Modern apartment building in traditional manufacturing district approved. The Brodsky Organization applied for a permit to build an 18- story apartment building in the Ladies’ Mile Historic District on a vacant lot at 4-10 West 21st Street, which had been rezoned in August 2004 to permit as-of-right residential development. Hugh Hardy, of H3Hardy Collaboration Architecture, LLC, designed the 93,000 sq.ft. building to contain 62 apartment units, 105 parking spaces and 6,000 sq.ft. of retail space. Hardy characterized the process of designing a new building within a historic district as a balancing act, trying to “honor tradition without being trapped by it.”

The design responds to the materials and the traditional grid design of the surrounding historic lofts, but implements a secondary asymmetrical grid, which “slides over” the traditional one. Community Board 5 and the Municipal Art Society both supported the modern design, but the Historic Districts Council and Jack Taylor of the Drive to Preserve Ladies’ Mile objected to the “chaotic” asymmetrical infill pattern and use of bay windows as disruptive to the historic district. (read more…)

Owner denied access lift, sidewalk excavation and a new passageway. The owner of 313 315 West 91 st Street, two Renaissance- style rowhouses designed by Charles True and built in 1897, sought a permit to excavate the sidewalk along the western end of 315 West 91 st Street to create a passageway. The buildings, two of a series of seven historic mansions, are located within the Riverside Drive-West End Historic District designated by Landmarks in 1989. Within the passageway, the owner proposed to build a new stairway, an access lift and a glass and cement mortar stairway railing.

Landmarks denied the application, finding that a passageway was not a historic feature present in any of the mansions comprising the historic district and the proposed access-lift design would detract from the integrity and architectural character of 315 West 91 st’s b owed- frontage. In making the determination, Landmarks . stated that the West 91 st rowhouses were comprised of four distinct designs that varied in a unique pattern down the street. The subject buildings differed in design, with 315 West 91 st having a full bow-fronted facade, while 313 West 91 st has a projecting bay. The owner’s proposed changes to the full bow-fronted facade at 315 West 91 st were too significant to approve. (read more…)

Landmarks designates a Queens single-family cobblestone building. Supported by the owner and at the urging of Council Member Tony Avella, Landmarks designated the single-family home at 35-34 Bell Boulevard in Bayside, Queens, noting its construction entirely of rugged, uncut cobblestones as its most distinguishing feature. Built in 1905- 1906, 35-34 Bell Boulevard is a Colonial Revival-Style home influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement. It was part of a subdivision of the last 1 00 acres of the Abraham Bell farm, in Bayside, where cobblestone walls had been used to mark the farms’ boundaries. (read more…)

4 St. Mark’s Place, Manhattan. On October 19, 2004, Landmarks designated, as an individual landmark, the 1831 East Village federal style town house, which in 1833 became the home of Col. Alexander Hamilton, son of Alexander Hamilton.

The Hamilton-Holly House, a residential and retail town house at 4 St. Mark’s Place in the East Village, is notable for its distinctive 26-foot width and 3- 1 12 story height as well as its varied history for housing several East Village theatrical groups. The designation was recommended by several preservation groups and supported by State Senator Thomas Duane, State Assembly member Deborah Glick and Council Member Margarita Lopez. (read more…)

Residential building to be built at Wooster and Wes t Broadway. Arun Bhatia sought a third amendment to the design approved by a 1 990 Landmarks permit, which allowed the new construction on one of the few undeveloped sites in SoHo of a six-story hotel with a two story penthouse. The site, 137- 139 Wooster Street, is a block-through lot between Prince and West Houston and is within the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District. The application followed two previously approved amendments, which sought to change the approved hotel use to dwellings and also sought changes in design.

The latest application proposed changes to the Wooster and West Broadway facades, maintaining the original proposal’s overall massing and volume, The revised Wooster Street facade is comprised of a predominantly gray-green painted metal and glass facade framed by tan brick piers, with a storefront at the ground floor, and a two-story metal clad set-back penthouse. The revised West Broadway facade is faced with tan brick, and contains punched window openings, a metal and glass storefront, and a two-story metal clad set-back penthouse. As initially approved, the depth of the windows on both facades was less pronounced, and the renderings indicated a grayer color palette. (read more…)