After Objecting to Plan for Historic Buildings, Community Board Reconsiders
At first, Community Board 1 (CB1) cast a skeptical eye on a developer’s plan to merge two neglected, historic buildings on Chambers Street and add an additional floor to their combined roof. The buildings are located at 112 and 114 Chambers Street, between Church Street and West Broadway. Although they are not individually landmarked, this address places them within Tribeca South Historic District, which grants them legally protected status.
Before any change to the buildings – which date from 1834 and 1857, but were significantly altered in the 1940s – can be legally authorized, the developers must seek the approval of the City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). And before the LPC will rule on this application, it seeks an advisory opinion from CB1.
The buildings are rich in local history. Yoko Ono once rented a loft at 114 Chambers Street, years before she gained fame as an avant garde artist, and 112 Chambers was once a central part of a now-vanished retail “shoe district.” Both structures have been mostly empty and boarded up since the 2008 financial crisis.
The plans by development firm Si Jie Mei would combine the four-story brick townhouses, add a fifth floor to both, install an elevator and interior staircase, remove an external fire escape, convert former offices upstairs into apartments, and refurbish the street-level retail spaces.
While the proposed design would be visually consistent with surrounded structures, CB1 objected to the plan in a resolution enacted at its December 19 meeting. This measure requested that the developer “find a solution that is more in line with either maintaining the look of two separate structures or to show a more harmonious design affirming the look of a single building; neither of these directions is clear in the current proposal.”
A revised design (right) by Si Jie Mei and their architectural team eliminated a second-floor retail space that had been added in the 1940s, and enhanced the contrast between windows in the two buildings, underscoring their separate histories.
CB1 member Susan Cole said, “what they had was horrible, but the change and what they’ve done with the windows make it totally acceptable.” Member Bruce Ehrmann agreed, saying, “the building has been derelict for decades. Something has to be done.” In response to the new design, CB1’s Landmarks and Preservation Committee voted to endorse the plan, and recommend to the LPC that it be allowed to proceed.