Lapidus-designed hotel at Lexington and East 51st designated. Following the no-vote on the Crawford Clothes building at 36 East 14th Street, Landmarks voted to designate the Morris Lapidus designed Summit Hotel at 569 Lexington Avenue at East 51st Street, currently operated as the Doubletree Metropolitan Hotel. Lapidus’ original design included dark green tile and turquoise brick, a dramatic Scurved slab facade, a distinctive oval-lettered blade sign and aluminum globe-shaped light fixtures lining the East 51st Street frontage.

Voting to designate, Chair Robert Tierney noted that Lapidus’ choice to put the Summit Hotel on the front cover of his 1979 autobiography, The Architecture of Joy, attested to its significance. Commissioner Thomas Pike, approving, stated that he hoped the designation would be a catalyst for the new owner, Oxford Capital, to restore lost historic building elements. (read more…)

Landmarks threatens to abandon process of contacting the owner prior to designation. By a unanimous vote on May 17, 2005, Landmarks refused to designate the Crawford Clothes Building at University Place and West 14th Street, which was considered one of the earliest noteworthy designs of New York City architect Morris Lapidus. The three-story brick and metal retail structure had included a glass center tower that revealed the retail activity on each level, but which the owner demolished before Landmarks could consider the structure.

Opening the discussion, Chair Robert Tierney provided a sequence of events, noting that Landmarks decided the building was worthy of consideration on February 1, 2005 and sent a letter of interest to the owner, Lloyd Goldman, six days later.On March 1st, Goldman filed a demolition permit solely for the glass tower. Tierney made several calls to Goldman up until the March 8th demolition. When the tower was demolished, the remainder of the building was left intact. (read more…)

Plan calls for a 176-foot tower, an expanded entry along Madison and a two story rooftop addition to the existing building. On May 24, 2005, Landmarks approved a modified plan for the expansion of the Whitney Museum of American Art along Madison Avenue and East 74th Street within the Upper East Side Historic District.

The original expansion plans designed by Renzo Piano included a two-story addition to the Whitney’s existing home, the 1964 Marcel Breuer & Associates building, as well as an expanded entry along Madison Avenue and a new 176- foot tower set back 30 feet from Madison Avenue and 17 feet from East 74th Street. For the expanded entry, the plans called for the complete demolition of two brownstones at 941 and 943 Madison Avenue, located directly south of the existing museum entrance. For the expansion and the 17-story tower, a row of four brownstones, 933 – 939 Madison Avenue, would retain only the front facades, which the Whitney planned to restore, and the remainder would be gutted. (read more…)

Landmarks continued public hearing at owner’s request. On April 21, 2005 Landmarks held a second public hearing on the proposed designation of the Windemere Apartments located at 400-406 West 57th Street and Ninth Avenue in Manhattan. Constructed in 1881 and considered the “Gateway to Hell’s Kitchen” separating Clinton from the Upper West Side, the Windemere is one of only two remaining large, early apartment buildings in the area. Theophilus Smith designed each building of the three-building complex with varying widths, distinctive cornices, and intricate brick texturing and detailing, epitomizing the large apartment house designs of the 1880s. The Windemere also served as the first residential apartment house for young women entering the workforce when Henry Sterling Goodale managed the apartments in the mid-1880s.

At the January 18, 2005 hearing, supporters included representatives of Council Member Gale A. Brewer and State Senator Thomas Duane, who called the Windemere “a beacon to Clinton.” At the second hearing, Shelly Friedman, the attorney for the current owner, Toa Construction, argued that the Windemere was unworthy of designation since it was not one grand building like the landmarked Osborne apartments, but three separate buildings. Architectural historian Andrew Alpern claimed that the three Windemere buildings were more like tenements with many units suffering from poor light and air ventilation, evidenced by the floor plans he submitted in 1989 when the building was first considered for designation. (read more…)

Home to nation’s leading architectural equipment manufacturer designated. On April 26, 2005, Landmarks designated the Keuffel & Esser Company Building at 127 Fulton Street in Lower Manhattan. Constructed in 1893 and designed by De Lemos & Cordes, the eight-story Renaissance Revival style through-block building stretching from Fulton to Ann Streets, consists of brick, ornamented terra-cotta and cast iron.

Landmarks unanimously voted to designate the building, which served for over seven decades as the general offices for the leading architectural drawing and drafting equipment supplier in the United States. Landmarks noted that the richly textured Keuffel & Esser Building is a unique example of the Renaissance Revival style and reflects the commercial explosion that took place in Manhattan during the late 1880s. (read more…)