Addition OK’d for 4-story townhouse

Owners’ plan to enlarge fourth-floor co-op violated multiple dwelling law. In December 2010, Felix and Lisa Oberholzer-Gee sought a building permit to enlarge their 1,000-square-foot, fourth-floor co-op in a five-unit townhouse at 159 West 78th Street in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The Oberholzer-Gees proposed building a set-back, 646-square-foot rooftop addition. Buildings denied the permit because the plans violated the multiple dwelling law’s restrictions on enlargements of converted dwellings. The Oberholzer-Gees applied to the Board of Standards & Appeals seeking to vary the multiple dwelling law’s height and bulk regulations.

At BSA, the Oberholzer-Gees claimed that a complying proposal would cause practical difficulties because the multiple dwelling law prohibited a vertical enlargement, and a complying 234-square-foot horizontal enlargement would require a cantilevered extension blocking the light and air to the apartment below. The Oberholzer-Gees also noted that their proposal included a variety of fire safety measures, such as installing a new sprinkler system, using non-combustible materials throughout the building, and adding fireproof doors to all apartments.

(more…)

Boundary map for new district. Credit: LPC

Approximately 194 properties added to existing 264-building historic district in the Upper West Side. On June 26, 2012, Landmarks voted unanimously to create the Riverside Drive-West End Historic District Extension I in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The district extension comprises approximately 194 buildings between West 87th Street, West 79th Street, Broadway, and Riverside Drive. The area’s first wave of development started in the late 1880s and primarily consisted of three- and four-story rowhouses. The early 1900s saw the construction of larger apartment buildings and French Flat residences as the Broadway subway line increased access to the neighborhood. Significant non-residential structures in the district include the St. Agatha’s School for Girls (now the St. Agnes Boys High School) at 555 West End Avenue, and the individually-landmarked St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Church (now the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew) at 540 West End Avenue. Landmark’s designation report for the new district notes that the architecture of the district’s buildings was “designed by some of the City’s most prominent architects and executed in the dominant styles of their eras.”

(more…)

The Belnord Apartments

Banking group claimed proposed limitations on widths of new ground floor storefronts along Broadway, Amsterdam Avenue, and Columbus Avenue unfairly discriminate against banks. On June 21, 2012, the City Council’s Land Use Committee approved the Department of City Planning’s Upper West Side Neighborhood Retail Streets proposal. The proposal would establish two Special Enhanced Commercial Districts in Manhattan’s Upper West Side and establish limits on the widths of new and expanding ground floor retail stores, banks, and residential lobbies along portions of the neighborhood’s main commercial thoroughfares: Broadway, Amsterdam Avenue, and Columbus Avenue. One special district would cover the majority of Amsterdam Avenue between 73rd and 110th Streets and Columbus Avenue between 72nd and 87th Streets. The other special district would cover Broadway between 72nd and 110th Streets. The proposal would also apply a C1-5 commercial overlay to a portion of one block on Columbus Avenue in order to reflect existing uses.

City Planning created the proposal in response to community concerns about the proliferation of banks with large storefronts, new retail tenants combining multiple small storefronts, and new developments providing only single-tenant, ground floor space. According to City Planning, the proposal would reinforce the neighborhood’s diverse, multi-store character, and encourage an active streetscape on the three commercial corridors.

(more…)

Jewish Home Lifecare project site.

Community board argued that Commission should require Jewish Home Lifecare’s to seek special permit for new facility on West 97th Street. Jewish Home Lifecare, a health care provider for the elderly, planned to build a new 414-bed nursing home on West 97th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Jewish Home Lifecare operates a 514-bed facility at 120 West 106th Street. However, the building’s physical plant is outdated and inefficient, and Jewish Home Lifecare planned to relocate to a new 24-story facility on West 97th Street. The building would be located on a parking lot surrounded by the Park West Village Apartments. The proposed building would comply with the zoning requirements of the area’s underlying R7-2 district. However, Jewish Home Lifecare needed the City Planning Commission to issue a certification to the Department of Buildings in order to avoid seeking a special permit to build the facility, which, if required, would trigger public review pursuant to the City’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure.

(more…)

Stephen Gaynor School plans to expand and connect the Claremont Stables building on West 89th Street to its facility on West 90th Street. On March 20, 2012, Landmarks approved the Stephen Gaynor School’s proposal to build a rooftop addition on the individually landmarked Claremont Stables building at 175 West 89th Street.

Image: Mary Gillen

The four-story, 1892 Romanesque Revival Claremont Stables building is on the north side of West 89th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The Stephen Gaynor School, located behind the stables building on West 90th Street, is a private school serving children with learning disabilities between the ages of three and fourteen.

The school purchased the stables in 2010 to expand its capacity from 298 to 398 students and to accommodate a new pre-school program. The Rogers Marvel Architects-designed plan will include a copper-mesh encased rooftop addition and a connecting bridge on the rear of the building leading to the school’s existing facilities. The rooftop addition, which at its tallest would reach eighteen feet in height, would be used as a physical-activity space with natural ventilation. The connecting bridge’s design can be approved by Landmarks at the staff-level because only a small portion of it will occupy the landmarked site.

(more…)