Rendering of the modified design for 1162 Broadway office building./Image Credit: Morris Ajemi Architects
The modified design received support from the majority of the Commissioners. On May 12, 2020, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to approve a Certificate of Appropriateness to construct a new 13-story office building on a vacant lot at 1162 Broadway, Manhattan. The vacant lot is located within the Madison Square North Historic District. In 2013, Landmarks originally approved the building’s construction and design for a new hotel but nothing was constructed. Morris Ajemi Architects, the building’s architectural firm, made slight modifications to the previously approved design.
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Nos. 47 – 55 West 28th Street were the home of many sheet music publishers in the 1890s and 1900s. Image Credit: NYC LPC
The designation received strong public support despite objections from the owner. On April 30, 2019, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing to designate five buildings located at 47 – 55 West 28th Street collectively known as “Tin Pan Alley.” Landmarks calendared the five buildings on March 12, 2019. The street was the home of sheet music publishers in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The street received its moniker from the sound of different pianos playing from the various publishers along the block, which collectively sounded like tin pans banging together. For CityLand’s prior coverage of the Tin Pan Alley designation process, click here. (more…)
Hotel Seville
Support for individual landmark designations of Beaux-Arts Hotel and Neo-Renaissance Office Building expressed at hearing. On February 20, 2018, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held public hearings on the potential designations of Hotel Seville and the Emmet Building, both in East Midtown, in the area to the north of Madison Square. Landmarks added both buildings to its calendar in December of 2017. (more…)
Rendering of proposed 250 Fifth Avenue additions. Image Courtesy: Platt Byard Dovell White.
Alterations to facade design win approval for setback tower to be built on existing two-story base. On December 11, 2012, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to approve an application by Quartz Associates LLC for a site at 250 Fifth Avenue in the Madison Square North Historic District. The plan calls for the construction of a tower that will rise to 23 stories on top of a one-story extension to the bank building facing West 28th Street. The new tower would be set back twenty feet from the existing base. A penthouse would also be built on the five-story bank building which faces the avenue. The work will serve the conversion of the property to hotel use. The applicants intend to conduct a complete restoration of the bank building.
Landmarks held a hearing on July 24, 2012 on the project. (See Cityland’s past coverage here). Architect Charles Platt, of Platt Byard Dovell White, said the building’s massing, specifically the tower’s setback, which is atypical for the historic district, was mandated by the site’s C5-2 zoning. The building was clad in precast concrete and brick bands, with asymmetrical piers emphasizing the building’s verticality.
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Proposed hotel project (elevation along West 28th Street). Credit: Platt Byard Dovell White
Set-back tower would rise straight up from two-story McKim Mead & White base. On July 24, 2012, Landmarks considered Quartz Associates LLC’s proposal to develop a mid-block hotel tower on top of a five-story bank building designed by McKim Mead & White at the corner of West 28th Street and Fifth Avenue in the Madison Square North Historic District. The hotel would rise above a two-story extension of the building and face West 28th Street. Quartz Associates also proposed adding a new penthouse to the building’s fifth floor along Fifth Avenue. The entire building will be used for the hotel, with the rooftop addition serving as a restaurant.
According to Quartz Associates’ attorney Robert Davis, the proposal complies with the site’s C5-2 zoning. Architect Charles Platt, of Platt Byard Dovell White, presented the proposal. Rather than design the building with a series of setbacks, the tower would be set back fifteen feet from the two-story base and rise straight up. Platt claimed a building with several setbacks would ultimately be too narrow to accommodate the necessary hotel rooms. The tower would be clad in precast concrete with inlaid light-tan brick. It would feature metal spandrel panels and strong vertical piers of different widths facing 28th Street. The tower would be visible from over the roof of the building along Fifth Avenue.
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