15 Leonard Street

Landmarks approved a revised proposal for the Leonard Street site despite community opposition. On July 17, 2012, Landmarks approved developer Steven Schnall’s revised proposal to replace two one-story garages at 15 Leonard Street in the Tribeca West Historic District with a residential building. The nine-story, 108-foot building would rise seven stories at the streetwall, with a set-back, two-story penthouse. In February 2008, Landmarks approved a different plan to replace the garages with a seven-story building, but the project stalled and the property was sold.

At the proposal’s public hearing in May 2012, Wayne Turett, of Turett Collaborative Architects, presented Schnall’s plan. The building would have a 75-foot-wide, one-story base, with the 60-foot-wide upper floors aligned to the eastern lot line. This would create a 15-foot shaft to provide access to light and air to a neighboring building to the west as required by a property easement. The building’s front facade would be framed in painted metal and feature an asymmetrical, staggered pattern of translucent channel glass with loft sized windows. The penthouse would be clad in a lighter shade of painted metal. The building’s sidewalls would be clad in gray brick. Four garage entrances, made of a mixture of opaque and translucent glass panels, would be built at the ground level, with a central recessed pedestrian entrance in the middle. A steel-and-glass (read more…)

Landmarks twice approved designs for new building on Tribeca site, but development stalled. On November 1, 2011, Landmarks approved a proposal to replace a two-story 1947 brick building with a nine-story residential building at 403 Greenwich Street in the Tribeca West Historic District. Landmarks in 2002, and again in 2009, approved buildings for the site, but neither proposal went forward. The 2009-approved proposal called for a six-story building designed by Joseph Pell Lombardi featuring glass-brick facades.

Architect Morris Adjmi presented the current proposal, which would rise seven stories at the street wall with two setback floors that would not be visible from the street. The front facade would be composed of blackened steel framing with three-over-three windows and a large metal cornice on top of the seventh story. The building’s base would feature a glass lobby with a steel canopy. Decorative flanges on the window surrounds would project from the front facade. Staggered balconies proposed for the building’s rear brick facade were intended to be reminiscent of historic fire escapes.  (read more…)

Landmarks found that contemporary, sculptural facade recalled district’s historical character. On April 19, 2011, Landmarks unanimously approved Douglas and Michelle Monticciolo’s proposal to add two floors on top of a three-story building at 187 Franklin Street in the Tribeca West Historic District. The proposal, opposed by the community board, called for a new, sculptural-brick facade above the first floor. The existing building replaced a 1923 one-story garage that was demolished in 1992.

Historic preservation consultant Bill Higgins, representing the Monticciolos, argued that the project’s “adventurous and sculptural design” took its cues from the historic district. Higgins provided an overview of nearby buildings that exemplified the characteristics of the Tribeca West Historic District, including the tradition of crafted ornamental brick, deep facades, and balconies. He pointed to the use of ornamental brick on the individually-landmarked Western Union Building at 60 Hudson Street, and cited the Civic Center Synagogue as an example of avant-garde and sculptural design within the district. (read more…)

Developer modified seven-story project’s facade details in response to concerns expressed at prior hearing. On November 16, 2010, Landmarks approved Real Estate Equities Corporation’s revised proposal to construct a seven-story residential building at the corner of Franklin and Varick Streets in the Tribeca West Historic District. At the proposal’s prior hearing the Commissioners asked the project’s architect to modify the design by strengthening the building’s base and increasing the amount of masonry in its facades. Commissioners also disliked that the City’s underlying zoning regulations would prohibit the building from extending to the property’s southern lot line. 7 CityLand 142 (Oct. 15, 2010).

At the November meeting, Landmarks staff member John Graham said the revised design was intended to ensure the building would be contextual with the district. (read more…)

Existing two-story building to be demolished. Steven and Sherri Schnall, private owners of 230-234 West Broadway within the Tribeca West Historic District, were granted a permit to construct their 9,000- square-foot private residence. The plan, designed by Turett Collaborative Architects, requires the demolition of an existing two-story building at 230 West Broadway, which will be replaced by a six-story building with a blackened steel and glass facade featuring an aluminum and glass garage door, a steel and glass ground floor canopy, and single-pane, metal-clad windows on the upper floors. The new building will be integrated with a renovated two-story building, once home to No Moore Bar.

Community Board 1 opposed the application by a vote of 29-1-2. The Board noted that, even though architect Wayne Turett had done considerable work in Tribeca and was respected for his sensitivity to the neighborhood, the design of the new building lacked context. The Board objected to the facade of both buildings, the bris-soleil canopy atop the north facade of the new building, and the railings on the roof. (read more…)

Contaminated soil remediation caused hardship. 377 Greenwich LLC, with principals Robert DeNiro, Ira Druckier and Richard Born, sought BSA approval for a 59,419- square-foot, seven-story luxury hotel in Tribeca that would exceed floor area, wall height and setback restrictions. DeNiro’s development team had started the permit process in 2003 by first seeking the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s approval for construction of a six-story building within the Tribeca West Historic District. After receiving approval, the six-story project was abandoned for a larger eight-story scenario. In November, 2004, Landmarks approved a seven-story hotel design that required a variance grant. 1 CityLand 46 (Dec. 2004).

In its application to BSA, the developer claimed that $1.7 million had been spent to remove two underground tanks from the site and to remediate the soil in preparation for development. Poor soil conditions compounded by the site’s high water table and the area’s floodplain escalated the project’s construction costs, making a smaller code-compliant development infeasible. The developer submitted feasibility studies, showing that an as-of-right hotel, office building and rental residential units, limited to the 50,355-square-foot area permitted by code, were infeasible. (read more…)