Rendering of the modified design for 1162 Broadway office building./Image Credit: Morris Ajemi Architects

The modified design received support from the majority of the Commissioners. On May 12, 2020, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to approve a Certificate of Appropriateness to construct a new 13-story office building on a vacant lot at 1162 Broadway, Manhattan. The vacant lot is located within the Madison Square North Historic District. In 2013, Landmarks originally approved the building’s construction and design for a new hotel but nothing was constructed. Morris Ajemi Architects, the building’s architectural firm, made slight modifications to the previously approved design.

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Rendering of proposed 250 Fifth Avenue additions. Image Courtesy: Platt Byard Dovell White.

Alterations to facade design win approval for setback tower to be built on existing two-story base. On December 11, 2012, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to approve an application by Quartz Associates LLC for a site at 250 Fifth Avenue in the Madison Square North Historic District. The plan calls for the construction of a tower that will rise to 23 stories on top of a one-story extension to the bank building facing West 28th Street. The new tower would be set back twenty feet from the existing base. A penthouse would also be built on the five-story bank building which faces the avenue. The work will serve the conversion of the property to hotel use. The applicants intend to conduct a complete restoration of the bank building.

Landmarks held a hearing on July 24, 2012 on the project. (See Cityland’s past coverage here). Architect Charles Platt, of Platt Byard Dovell White, said the building’s massing, specifically the tower’s setback, which is atypical for the historic district, was mandated by the site’s C5-2 zoning. The building was clad in precast concrete and brick bands, with asymmetrical piers emphasizing the building’s verticality.

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Proposed hotel project (elevation along West 28th Street). Credit: Platt Byard Dovell White

Set-back tower would rise straight up from two-story McKim Mead & White base. On July 24, 2012, Landmarks considered Quartz Associates LLC’s proposal to develop a mid-block hotel tower on top of a five-story bank building designed by McKim Mead & White at the corner of West 28th Street and Fifth Avenue in the Madison Square North Historic District. The hotel would rise above a two-story extension of the building and face West 28th Street. Quartz Associates also proposed adding a new penthouse to the building’s fifth floor along Fifth Avenue. The entire building will be used for the hotel, with the rooftop addition serving as a restaurant.

According to Quartz Associates’ attorney Robert Davis, the proposal complies with the site’s C5-2 zoning. Architect Charles Platt, of Platt Byard Dovell White, presented the proposal. Rather than design the building with a series of setbacks, the tower would be set back fifteen feet from the two-story base and rise straight up. Platt claimed a building with several setbacks would ultimately be too narrow to accommodate the necessary hotel rooms. The tower would be clad in precast concrete with inlaid light-tan brick. It would feature metal spandrel panels and strong vertical piers of different widths facing 28th Street. The tower would be visible from over the roof of the building along Fifth Avenue.

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Sixteen-story building was illegally converted to residential use in 1997. On January 26, 2011, the City Planning Commission approved Mocal Enterprises Inc.’s proposal to convert its sixteen-story commercial building at 1182 Broadway in Manhattan to partial residential use. The building, zoned for manufacturing and commercial uses, is located within the Madison Square North Historic District.

In 1997, Mocal illegally converted the portion of the building above the fifth floor into apartments. Mocal initially applied for a special permit to legalize the building in April 2008. In March 2010, Buildings issued a partial vacate order and currently only one commercial tenant remains in the building.

Mocal proposed converting the sixth through sixteenth floors plus penthouse to allow 44 residential apartments and would provide separate entrances and elevators for residential and commercial tenants. Because the building is located within a historic district, it was necessary for Mocal to create a Landmarks approved maintenance plan for the building’s preservation. Landmarks approved Mocal’s restoration plan in January 2008. (read more…)

Construction will require the demolition of a non-contributing townhouse. On May 15, 2007, Landmarks approved an application by developer Brandolini Companies to demolish an existing building and construct a new residential condominium at 224 Fifth Avenue in the Madison Square North Historic District. The approved 20-story building, designed by architectural firm Beyer Blinder Belle, features a glass-clad facade with angled windows. Landmarks described the building to be demolished, a mid-19th century house later adapted for commercial use and altered again in 1981, as “non-contributing” in the original district designation report.

The Historic Districts Council opposed the project’s height and shape, arguing that the “glass sliver” in a historic district would set a dangerous precedent for other noncontributory townhouses in the district, but also praised the design, calling it a “handsome, well-thought- out project.” (read more…)