The Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Image Credit: LPC.

Interior landmark is composed of contiguous spaces over three floors, including the Main Lobby and Grand Ballroom. The Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to designate the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel Interiors at its meeting on March 7, 2017. The exterior of the Hotel, at 301 Park Avenue in Manhattan, has been an individual City landmark since 1993. The hotel was purchased by Chinese investment firm Anbang in 2014. Anbang has closed the hotel for renovation, and intends to partially convert the building to condominium use. (read more…)

Rendering of 311 Vanderbilt Avenue. Image Credit: LPC.

Sculptural dwelling takes cues from arched bays of carriages houses common to Clinton Hill’s Vanderbilt Avenue. On February 7, 2017, the Landmarks Preservation Commission considered and approved an application to construct a new building on a vacant lot at 311 Vanderbilt Avenue in Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill Historic District. The site, currently used for parking, is on a through-block lot, with an existing 1890 townhouse facing Clinton Avenue. The planned building will rise to four stories, with the top floor set back from the main facade. (read more…)

United Nations Hotel

Late 1970s and early 1980s hotel interiors are a rare preserved exemplar of late Modern and early Postmodern design. Landmarks voted to designate as an interior City landmark the hotel lobby and Ambassador Grill of the United Nations Hotel at its meeting on January 17, 2017. The hotel, at 1 United Nations Plaza was built as part of a larger complex by the United Nations Development Corporation. The two interior spaces were completed seven years apart− the Grill in 1976 and the lobby area in 1983. (read more…)

United Nations Hotel. Image Credit: LPC

Early Postmodern bar and lobby a rare intact example of interior architecture and design from the late 1970s and early 1980s. On September 20 2016, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to add first floor interiors on the United Nations Hotel at 1 United Nations Plaza to its calendar, formally commencing the designation process. The interiors under consideration are the hotel’s lobby and the public areas of the Ambassador Grill. The lobby was completed in 1983, and the grill in 1976. Both were designed by the firm of Kevin Roche Dinkeloo Associates for the United Nations Development Corporation. (read more…)

Image Credit: BKSK

Modifications to proposal for eight-story-plus-penthouse structure included revisions to cornice and base, and lowering some floor heights. On September 6, 2016, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the demolition of an existing building and a new development at 466 Columbus Avenue in the Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District. The approved plan will replace an existing structure built in 1894 but heavily altered in intervening years. The site is owned and will be developed by the Roe Corporation.

At an initial hearing, held on July 19, 2016, the applicants attested that the existing building had been heavily compromised to accommodate different uses including the addition of a third story approved by Landmarks in 2006. The applicants proposed a building with an eight-story streetwall primarily composed of brick and terra cotta, consistent with the district’s traditional masonry, with a painted metal storefront. The seventh floor would be topped with brick corbelling, with the eighth floor set back from the street facade. A metal cornice would project from above the eighth floor. A setback duplex penthouse would be only partially visible from certain oblique public perspectives. (read more…)

Rendering of 363 Lafayette Street in Manhattan. Image Credit: LPC.

Applicants rescinded proposed double-height rectangular form for a more subtle series of setbacks, and reduced size of windows to bring it into a scale more contextual with the neighborhood. On August 2, 2016, the Landmarks Preservation Commission considered and approved a revised proposal to construct a new ten-story building at 363 Lafayette Street in the NoHo Historic District Extension. The through-block lot also faces Bond and Great Jones Streets. The lot is currently vacant, and adjoins a new building in construction along Great Jones Street and a residential building facing Bond Street. (read more…)