By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
TRIBECA — The builders of an eight-story hotel on Reade Street suffered yet another setback this week when the city said the proposed design did not fit in with TriBeCa's historic character.
The city Landmarks Preservation Commission said the facade of the proposed building at 71 Reade St. was too flat and the windows were too wide. Other buildings in TriBeCa's historic districts have deeper, more detailed facades and taller, narrower windows, the commissioners said Tuesday, according to a spokeswoman.
"It fell a little bit short," said Lisi de Bourbon, the LPC spokeswoman. "They asked the applicant to go back and study the facade."
Architect David West, who designed the building, said after the hearing that he hadn't wanted to compete with TriBeCa's existing historic structures by copying them too exactly, but he would make the changes the Landmarks Commission suggested.
The LPC's concerns were just the latest roadblock for the project.
The original plan was to renovate the existing, 154-year-old building to turn it into a hotel. But part of the building collapsed in April 2009, so the owners had to start with a new design from the ground up.
The Landmarks Commission praised some parts of the design at Tuesday's hearing, including the limestone cladding and the use of four original cast-iron columns salvaged from the rubble of the collapse, West said.
The design previously won advisory approval from Community Board 1 and the Historic Districts Council, though both groups expressed a few reservations.
The 96-room hotel would include a two-story penthouse and would have commercial space, possibly a restaurant, on the ground floor, West said. The lobby will be on Reade Street but the building will also have an entrance at 87 Chambers St.
West said the hotel could open as soon as the fall of 2012.
