Rendering of 27 East 4th Street, Image Credit: CPC/SRAA+E Architecture and Engineering
Supporters of preserving the Merchant House Museum rejoice in victory, but the battle may not be over as future demolition and construction is possible. On September 26, 2018, the City Council voted to disapprove the application for a rezoning at 27 East 4th Street in Manhattan. The Application would have allowed for an 8-story, 28-room hotel or office building with a restaurant and lobby below the second floor, with approximately 17,141 square feet of total floor area. The development site is located within the NoHo Historic District Extension, and is adjacent to the Merchant House Museum, an 1832 rowhouse that is an individual, interior, and national historic landmark. The Merchant House was the City’s first designated landmark and one of the first 20 landmarks designated in the state. It is only one of 120 interior landmarks in the City and one of only 6 residences. (read more…)
363 Lafayette Street Rendering. Image Credit: LPC.
Commissioners asked for further refinement to asymmetrical development composed of stacked rectangular forms. On July 12, 2016, the Landmarks Preservation Commission considered an application to develop a vacant lot at 363 Lafayette Street in the NoHo Historic District Extension. The lot extends the width of the block, also fronting Bond and Great Jones Streets. The northern portion of the lot is much wider than the southern section. The proposed new building would be used for commercial purposes with a showroom on the ground floor. The building would adjoin a co-op at 20 Bond Street at the southern portion, and a taller building now under construction at 25 Great Jones Street. (read more…)
Rendering of proposed building at 27 East 4th Street. Image Courtesy: SRA Architecture and Engineering.
Applicants take measures to ensure construction does not harm adjacent Merchant’s House. At a public meeting on February 11, 2014, the Landmarks Preservation Commission reviewed a revised proposal for a new building at 27 East 4th Street in the NoHo Historic District Extension. The applicants returned with a revised plan following Commissioners’ comments at a public hearing on March 12, 2013 (Read Cityland past coverage here). (read more…)
Rendering of proposed building at 27 East 4th Street. Image Credit: SRA Architecture and Engineering.
Applicants responded to public testimony, which focused on potential damage to the adjoining landmarks, by detailing the excavation, construction and monitoring plans for the new building. On March 12, 2013, the Landmarks Preservation Commission continued a hearing on a proposed new building at 27 East 4th Street, in the NoHo Historic District Extension. The proposed building is adjacent to the Merchant’s House, an individual exterior and interior landmark and museum at 29 East 4th Street.
At the first hearing on September 11, 2012, elected officials, representatives of the museum, the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation, which owns the property, Manhattan Community Board 2, and members of the public, all expressed strong concern about the potential negative impact of the project on the Merchant’s House. (See CityLand’s past coverage here). The hearing was cut short due to the quantity of public testimony and without an opportunity for the applicants to respond to the criticism or for Commissioners to comment on the application.
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Architect/owner reduced height and bulk of proposed rooftop and rear yard additions. On November 15, 2011, Landmarks approved Jeffrey Kamen’s revised proposal to build rooftop and rear additions to his four-story building at 33 Bond Street in the NoHo Historic District Extension. Kamen’s original proposal featured a sloping, three-story rooftop addition that cantilevered over the rear of the building and was modeled after artists’ garrets common in the area, as well as a three-story rear-yard addition. A large, glass “skylight” spanning the two additions would have created an atrium for tenants. Neighbors and preservationists opposed to the proposal claimed it was too bulky and visible. Landmarks agreed and asked Kamen to reduce the design. 8 City- Land 157 (Nov. 15, 2011).
In November, Kamen returned with a revised proposal calling for a sloping, two-story rooftop addition that would be slightly visible from the street and no longer cantilever over the rear of the building. The addition would be faced with ironspot brick and feature copper panels and mullions matching the building’s existing storefront. Kamen eliminated the atrium and would instead add a green roof deck on the rear yard addition. Skylights built into the deck would provide natural light to office space below. Recycled brick would be used on the rear addition, and exterior egress stairs would be built on the main building’s rear facade. (read more…)
Neighbors and preservationists opposed three-story rooftop addition planned for four-story building. On October 18, 2011, Landmarks considered Jeffrey Kamen’s proposal to add a cantilevered three-story addition on top of his four-story building at 33 Bond Street in the NoHo Historic District Extension. The Italianate store-and-loft building was built in the 1830s, and extensively altered in the early 20th century. In 2003, Kamen added a thirty-foot tall, three-story structure in the rear yard used as rental office space. The rear addition’s first and second floors are adjoined to the main building, which is used as a suite of offices.
Kamen is also the project’s architect, and he presented the proposal. The addition would slope back from the streetwall to minimize visibility from the street and cantilever over the building’s rear facade. A glass skylight at the bottom of the addition’s cantilever reaching the rear yard structure would create an atrium for the office tenants. Kamen planned to preserve the building’s rear brick facade and replace existing deteriorated windows with historic bronze double-hung windows. The rooftop addition would be built using iron-spot brick and glass, with copper paneling. Kamen described the proposal, which would reach the height of the neighboring buildings, as “connective tissue between two dominant masses.” (read more…)
