City Planning Commissioners preparing to begin the February 3rd meeting. Image credit: CityLand

Despite expressing broad support for proposals, City Planning calls on City Council to make further modifications.  On February 3, 2016, the City Planning Commission voted to approve the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing and Zoning for Quality and Affordability proposals, which are two of the major programs to be implemented under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Housing New York plan.  This was the first opportunity for City Planning to present its modified versions of the MIH and ZQA proposals since receiving highly critical testimony at its 13 hour hearing held on December 16, 2015.

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Simeon Bankoff, Executive Director of the Historic Districts Council.

Last week CityLand published a Guest Commentary from Steven Spinola, President of REBNY.  Simeon Bankoff, Executive Director of the Historic Districts Council submitted this commentary in response. 

In his recent editorial in CityLand, Steven Spinola, the longtime President of the Real Estate Board of New York, suggested a number of ways which the Landmarks Law needs to be reformed to adhere to its “spirit.”  This is a curious statement that warrants further examination.  In  Section 25-301(b) of the Administrative Code, the purpose of the law is clearly set out to protect and preserve the historic buildings and neighborhoods of New York City in order to stabilize and improve property values, foster civic pride, enhance tourism, strengthen the City’s economy and generally promote the use of landmarks for the education, pleasure and welfare of the public. (more…)

Landmarks twice approved designs for new building on Tribeca site, but development stalled. On November 1, 2011, Landmarks approved a proposal to replace a two-story 1947 brick building with a nine-story residential building at 403 Greenwich Street in the Tribeca West Historic District. Landmarks in 2002, and again in 2009, approved buildings for the site, but neither proposal went forward. The 2009-approved proposal called for a six-story building designed by Joseph Pell Lombardi featuring glass-brick facades.

Architect Morris Adjmi presented the current proposal, which would rise seven stories at the street wall with two setback floors that would not be visible from the street. The front facade would be composed of blackened steel framing with three-over-three windows and a large metal cornice on top of the seventh story. The building’s base would feature a glass lobby with a steel canopy. Decorative flanges on the window surrounds would project from the front facade. Staggered balconies proposed for the building’s rear brick facade were intended to be reminiscent of historic fire escapes.  (more…)

Owner altered window and facade details to gain Landmarks approval . On April 12, 2011, Landmarks approved Fishman Holdings’ revised proposal to construct an eight-story building on a vacant lot at 87 Chambers Street in the Tribeca South Historic District. The through-block building will front Reade  Street to the north. The lot had been occupied by a store-and-loft building that  Fishman originally planned to convert to a hotel. The building, however, partially collapsed in 2009 and Buildings ordered Fishman to demolish the remaining structure.

Fishman in February 2009 presented a plan to build a hotel that closely  followed its conversion proposal. The building would rise six stories, with two additional floors set back fifteen feet. Landmarks approved of the building’s massing and scale, but asked for changes to the facade and window details. 8 CityLand 29 (March 15, 2011). (more…)

Commissioners approved design changes to the top and ground floors of Cosmopolitan Hotel’s proposed building. On September 15, 2009, Landmarks approved the revised expansion proposal for the Cosmopolitan Hotel located on the corner of West Broadway and Chambers Street in the Tribeca South Historic District. The applicants will demolish the two-story, 1967 building adjacent to the hotel, occupied by Mary Ann’s Mexican restaurant, and replace it with a six-story structure.

At an earlier June 2 hearing, local residents and Council Member Alan Gerson had opposed the plan. The Commissioners then rejected the original design, objecting to its non-contextual features and criticizing the building’s “floating” glass-facade base, its metal-paneled sixth floor, and the existing building’s proposed aluminum marquee. 6 CityLand 94 (July 15, 2009).

Matthew Gottsegen, of Franke Gottsegen Cox, revised the proposal, which now featured a newly designed ground floor with a stone base and steel column covers with glass infill. A cast-stone band would separate the commercial ground floor from the floors above. The new design eliminated the top floor’s metal panels and replaced them with brick and a zinc-coated copper cornice. Gottsegen explained that the redesigned storefront would “ground” the building and that the redesigned top floor would “unify” the structure. (more…)