Restoration Hardware's Meatpacking hotel sent back to the drawing board by LPC

Restoration Hardware’s troubles are piling up in the Meatpacking District. In July this year, the developer behind their flagship store at 9-19 Ninth Avenue was warned by the city’s Department of Buildings that the project was far exceeding what zoning allowed. Now, Restoration Hardware’s plans for a hotel nearby also need to go back to the drawing board.

This past Tuesday, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission debated the design company’s planned conversion of a five-story building at 55 Gansevoort Street into a hotel, YIMBY reports.

Among the additions Restoration Hardware proposed were the installation of new wood windows, removing a chimney, building a new cornice, and replacing the existing ground floor infill.

The addition that stuck out the most to the commissioners however was at the top of the building. The architects behind the project, Anderson Architects proposed building a sixth floor along with an additional mechanical floor on top of that. This additional floor would create space for two swimming pools, additional seating, and a glass screen essentially running all around the top of this triangular building.

All the commissioners were opposed to this addition with the chair of the LPC, Meenakshi Srinivasan calling it “very jarring,” according to YIMBY. The local community board, Community Board 2, had rejected this design for the very same reason. Preservationist groups like the Historic Districts Council also decried the rooftop addition.

The LPC did not vote on the matter one way or the other but instead asked the architects to revise the application. One of the suggestions put forth was to lower the fifth floor to allow for the creation of the recreation space without a large addition on top.

Courtesy of PropertyShark

• Restoration Hardware’s Meatpacking District Hotel At 55 Gansevoort Street Not Ready To Clear Landmarks [YIMBY]
• Meatpacking's Restoration Hardware Flagship Is Way Bigger Than Zoning Allows [Curbed]