Owner, without a permit, had installed a row of planters and pergola on mansard roof. 34 West 74th Street is located in the Central Park West Historic District and the Central Park West-West 73rd-74th Street Historic District. The structure is one of a row of eighteen Georgian Revival style rowhouses with Beaux-Arts style elements, designed by Percy Griffin and built in 1902. In 2002, after the Landmarks Preservation Commission issued a notice of violation to 34 West 74th Street for installing a row of planters and a pergola on the roof without a permit, the items were removed and Landmarks rescinded the warning. In 2004, the building owners applied to Landmarks for a permit to re-install both. On September 7, 2004, Landmarks granted the permit to re-install the wood pergola, but denied the application to re-install the planters.

Landmarks found that the natural-finish wood pergola, which would be secured to a chimney on the eastern side of the roof, would not detract from the appearance of the building, its mansard roof, or the row of houses on the block. The pergola, an arbor or trellis framework that supports climbing plants, is a feature often seen on rooftops within the two Historic Districts. The row of planters extending the full length of the building, however, significantly changed the appearance of the mansard roof. Landmarks found it stood out against the skyline in a way that drew undue attention.

Permit will remove inappropriate changes made to Columbus Circle Landmark. On September 1, 2004, the Landmarks Preservation Commission issued a master plan permit for the individual landmark, 240 Central Park South Apartments, located on an entire block along Broadway and Columbus Circle between West 58th and West 59th Streets. Central Park South Associates LLC, the owner, sought the master plan to allow prospective changes to the residential windows, courtyards, and storefronts.

Landmarks approved, finding the permit an important step towards the elimination of inappropriate changes made prior to the buildings’ landmark designation. The permit allows future changes, without additional hearings, so long as the work complies with several montages and renderings submitted and approved by Landmarks.

101 Willoughby Street, Brooklyn. Built in 1929-30, the Art-Deco style Long Island headquarters of the New York Telephone Company served the increasing telephone needs of a burgeoning Brooklyn. Designed by the prominent New York City architect Ralph Walker, the Landmarks Preservation Commission noted that its rich orange horizontal brick patterns, intricate metal work and series of dramatic setbacks make it an exceptional example of Art-Deco application to an office skyscraper design. Chair Robert B. Tierney noted that the current owner, Verizon New York, Inc., supported the designation and the Commission commended Verizon’s upkeep. Voting to approve its Landmark designation, Commissioner Meredith Kane voiced the importance of the designation in light of the City’s plan for the “massive regrowth of Brooklyn’s downtown.”

Review of this designation is pending before the City Planning Commission and the City Council.

Under threat of funding loss, Landmarks gives approval for elevator in Grant’s Tomb Pavilion. The Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the design for an elevator installation at Grant’s Tomb Pavilion, a City individual landmark. The National Park Service sought a certificate of appropriateness for the addition of a glass-walled elevator on the pavilion’s north side. The tomb, including the pavilion, is currently one of the few federal landmarks without restrooms or a visitor center. The elevator, part of an extensive renovation to the deteriorating landmark, was the only work that required a Landmarks hearing. The remainder of the improvements, including stone replacement and structural repair, would be approved at staff level and would not require a full hearing by Landmarks.

At Landmarks’ first hearing on the application on September 14, 2004, the Park Service told the Commissioners that their approval was required by September 26, 2004, or the federal government would redirect the federal funds for all of the pavilion’s renovation work. Members of the Historic Districts Council, Community Board 9 and other preservationists objected to the design and proposed a plan for ramp-access. All of the speakers voiced objection to the acutely tight time frame given by the Park Service for Landmarks’ consideration and stressed that the Park Service had already undergone a related one-year long ULURP process for the pavilion work. That process began in February 2003, ending with the City Council’s August 12, 2004 approval. The speakers argued that the Landmarks application could have been filed in concert with the ULURP action to allow a time frame of up to one year for Landmarks’ review.

Comedy club to move into converted slaughterhouse. The Board of Standards & Appeals approved a use variance application allowing a comedy club to move into 351 West 14th Street at the intersection of Hudson Street in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. Currently, a four-story, 24- unit apartment building with vacant street retail space occupies the site. The comedy club will move into the vacant 7,915-square-foot retail space and increase its mezzanine by 1,345 sq.ft.

The project site, a lot of 206 feet in depth, is split between two different zoning districts, one residential and one commercial. The proposed comedy club (an eating and drinking establishment) could locate legally in the front 103 feet of the building, which is commercially zoned, but would be an illegal use in the rear 47 ft. of the building, zoned R8B, hence the need for the variance.

Variances will allow full-service early childhood/daycare center, teen lounge, senior adult center, gyms and additional facilities. In 1978, the Board of Standards & Appeals granted variances to the Sephardic Community Center to allow community facility use in an R5 zoning district. The Center operates a 3-story, 42,495-square-foot space where it offers educational, athletic, and counseling services to the Orthodox Jewish Community and area residents. The location, 1901 Ocean Parkway, is in a primarily residential neighborhood of two and three-story dwellings.

In 1989 and 2000, the Center received two additional variances permitting further expansion on two lots, but the expansion did not occur. Subsequently, the Center received a $250,000 federal appropriation, shepherded by Senators Charles E. Schumer and Hilary Rodham Clinton, for its expansion and subsequently acquired two additional contiguous lots.