Christian Bailey and the Office for Design & Architecture, who you may remember from last month when they presented their plans for the Naftali Group-developed 176-182 West 82nd Street condos to Community Board 7, were back again last night to present some changes they made to those plans, most notably a slight reduction of the rooftop penthouse addition. Bailey's presentation was somewhat lacking in specificity—also a problem the last time—and the board was not pleased, grilling the architects for over an hour. Among their main concerns were the brownstone base of the facade, currently painted white, which is to be restored and repainted even whiter, and the canopy, which was deemed inappropriate for a Romanesque Revival building (renderings after the jump).
Also deeming things inappropriate were a group of residents from neighboring building 172 West 82nd Street, including actor Kevin Bacon, who was unable to attend but penned a letter to be read on his behalf (also after the jump). Those residents, in a case of literal NIMBYism, displayed great concern about the effect that the rooftop addition would have on the light in their back courtyard, which contains trees. The courtyard was described at great length, and sounds very nice.
Kevin Bacon is doing his angry Footloose dance all over his Upper West Side apartment:
To whom it may concern,
I am working this evening and unable to attend this meeting.
I have lived on the upper west side since 1976 and have seen many positive changes to the neighborhood.
While I welcome development I am concerned about the proposed extension to the roof of 176-182 west 82nd street.
First of all how will our apartment and the other apartments next door at 172 west 82nd be effected? Both during construction and afterwards. Are there issues of safety, noise, dust etc. that need to be addressed?
How will a roof extension effect the value of our apartment? It's a major selling point being a terrace with a beautiful city scape rooftop view.
And finally how will the proposed building extension shape the character of our neighborhood?
As we all know the corridor of Amsterdam between 79th and 84th is a magical slice of NY. Mainly because the buildings are low and we all get to enjoy the sky.
I feel very strongly that we need to do our best to hold onto the character of what I consider to be the best neighborhood in NYC.
And while the roof extension may or may not be visible from the street it will surely be visible from many apartments.
So I would recommend caution moving forward on this project. CB7 was very sympathetic to the plight of the neighbors and approved the plans with a caveat that the penthouse should be moved forward to make it more visible from the street, but less intrusive on the courtyard and terraces. The owners of said courtyard and terraces will take their fight to the Landmarks Preservation Commission on the 23rd, so that the LPC can explain to them why they don't care about anything that isn't visible from the street.
· 176-182 West 82nd Street coverage [Curbed]
· The Naftali Group coverage [Curbed]
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