As Aby Rosen, Norman Foster and other developers and architects can tell you, Upper East Siders hate change nearly as much as they love cashmere. And up on 93rd Street, the same group trying to extend the Carnegie Hill Historic District east of Lexington Avenue to preserve the block the Marx Brothers once called home are taking aim at a new issue: the penthouse hijinx at 150 East 93rd Street. According to the agenda for Community Board 8, the Land Use Committee will meet tonight to discuss "an enlargement in the floor area" of the classy 12-story co-op. Sounds pretty harmless, but the 93rd Street Beautification Association alerts its supporters to the real deal: "The Co-Op Board President at 150 East 93rd Street owns the extant Penthouse on top of the building and wants to build an additional Penthouse on top of his Penthouse."
Defenders of the Historic Upper East Side's Teri Slater alerted the 93rd Street Beautification Association about this SPECIAL PERMIT APPLICATION (the sought approval of which is DISCRETIONARY and NOT a matter of right as is the case in so many other development projects in NYC) earlier this summer so that we could attend the first CB8 Meeting on the subject. The matter was described on the Agenda simply as an application for a "floor expansion" with no further details or explanation. The matter was taken up at that Community Board 8 Meeting and when things got quite heated, as Board Members argued their varying positions and complained because they had not been provided with a copy of the proposal or plans prior to the Meeting and the Penthouse Owner's Lawyer was not prepared to present the plans at that Meeting, everybody agreed to put the matter over to a later date.
That later date happens to be today, and there should be some fireworks regarding this penthouse-on-penthouse proposal. A building permit filed in late August (disapproved at the time) describes the job as a penthouse enlargement designed by architect Ronnette Riley.
· Job Filings: 150 East 93rd Street [DOB] [Photo via PropertyShark]
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