Revised rooftop addition proposal at 721 St. Nicholas Avenue. Credit: Franklin Associates
Revised design shifted bulk of proposed one-story addition on St. Nicholas Avenue building toward front facade, but commissioners still found it excessive. On October 2, 2012, the Landmarks Preservation Commission considered 719/721 SNA Realty LLC’s revised proposal for a one-story rooftop addition to a five-story building at 721 St. Nicholas Avenue on the corner of St. Nicholas Avenue and West 146th Street in the Hamilton Heights/Sugar Hill Historic District. The Romanesque Revival building features a curved front facade with an arcading attic story along St. Nicholas Avenue, and a mansard roof and brick parapet along the building’s West 146th Street roofline.
In July 2012, Landmarks considered SNA Realty’s first proposal, designed by architect Richard Franklin. The proposal called for a brown-metal clad addition that would reach nine-feet two-inches in height and be set back 11 feet from St. Nicholas Avenue. The commissioners found the design unsympathetic to the historic structure, and recommended that the architect use different materials and consider concentrating the addition’s bulk toward the avenue rather than along West 146th Street. Commissioner Margery Perlmutter suggested extending the height of the rounded tower to create a turret. (See CityLand’s past coverage here.)
