Richard Lobel testifies before the Board of Standards and Appeals. Image credit: BSA

Board found a hardship caused by the site’s irregular shape.  On April 14, 2015 the Board of Standards and Appeals granted 31 BSP LLC a variance to permit converting an existing six-story mixed-use noncomplying building at 31 Bond Street in the NoHo Historic District of Manhattan into a seven-story Use Group 2 residential building.  The proposal will remove a backshaft from the rear of the existing building, vacant since 2010, and redistribute floor area to construct a new seventh story with a 1,500 square-foot penthouse.

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LPC approved rendering of the proposed development at 688 Broadway in the NoHo Historic District. Image Credit: BKSK Architects.

Landmarks approved development project to be built on vacant lot in the NoHo Historic District: Project now before Planning Commission. On February 5, 2014, the City Planning Commission held a public hearing for an application by Downtown Re Holdings LLC for special permits for a proposed mixed-use development located on 688 Broadway, between West 4th and Great Jones Streets in the NoHo Historic District. The special permits would allow Use Group 2 residential uses on the second through twelfth floors of a 15-unit development, and would waive set back requirements along Broadway. The lot at 688 Broadway had been a vacant lot since the 1960s, when two loft buildings were demolished until, for the last twenty years, a street level outdoor marketplace occupied the lot. The Landmarks Preservation Commission issued a certificate of appropriateness for the development on October 9, 2012 (See CityLand coverage here). (read more…)

Rendering of 688 Broadway. Credit: BKSK Architects LLP

Compliments abound for BKSK-designed eleven-story-plus-penthouse building proposed for Broadway lot used for flea market. On October 9, 2012, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved Downtown RE Holdings LLC’s plan to build an eleven-story-plus-penthouse building at 688 Broadway in the NoHo Historic District. The site has been used as a parking lot and is currently occupied by a flea market.

George Schieferdecker and Harry Kendall, from BKSK Architects, presented Downtown RE Holdings’ proposal. The building would rise up to 150 feet (including bulkhead) and its set-back penthouse would be visible from some vantages. An irregularly shaped brick and terra cotta-glassed screen would sit in front of the building’s metal and glass facade. The building would feature a prominent cornice and a stone base, with its first two stories framed with metal. Kendall pointed out that the building’s height would be neither exceptionally tall nor short for the area. He explained that because the underlying zoning required a set back at 85 feet, the developer would apply to the City Planning Commission to modify the zoning resolution’s bulk regulations.

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Credit: Selldorf Architects and Radii Inc.

Approval gained after design modification based on comments from earlier Landmarks hearing. On May 15, 2012, Landmarks approved a revised proposal by 8-12 Development Partners LLC to replace a garage and factory building with a new seven-story building at the corner of Bond and Lafayette Streets in the NoHo Historic District. In March 2006, Landmarks approved a plan to demolish the buildings and replace them with a proposed hotel. Landmarks in December 2009 issued a certificate of appropriateness for the project, but it expired without any work taking place. The new proposal was for an entirely new project. 8-12 Development Partners plans to use the new building for residential purposes. The building will abut a recently approved building at the corner of Great Jones and Lafayette Streets designed by Morris Adjmi.

At a Landmarks hearing in April 2012, the project’s architect, Annabelle Selldorf of Selldorf Architects, presented a design for an 85-foot tall, six-story building, with a setback seventh floor penthouse. The seventh floor would be set back ten feet on Bond Street and four feet on Lafayette Street.  The building would feature terra cotta spandrels and piers that Selldorf said would echo the historic masonry cladding of the neighborhood. Horizontal bands of windows would stripe the two visible facades. The building would be clad in Cor-Ten steel at the ground floor, (read more…)

Landmarks approved revised proposal to replace garage with residential building. On November 15, 2011, Landmarks approved a revised proposal to replace a one-story garage with a six-story apartment building at the corner of Lafayette and Great Jones Streets in the NoHo Historic District. The original Morris Adjmi designed proposal, presented in August 2011, called for an aluminumclad building with fourteen window bays along the Lafayette Street facade and three bays along Great Jones Street. Landmarks found the massing appropriate, but asked Adjmi to enliven the facades and emphasize the cornice, which framed the set back sixth-floor penthouse. 8 CityLand 125 (Sept. 15, 2011).

In November, Adjmi said that he had reviewed the surrounding architecture and found that the store-and-loft buildings featured stone, brick, and cast iron. With that in mind, Adjmi revised the design to incorporate brick elements. The building’s second through fifth floors would feature concave columns of recycled brick that would be inlaid with vertical metal strips. The metal inlays would increase in width as the building reached the sixth floor. Articulated horizontal beams would now separate the floors. Adjmi increased the number of window bays along the Lafayette Street facade, and recessed the windows further from the facade to increase the shadow line. He also strengthened the cornice, which would still frame the penthouse terrace.  (read more…)

In 2008 Landmarks approved for the same NoHo site a similarly sized building that was to be clad in limestone. On May 11, 2010, Landmarks approved DDG Partners’ revised proposal to build an eight-story residential building at 41 Bond Street in Manhattan’s NoHo Historic District Extension. In 2008 and 2009, the lot’s former owner had obtained a certificate of appropriateness from Landmarks and a use variance from the Board of Standards & Appeals in order to build a similarly sized, limestone- clad structure at the site. The owner started construction, but sold the property before completing the project. DDG Partners requested an amendment to the certificate of appropriateness.

At a hearing on May 4, DDG Partners’ Peter Guthrie stated that the building’s front facade would be clad entirely in bluestone. Guthrie said the utilitarian character of bluestone would better connect to the neighborhood’s history than the previously approved limestone facade. The design included recessed windows with planted window boxes, and a planted roof canopy. The rear facade would consist of a glass curtain wall divided by bluestone with sliding glass opening to small balconies, which would also feature plantings. (read more…)