Since 86 Trinity Place, aka the New York Curb Exchange, aka the American Stock Exchange was made an individual landmark last June the controversy surrounding its owners' plans to convert it into a hotel and retail space has all but died. That doesn't means the plans have been called off, though, as new owners Fisher Bros., who bought 86 Trinity and the neighboring 22 Thames Street from Michael Steinhardt and Allen Fried in September for $150 million, [Correction: Fisher Bros. bought 82 Thames; Steinhardt and Fried retained ownership of the American Stock Exchange building] are still going through with the planned conversion of the 14-story building. In order to get their 174 hotel with up to 100,000 square feet of commercial space approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, they enlisted the services of LPC favorite Morris Adjmi, whose planned changes to the building's exterior are, especially by his standards, relatively understated (as they have to be, since it's an individual landmark). At a Landmarks hearing yesterday, Adjmi detailed how he would add six 15-foot windows at the base of the Trinity Place side of the building and five 26-foot windows on the Greenwich Street side, and install sign plates on both sides.
The Commission was not theoretically opposed to any of the proposed changes, but there was some disagreement over whether the windows on the Greenwich Street side would be too large. (Since that side had historically been the back of the building, the windows that are there now are very small.) They delayed voting and asked Adjmi to reconsider that part of the design. The surest sign that that this is no longer a controversial conversion, though, was the complete lack (except for a prepared statement read by the commission chair on behalf of Community Board 1) of public testimony—even the usually vocal Historic Districts Council and Society for the Architecture of the City had nothing to say.
· 86 Trinity Place coverage [Curbed]
· Morris Adjmi coverage [Curbed]
· City Looks Into Store Windows on Former Stock Exchange Building [Tribeca Trib]
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