We’ve just posted our analysis of the revised massive Gansevoort development proposal. At its previous public meeting, the Landmarks Preservation Commission was very clear that the proposed building at 60-68 Gansevoort could be no taller than the previously existing tenements at this location, and that the height of the new building proposed for 74 Gansevoort (now 97 feet tall including mechanicals) needed to be significantly reduced.
Yet in the developer’s revised plan, 60-68 Gansevoort is still about 10 feet higher than the old tenements, and the height of 74 Gansevoort (exclusive of the penthouse) was reduced by a mere two feet.
We’ve now found 30 Department of Buildings records showing that the old tenements were between 50 and 55 feet high.
We strongly disagree with LPC’s decision at the previous meeting to arbitrarily reach back to an earlier stage in the district’s history in order to justify replacing existing low-rise market buildings with massive new construction. Nonetheless, if the rationale is to return Gansevoort Street to its earlier tenement configuration, then the new buildings at 60-68 and 74 Gansevoort must conform to the size of their predecessors. There is no excuse for allowing the developer to exceed the extremely generous guidelines which LPC previously established simply to increase his own profits.
Read the entire analysis here.
Urging those in a voting power position to look at this with sensitive regard….. by continuing in this very questionable manor will inevitably detroy the character of this Street…and thus allow for more “canyon” of tall builfings to be built. Why bother with codes and Preservation if variances are so easy to manipulate?. Whose interest is really being served here…..this must be looked in to.
Thank you, Boyd A. Babbitt
Thanks Zack for getting it together for us. I hope someone collects the petitions from the doorman buildings. Thanks for that also. Can’t attend the meeting but I’ve spread the problem all over the street ome, even if they can’t talk at the meeting!