Church of St. Paul the Apostle, 8 Columbus Avenue, Manhattan. Image Credit: LPC.

No opposition to Pastor’s request to alter the footprint of the newly landmarked Catholic Church. On July 23, 2013, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to modify the recently landmarked Church of St. Paul the Apostle site to exclude a convent, at 120 West 60th Street, from the designation at the request of the church leadership. The five-story convent building was built in 1949, and according to the designation report, “does not contribute to the architectural or historical character of the church.” (Read CityLand’s past coverage here.)

The site modification required a hearing, which did not garner any opposition to modification. Manhattan Community Board 7 representative Mark Diller testified that modifying the designation “does no violence” to the landmark, while the Historic Districts Council’s Nadezhda Williams noted that the church had already sold its air rights, and that “landmarking the convent would not contribute towards the preservation of the church.”

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Church of St. Paul the Apostle, 8 Columbus Avenue, Manhattan. Image Credit: LPC.

See below for update.

Medieval Revival-style Catholic Church served as home for the Paulist Fathers. On June 11, 2013, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing on the potential designation of the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, at 8 Columbus Avenue in Manhattan. The church, at the corner of 60th Street, was primarily constructed during the period between 1875 and 1885. The upper parts of the church’s two imposing towers were completed in 1900, and a decorative bas-relief mural was installed over the church’s entrance in 1959. Landmarks initially considered the church for designation in 1966, but no action was taken at the time.

The church was commissioned by the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle, known commonly as the Paulist Fathers. The order was established in 1858, with the goal of serving as missionaries to Protestant Americans. The group’s initial Upper West Side parish soon proved inadequate, and a new church was commissioned. Architect Jeremiah O’Rourke, based in New Jersey, conceived the design for the church but was replaced on the project by Paulist priest George Deshon in the early 1880s. The building is faced in granite, some of it salvaged from other Manhattan structures.

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West End-Collegiate HD Extension map. Image Credit: LPC.

Commissioners voted unanimously to approve district two years after initial hearing, though split on the inclusion of modern apartment complex. On June 25, 2013, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to approve an extension to the West End-Collegiate Historic District, encompassing 200 buildings. The extension more than doubles the size of the previously designated district, and lies to the north and to the south of the original district, between 70th and 79th Streets, and Riverside Drive and Broadway. The district is primarily residential, characterized by rowhouses and apartment buildings built in the period between the 1880s and the 1930s.

The first wave of development in the area saw the construction of single-family rowhouses, constructed in brownstone, limestone, and brick in a variety of architectural styles, including Beaux-Arts, Queen Anne, Renaissance Revival, and Romanesque Revival. In the 1890s, as apartment living lost its stigma among the upper class, the neighborhood saw the construction of several “French flats” or small, multi-family dwellings. Through the turn of the century to the turn of the 1930s, elevator apartment buildings dominated new construction.

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Rendering of the proposed two-story addition at 101 West 78th Street, Manhattan. Image Credit: Montroy Andersen DeMarco.

Applicants testified that seven-story building was originally conceived as rising to nine stories, and that a two-story addition was approved in the 1890s. The Landmarks Preservation Commission considered an application to construct a two-story plus bulkhead addition atop the Evelyn, an apartment building at 101 West 78th Street in the Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District, on July 23, 2013.  The 1886 seven-story Renaissance Revival apartment building stands at the corner of Columbus Avenue, across the street from the American Museum of Natural History. The proposal also included the installation of an access lift at the main residential entrance, which would necessitate the removal of some historic fabric.

The proposed addition would be clad in zinc, while a brick bulkhead would rise an additional story. Glass railings would surround the accessible rooftop areas. Portions of the addition would be visible from multiple viewpoints from public thoroughfares.

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