Developer, in second trip to Landmarks, altered materials and reduced massing of proposed development adjacent to the Whitney Museum. On February 14, 2012, Landmarks considered Daniel E. Straus’s revised proposal to redevelop eight buildings adjacent to the Whitney Museum in the Upper East Side Historic District. The plan would impact six row-houses at 933 to 943 Madison Avenue and two townhouses at 31 and 33 East 74th Street. Straus acquired the properties from the Whitney in 2010 after the museum abandoned its own plans for the site.

In October 2011, Landmarks considered Straus’s original proposal. The Beyer Blinder Belle-designed plan included replacing a no-style row-house abutting the museum along Madison Avenue with a new building and adding a two-story rooftop addition spanning the other five row-houses on the block. Straus planned to replace a small infill building behind 933 Madison Avenue with a nine-story building that would also serve as a rear-extension to an existing four-story townhouse at 31 East 74th Street. Finally, Straus planned to build a one-story rooftop addition to 33 East 74th Street. The project would have been clad in terra-cotta to match the Madison Avenue row-houses.   (read more…)