FRIENDS' Testimony:

FRIENDS’ Preservation Committee appreciates that the rear yard addition has been designed to bring order and proportion to what is currently a hodge-podge elevation within an overall disorganized rear-yard doughnut. We are especially appreciative that the new third through sixth floor windows will be constructed in double-hung mahogany and diminish in size towards the top floor to recall traditional window forms and materials seen across the district. FRIENDS is also pleased to see that the new rooftop addition will not be visible from any public thoroughfare, with the exception of the extended chimney pipe.

We note that at the Community Board 8 Landmarks Committee Meeting, this application included designs for a new primary street façade as well as an expanded areaway. We commend the architects for acknowledging concerns posed by that committee and deciding to revisit that aspect of the proposal. However, we feel that it’s preferable to see Certificate of Appropriateness applications presented in their entirety, as opposed to small portions spread out over time, and wished that they had returned with the inclusive application for both facades and the rooftop addition. FRIENDS has noticed that these incremental applications are becoming more prevalent, and we don’t feel that this piecemeal approach fairly represents the cumulative impact of what is, in fact, a single alteration phase to a protected building. That being said, FRIENDS supports this application as proposed.