Architect rendering of the new 807 Park Avenue. Image credit: PBDW ARchitects

Commission asked applicants to integrate fragment of building that was otherwise demolished for 1980s enlargement. On June 9, 2015, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to approve an application to construct a new building at 807 Park Avenue in the Upper East Side Historic District. It was the commission’s fourth meeting on the matter. The property was originally developed in 1899 as five story Romanesque Revival tenement. The site is owned by Aion Partners, who purchased the property in 2004.

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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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Renovation would retain only facade and sidewalls. On May 19, 2009, Landmarks heard testimony on a plan to convert two Georgian-style rowhouses, located at 43 and 45 West 86th Street in the Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District, into a religious preschool. The rowhouses, built in 1895 and 1896, were designed by architect John H. Duncan, designer of Grant’s Tomb in Riverside Park.

Architect Charles Platt, of the firm Platt Byard Dovell White, presented the plan for the new Chabad Early Learning Center. After detailing the extensive restoration planned for the facades, Platt explained that the development included the full demolition of the interior, including the party wall separating the two rowhouses. The new rear facade, proposed as glass and masonry, would feature a multicolored glass stripe on a bay. A one-story addition with a rooftop play terrace would replace an existing rear yard extension. In addition, the design included a rooftop addition and mechanical equipment bulkhead, visible from across West 86th Street, and a new subcellar that would allow additional area without increasing the height. Along the exterior facades, the new building required handicapped-accessible entryways, necessitating the removal of the existing stoops and a new design for the entrance level. Platt noted that the structure would be much smaller than permitted as-of-right under the area’s R10A zoning. (read more…)