7-story facade proposed for 246 Front Street. Image courtesy: BORO Architects

Through-block building will have separate residential components with different facades on Front Street and Water Street. On October 16, 2012, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved Andreas Giacoumis’s revised plan to develop a residential building on a vacant through-block lot with twenty feet of frontage on Front Street and twelve-and-a-half-feet of frontage on Water Street in the South Street Seaport Historic District.

The project, designed by Darrin Krumpus of BORO Architects, will include two different residential components connected by a ground floor extending through the entire lot. The residential components will be divided by a central courtyard sitting on top of the ground floor. The project’s Front Street facade will rise to seven stories and include multiple dwelling units and ground floor retail. The seven-story facade will feature traditional materials, with brick cladding and granite lintels and sills. The Water Street facade will rise to four stories and accommodate a single family. The narrow facade would be built using black structural steel, with zinc panels and glass infill.

Krumpus presented the design at Landmarks on July 24, 2012. The commissioners generally supported the proposal, but found the Front Street facade’s seventh floor excessive, and said the Water Street facade needed more articulation and refinement. (See CityLand’s coverage of the hearing here.)

4-story facade at 267 1/2 Water Street. Image courtesy: BORO Architects

In October, Landmarks considered the revised design. The seventh floor on the Front Street facade would be set back and clad in metal to further reduce visibility and differentiate it from the lower floors. The cornice of the Water Street facade was simplified and reveals were added to the zinc panels to give them further articulation. According to Krumpus, the windows on Water Street would be set back six inches from the building’s frame, and sit eleven inches behind the facade’s vertical flanges.

The commissioners responded favorably to the modifications. Commissioner Michael Goldblum found that the revised seventh story on Front Street constituted a significant improvement, but said the Water Street facade needed more work. Commissioners Diana Chapin, Libby Ryan, and Fred Bland all agreed the design had improved. Chair Robert B. Tierney concurred, and led a unanimous vote to approve the project, on the condition that Landmarks staff work with the applicant to increase the depth and articulation of the Water Street facade.

LPC: 246 Front Street, Manhattan (13-2707) (Oct. 16, 2012) (Architect: BORO Architects).