BSA grants office, retail, and church building variances from Grand Central Subdistrict requirements. 340 Madison Owner LLC, the owner of 342 Madison Avenue, a 48,265-squre-foot lot between East 43rd and 44th Streets in Manhattan, proposed to enlarge an existing 21- story, 503,487-square-foot office, retail and church building. 340 Madison, which received variances on March 23, 2004 to transfer floor area across a zoning district and modify street wall requirements in the Grand Central Subdistrict, applied to amend the variances in order to allow a smaller lobby entryway and a setback encroachment along 44th Street.

The owner argued that a complying 15-foot by 15-foot entryway in the building’s lobby entrance on 43rd Street would be infeasible because it would disturb an existing tenant and require extensive frontage reconfiguration, including disruption of mechanical systems and relocation of structural supports. The owner proposed an 11- foot by 12-foot entrance that would meet the minimum depth requirements of the Subdistrict. It also argued that the combined area of the East 43rd Street and Madison Avenue entrances would exceed the pedestrian circulation requirements for the proposed building. (read more…)