The century-old building at 27 East 62nd Street will be getting a little more space and some restorative work, thanks to Tuesday’s approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The building was designed by Lawlor and Haase and completed in 1913. It sits just east of Madison Avenue.
The presentation was made by David Katz of Katz Architecture. The indentation on the building’s west side will be in-filled, adding space to the building’s interior and raising the height of the tenth floor by five feet. However, the water tower atop the building will remain 127 feet and four inches above the ground.
In addition to all of that, the exterior will be completely restored, including cleaning, repairing, and infilling of brick as needed. Other work includes replacing the windows with wooden ones, the removal of all window and thru-wall air conditioning units on the building’s south elevation, partial removal of stucco on the building’s western face, repair and re-installation of metal panels on the 10th floor, and cleaning and repairing of limestone as needed. The ground floor’s historic configuration will be retained. Finally, the building could even get a new cornice.
The proposal called for brick on the building’s western face from the seventh floor up and stucco below. The commissioners asked that the applicant work with LPC staff to see if it would be possible to have the entire face be brick. Other than that issue and asking for some clarifications, the commissioners easily approved this project.
The presenting team said this would be a corporate building, meaning one client. No actual information was given by them on the tenant, except for the name RE Holdings. Ronald Perelman’s firm bought the building for $120 million in 2014, The Real Deal reported.
Community Board 8 voted to support the project. The Historic Districts Council also supported the project.
“HDC wishes to applaud the applicant on a very sensitive front façade restoration, including the reintroduction of the cornice in sheet metal and the cleaning and repairing of masonry,” HDC’s Barbara Zay said. “On the west elevation, the applicant is proposing to push the wall forward without changing the character of that façade – a refreshing and sensitive approach.”
Michael Hall of Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts was generally supportive, but asked for some memory of the original inset on the western face and that fewer windows or a less regular arrangement of windows would be appropriate.
Evan Bindelglass is a local freelance journalist, photographer, cinephile, and foodie. You can e-mail him, follow him on Twitter @evabin, or check out his personal blog.
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