
Architect’s rendering of 456 Greenwich Street. Image credit: Stephen B. Jacobs Group, P.C.
Six-story-plus-penthouse hotel approved after applicants changed the brick used in the cladding, and added masonry to large window openings. On September 8, 2015, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved a proposal demolishing an existing building at 456 Greenwich Street in Manhattan, and constructing a new hotel, with ground-floor retail uses. The lot to be developed lies partially within the Tribeca North Historic District, with the western portion of the site lying outside of the landmarked boundaries. The site is currently occupied by a garage, originally constructed as a freight terminal building in 1942, and heavily altered in subsequent years. (read more…)

Architect’s rendering of the proposed 456 Greenwich Street. Image credit: Stephen B Jacobs Group
Landmarks asked for revisions to application to demolish 20th century freight terminal building and construct new brick-faced hotel. On August 3, 2015 the Landmarks Preservation Commission considered an application to demolish an existing building and construct a new hotel at 456 Greenwich Street in Manhattan. The lot under consideration lies partially within the Tribeca North Historic District. The existing structure at the site, originally built as freight terminal building in 1942, was heavily altered in the 1950s, and now functions as a garage. The building is identified as “no style” in the district’s designation report. Landmarks previously considered an application for the alteration and redevelopment of the garage in 2014, but the project has since been abandoned. The new building would function as a hotel, with ground-floor commercial use.
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A model of the proposed building on 7 West 21st Street, New York, NY. Image Credit: MA.com.
Commissioners focused on the building’s sustainability and the proposed parking garage. On January 7, 2015 the City Planning Commission held a public hearing on applications for two special permits for a proposed building at 7 West 21st Street in the Ladies’ Mile Historic District of Manhattan. The proposed building is 185 feet tall, with ground-floor retail and residential units on the upper floors. The permits would allow a waiver of the 150-foot setback requirement and construction of an underground parking garage capable of holding two hundred vehicles. On October 15, 2013 the Landmarks Preservation Commission granted a Certificate of Appropriateness for the new building. (See previous CityLand coverage here.)
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New owners proposed to modify fifth-floor addition previously denied by Landmarks. On March 16, 2010, Landmarks voted to deny a proposal to modify and legalize a one-story rooftop addition built without Landmarks’ approval at 12-14 West 68th Street in the Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District. The building’s previous owners, Thomas Haines and Polly Cleveland, built the 506 square-foot, fifth-floor addition on top of a 1925-era studio building added to the rear of a Queen Anne-style mansion built in 1895.
Haines and Cleveland applied to Landmarks to legalize the addition. At an April 2009 hearing, architect Lester Evan Tour testified that he did not intend to bypass Landmarks when designing the addition. Evan Tour claimed that Buildings had failed to flag the property as landmarked, and that the plan examiners also missed the oversight. He argued that the addition was only minimally visible from the street and it related well to its host building and surroundings. Landmarks voted unanimously to deny legalization in June 2009. According to the Commissioners, the addition was too tall and made the rear building inappropriately higher than the main house. 6 CityLand 92 (July 15, 2009). (read more…)