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.

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Landmarks had approved three-story addition for existing five-story building in 2002. On November 22, 2011, Landmarks rejected Axia Realty’s proposal to build a ten-story addition on a five-story building at 40 East 72nd Street in the Upper East Side Historic District. The midblock site originally consisted of two 1881 rowhouses, which in 1928 were converted to a single, neo-classical apartment building. The building is adjacent to fifteen- and fourteenstory buildings. Landmarks in 2002 approved plans for a three-story addition, but it was never built.

Axia’s architect, Barry Rice, claimed that the ten-story addition would bring the building in line with the other buildings on the southern side of East 72nd Street. Rice stated that the addition would be set back further than the previously approved addition, and would not impact the majority of the lot-line windows on the neighboring building at 36 East 72nd Street. The brick-clad addition would feature a tripartite design, with two window bays on each side of a large indented central bay. The addition would be visible along East 72nd Street and East 71st Street. Rice noted that the property was located within the Special Park Improvement District, which he claimed was created to promote the most desirable use of land.

In response to questions from the Commissioners, Rice explained that the previously approved addition would not be visible from the street. According to Rice, Axia planned to proceed with the threes-tory addition if it did not receive approval for the current proposal.  (more…)

Landmarks requested developer consider reducing proposal impacting buildings adjacent to the Whitney Museum. On October 18, 2011, Landmarks considered Daniel E. Straus’s proposal to alter and redevelop eight buildings adjacent to the Whitney Museum along Madison Avenue and East 74th Street in the Upper East Side Historic District. The site includes six rowhouses at 933 to 943 Madison Avenue and two townhouses at 31 and 33 East 74th Street. Straus purchased the buildings from the Whitney in 2010. The museum in 2005 and 2006 had obtained approvals from Landmarks and the Board of Standards & Appeals for an expansion plan that included building a Renzo Pianodesigned 178-foot tower behind the facades of the rowhouses on Madison Avenue. 3 CityLand 122 (Sept. 15, 2006). The Whitney, however, abandoned the project and instead decided to build a new museum facility in the Meatpacking District.

Architect Richard Metsky, from Beyer Blinder Belle, presented Straus’s plan. Straus planned to replace the heavily altered rowhouse abutting the Whitney at 943 Madison Avenue with a new infill building. A visible two-story addition would be built on top of the remaining five rowhouses along Madison Avenue, and the facades of the rowhouses would be restored. Straus would demolish a one-story infill building behind 933 Madison Avenue and a rear extension of 31 East 74th Street and build a nine-story residential building that would be set back 25 feet from East 74th Street. A one-story set-back rooftop addition would be added to 33 East 74th Street. The addition and new building would be clad in terra cotta to match the Madison Avenue rowhouses. Metsky said the neutral palette would not distract from the historic district and would become part of the background.

Valerie Campbell, Straus’s attorney, noted that while the project’s residential uses would be permitted as of right, Straus would need BSA variances to build the project.  (more…)

The Martha Washington Hotel and Barbizon Hotel for Women provided housing for single women pursuing careers. In July 2011, Landmarks held public hearings for the potential designation of two residential hotels in Manhattan that served an emerging class of professional women in the early 20th Century. The Martha Washington Hotel is located at 30 East 30th Street, and the Barbizon Hotel for Women is located at 140 East 63rd Street.

Architect Robert W. Gibson designed the Martha Washington Hotel, which was completed in 1903. The hotel was run by the Women’s Hotel Company. It is one of the earliest examples of a residence catering to single professional women. The twelve-story, Renaissance Revival- style structure provided 500 long-term rooms and 150 rooms for transient tenants. The hotel began admitting male tenants in 1998. The Martha Washington Hotel is now the Hotel Thirty-Thirty.  (more…)

Developer agreed to fund larger on-site school and provide on-site affordable housing. On December 8, 2010, the City Council’s Land Use Committee modified Extell Development Company’s proposal to develop a three million sq.ft. mixed-use project on a site bounded by West 59th and West 61st Streets and West End Avenue and Riverside Boulevard in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The project, known as Riverside Center, will include five buildings, ranging in height from 31 to 44 stories; 2.75 acres of publicly accessible open space; and an on-site public elementary school. Extell will also extend Freedom Place South and West 60th Street.

The 8.2-acre project site comprises the three remaining undeveloped parcels of the Riverside South development plan first approved by the City in 1992 to govern the redevelopment of the rail yards extending from West 59th Street to West 72nd Street. To facilitate the project’s development, Extell submitted multiple applications including modifications to height and setback requirements and special permits for 1,800 below-ground parking spaces. (more…)