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Neighbors Slam Plan to Double Height of Historic Fifth Avenue Building

By Shaye Weaver | October 23, 2015 9:53am | Updated on October 26, 2015 8:34am
 The owner wants to add six stories to a building in a historic district.
Carngie Hill Historic Building Could Be Expanded
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CARNEGIE HILL — Residents this week rejected a plan to build six additional stories on top of a historic Fifth Avenue apartment building, saying its approval would set a dangerous precedent for future development on historic buildings.

If green-lighted by the Landmarks Preservation Commission on Nov. 10, the seven-story, 75-foot apartment building at 1143 Fifth Ave. would grow to 13 stories and more than 140 feet, with the help of Li Saltzman Architects, according to the plans.

It would also be made ADA compliant and gain a rear garden and modernized features, like updated windows, according to Stephen Gallira, who said he represents the owner, Jean Claude Marian, who lives in Brussels.

A community facility would also be added to the bottom floor, which would likely house medical offices, Gallira said.

A few dozen people showed up at Community Board 8's meeting on Wednesday night to oppose the project, arguing that it would invite other developers to alter historic buildings and would disrupt the unique character of the building, the block and Fifth Avenue.

"This is not just any building to slap six or seven stories on top of," board member Michele Birnbaum said. "What is the point of having a historic district if its major architects will be challenged and their work defaced by changing the form, the proportion and the materials ... altering history?"

The building, which currently sits vacant, was designed by architect J.E.R. Carpenter during the early 1920s. Carpenter was largely responsible for the appearance of many buildings on Fifth Avenue during that time.

The structure was designated as part of the Extended Carnegie Hill Historic District in 1993.

When the apartment building was constructed, the city restricted its height to 75 feet from 150 feet, which explains why it's shorter than other buildings on the block, according to architect David Helpern, who serves as co-chairman of Community Board 8's landmarks committee.

"The building is smack in the middle of what we know as Museum Mile," said neighbor Raymond Wareham. "Fifth Avenue is punctuated by a diverse set of architectural structures of varying heights throughout. To approve this would set out [a] series of similar applications in my view. We must preserve the very distinctive structure of the neighborhood itself."

But Gallira said Marian, who has experience renovating historic structures, is preserving the neighborhood by refurbishing the building.

"You will not find a better steward of this process than Jean Claude Marian," Gallira said. "Preservation is about sustainability, but this building doesn’t have the ability to evolve and sustain itself. It needs help."

Marian, who is the founder and president of a senior care company in Europe called Orpea, intends to hold the property in his family, not to develop and sell it, Gallira added.

Marian purchased the building from the French Consulate in November 2014 for $36.4 million, according to city records.

Karen Meara, an attorney who represents Marian, said altering the building would not necessarily set a precedent for the rest of the neighborhood because the building is already shorter than the ones next to it due to a previous height restriction, which was later overturned in 1923 with help from Carpenter, according to the New York Times.

Helpern agreed with Meara, saying the law doesn’t say historic buildings can’t be changed but that any change must be appropriate, and in this case, what is proposed is a “decent building.”

“We’re not talking about putting 210 feet on top of a townhouse,” he said. “We’re talking about Fifth Avenue, where the architect is struggling to see if she could come up with what the original intent of the building was and preserve the experience of the Carpenter Building.”

The board voted 29 to 14 to deny the application, but the Landmarks Preservation Commission will have the final say on Nov. 10.