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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Addition OK’d for 4-story townhouse

Owners’ plan to enlarge fourth-floor co-op violated multiple dwelling law. In December 2010, Felix and Lisa Oberholzer-Gee sought a building permit to enlarge their 1,000-square-foot, fourth-floor co-op in a five-unit townhouse at 159 West 78th Street in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The Oberholzer-Gees proposed building a set-back, 646-square-foot rooftop addition. Buildings denied the permit because the plans violated the multiple dwelling law’s restrictions on enlargements of converted dwellings. The Oberholzer-Gees applied to the Board of Standards & Appeals seeking to vary the multiple dwelling law’s height and bulk regulations.

At BSA, the Oberholzer-Gees claimed that a complying proposal would cause practical difficulties because the multiple dwelling law prohibited a vertical enlargement, and a complying 234-square-foot horizontal enlargement would require a cantilevered extension blocking the light and air to the apartment below. The Oberholzer-Gees also noted that their proposal included a variety of fire safety measures, such as installing a new sprinkler system, using non-combustible materials throughout the building, and adding fireproof doors to all apartments.

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Jewish Home Lifecare project site.

Community board argued that Commission should require Jewish Home Lifecare’s to seek special permit for new facility on West 97th Street. Jewish Home Lifecare, a health care provider for the elderly, planned to build a new 414-bed nursing home on West 97th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Jewish Home Lifecare operates a 514-bed facility at 120 West 106th Street. However, the building’s physical plant is outdated and inefficient, and Jewish Home Lifecare planned to relocate to a new 24-story facility on West 97th Street. The building would be located on a parking lot surrounded by the Park West Village Apartments. The proposed building would comply with the zoning requirements of the area’s underlying R7-2 district. However, Jewish Home Lifecare needed the City Planning Commission to issue a certification to the Department of Buildings in order to avoid seeking a special permit to build the facility, which, if required, would trigger public review pursuant to the City’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure.

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Developer agreed to fund larger on-site school and provide on-site affordable housing. On December 8, 2010, the City Council’s Land Use Committee modified Extell Development Company’s proposal to develop a three million sq.ft. mixed-use project on a site bounded by West 59th and West 61st Streets and West End Avenue and Riverside Boulevard in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The project, known as Riverside Center, will include five buildings, ranging in height from 31 to 44 stories; 2.75 acres of publicly accessible open space; and an on-site public elementary school. Extell will also extend Freedom Place South and West 60th Street.

The 8.2-acre project site comprises the three remaining undeveloped parcels of the Riverside South development plan first approved by the City in 1992 to govern the redevelopment of the rail yards extending from West 59th Street to West 72nd Street. To facilitate the project’s development, Extell submitted multiple applications including modifications to height and setback requirements and special permits for 1,800 below-ground parking spaces. (more…)

Planning Commission approves modifications. On September 17, 2007, the City Council approved, with modifications, the plan to rezone 51 blocks of the Upper West Side. Two days later, the Planning Commission gave its final approval to the plan, finding no objections to the Council’s modifications.

The plan, the result of a two-year collaborative effort between City Planning, HPD, Landmarks, the Manhattan Borough President and local residents, sought to address concerns over out-of-character construction in the area. It down-zoned blocks characterized by low-density townhouses, limiting building heights and further restricting residential density, while focusing high-density development on Broadway, Amsterdam above West 104th Street, and West 106th Street. It also applied the City’s inclusionary housing program primarily along Broadway, allowing developers to increase the size of a project with an agreement to build affordable housing. 4 CityLand 122 (Sept. 15, 2007). (more…)