By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
TRIBECA — Robert De Niro showed up at a city hearing Tuesday afternoon to make amends for an illegal penthouse atop his Greenwich Hotel in TriBeCa.
De Niro’s architects pledged to make several changes to the penthouse at 377 Greenwich St., including the removal of an obtrusive sloping copper roof and the addition of a vine-covered pergola.
After hearing the presentation, the Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously agreed to accept the changes and to forgive the fact that De Niro originally built a bulkier penthouse than was allowed. The Commission could have ordered him to tear the penthouse down but chose not to do so.
"I’m happy," De Niro said as he left the hearing in the Municipal Building on Chambers Street. "Sensibility prevailed."
Tuesday’s vote ends a years-long conflict over the one-story penthouse and roof deck. In 2004, the Commission approved a subtler version as part of the construction of De Niro’s new Greenwich Hotel.
But when the 88-room luxury hotel opened in 2008, the penthouse clearly deviated from the approved plan. De Niro initially asked the Landmarks Commission to retroactively approve the larger, more modern penthouse, but the Commission asked him to make changes.
The revised design, unveiled on Tuesday, strips away the offending copper roof, revealing a cubed structure underneath, which will be coated in the same bricks that clad the hotel itself. A trellis of vines will drape the penthouse in greenery during the summer.
The design, by architect Axel Vervoordt, is supposed to evoke industrial and mechanical rooftop spaces in TriBeCa’s older buildings.
"We are listening to what is in TriBeCa already," Vervoordt told the commissioners.
"This has come a long way," LPC Chairman Bob Tierney said before Tuesday’s vote. "I find it an appropriate change."
Other commissioners called the design "lyrical," "sophisticated" and "eloquent."
"Now this building speaks TriBeCa language," commissioner Diana Chapin said. "I can approve it."
De Niro did not speak during the hearing, but sat off to the side.
The penthouse will be part of the hotel, and is available for short-term rentals, Vervoordt said after the hearing.
When De Niro was asked if he would be spending time in the penthouse, he just smiled.
"I don’t know," he said.
