Applicant claimed that combining office building and residential townhouse would improve surrounding area. On August 20, 2009, the City Council approved a developer’s plan to combine two buildings on East 94th Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues into one 67-foot, six-story residential building within the Carnegie Hill Historic District. Originally built in the 1890s, developers converted 4 East 94th Street into a seven-story, 75-foot office building in 1963. The second building is a five-story, 58-foot residential townhouse at 6-8 East 94th Street.

The developer’s plan called for reducing the height of the 75-foot office building and increasing the townhouse’s height to create a uniform height of 67 feet, exceeding the area’s 60-foot height limit. The plan would open up the rear yard by demolishing a one-story addition behind the office building that extends to its lot line. The developer would replace the one-story addition with a six-story, five-and-a-half foot rear facade extension, creating a new 30-foot rear yard. (read more…)

New cladding and windows approved for Carnegie Hill Historic District home. Landmarks approved an application by the owner of 132 East 92nd Street to permit facade alterations and to construct a new garbage enclosure within the areaway. The neo-Regency-style residence, located in the Carnegie Hill Historic District, was originally built in 1887 as two separate rowhouses with a Queen Anne facade, but was redesigned and combined into a single structure in 1937-1938 by architect William L. Bottomley. The current owner will replace the facade’s stucco cladding and modern single-pane windows with limestone cladding and multipane windows.

In approving the application, Landmarks noted that while the original facade was constructed with stucco, the new limestone will bring the building closer to the design originally conceived by Bottomley based on his historical drawings, and that the multi-pane windows will recall the look of the building shown in a historic tax photograph. (read more…)