The city is finally moving forward with plans to rebuild two unstable 19th century buildings at 321 and 323 Canal Street in Soho, which have been in administrative limbo for more than two years.
The two Federal-style buildings between Greene and Mercer Streets were constructed in 1821, only two years after Canal Street’s eponymous waterway was paved over. Their owner, United American Land, filed plans for an “emergency deconstruction” of the front and rear facades in 2013. Earlier this week, the city posted zoning documents detailing new apartments and commercial space for the renovated properties.
321 Canal will gain 676 square feet by expanding its second and third floors, bringing the building up to 5,462 square feet of interior space. The first floor and cellar will become retail space, and three apartments will fill the top three stories. Plans for 323 Canal are identical, except that it will add 930 square feet to its second and third floors, for a new, improved building of 6,723 square feet.
321 Canal Street
City Planning has to approve the renovation plans, because the property’s light industrial zoning doesn’t allow residential uses. Both buildings also sit at the southern edge of the Soho Cast Iron Historic District, and Landmarks approved Certificates of Appropriateness to rebuild the buildings and restore their facades last summer. The Department of Buildings is reviewing plan exam applications for the two buildings, and it will issue new alteration permits once City Planning greenlights the changes.
Page Ayres Cowley Architects, based on East 33rd Street in Koreatown, is handling the renovations.
Back in 2013, Jason Laboz of United American Land told TRD, “We are replacing all the brick and restoring the building to the way it was before. It is a landmark building and we cannot do anything but restore it.”
UAL scooped up 321 Canal for $11 million in 2011, and they’ve owned 323 Canal since 1998.
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