piers.” HDC is opposed to the
addition of windows to the sides of the Bush Tower as they would
obscure this important detail and reduce the feeling of verticality
for which this building is known. Helmle and Corbett deliberately
created a structure to be admired on all four sides, not just
the street facing façade. In this they were challenged
by the inability to include windows or projecting architectural
details on the lot line side facades. Helmle and Corbett were
able to do what few have, design an elegant, articulated large
façade without openings. Their carefully considered work
would be considerably altered by the creation of new window openings.
While the proposed storefront is nicer than what exists, it is
rather generic. The clear historic photo in this presentation
shows a pointed arch spandrel, a detail that may still survive
under the present stucco panel. HDC proposes that the historic
photo and any possible remaining architectural details be used
to recreate the distinctive neo-Gothic entrance to this remarkable
building.
The Bush Tower is an important individual landmark that represents
the era between historically inspired designs of pre-World War
I buildings and the skyscrapers of the post-war period by combining
historical neo-Gothic details with a modern, vertical emphasis.
HDC urges the commission to preserve the building’s important
details that make up its distinctive design.
LPC Determination: Incomplete
Return to Recent Testimony
