When Kushner Companies presented their planned addition to the Puck Building—a 6,000 square-foot glass penthouse—to the Landmarks Preservation Commission last month, the LPC sent them back to the drawing board. But this morning, Kushner arose from the ashes like a phoenix and marched before the LPC to present their new plans: two glass penthouses, one of which would need to be raised an additional five feet to accommodate a rooftop swimming pool. The Commission was not amused.
The proposed "improvements" from Kushner Companies (owned by Donald Trump spawn-in-law Jared Kushner) mostly centered on making the two penthouses as invisible as possible from street level by reducing their size and surrounding them with a large metal screen. A representative of the company began by attempting to make the case that the Puck Building "has not been a pristine architectural monument" as it had been made out to be in the past, but then changed her story and said, "Here's this wonderful building [that] is going to be integrated into the neighborhood. It won't be pushing people away."
What the Commission had to say about that:
"Too big, too tall, too visible, and calls too much attention to itself by the nature of its design."
"The screen? I don't get it."
"I really, really wanted to figure out how to like this project."
"The heights shown here are excessive and contributing to the problem."
"This needs a new architectural, theoretical approach."
Here's a slightly closer look at the proposed penthouses (sorry for the poor picture quality):
Those penthouses are FIRED. Get it? Donald Trump. Very funny.
-Jeremiah Budin
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