Pearl Paint's Canal Street conversion finally clears Landmarks Commission

The third attempt proved to be lucky for developer Trans World Properties. After two failed attempts, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission finally approved the residential conversion of Pearl Paint’s former headquarters at 308-310 Canal Street.

When the application appeared before the Commission last week, the LPC was largely happy with the changes the architecture firm on the project, Paul Castrucci Architect, made from their previous visit to the Commission last November.

They did however have problems with the rooftop bulkheads, which they said didn’t really reduce the scale of the rooftop addition even though the architects had dropped a floor from their previous proposal.

When they first came before the Commission in November 2016, plans called for two-story additions on both buildings at 308 and 310 Canal Street. The ground floor would have retail, and there would be eight apartments located above that, spread out over the two buildings.

The Commission found the proposal to be “overwhelming” at the time, so the architect came back with a revised proposal last week. That proposal addressed most of the Commission’s concerns including reducing the rooftop addition to a single story, distinguishing the two additions on each building, and reducing the height of the addition on the Canal Street side. The bulkheads however still stuck out.

Now the architects have decided to remove the bulkheads from the roof entirely and instead place them at the back of the building on a newly constructed ridge. That in turn has also reduced the appearance of a taller addition on the Canal Street side, and the Commission was happy with the changes right off the bat.

“It’s really great that they’ve been creative with their approach, and using the sloped roof has really worked to their advantage,” Meenakshi Srinivasan, the chair of the LPC, said at the meeting.

Within a matter of minutes, the Commission had unanimously approved the changes. Now Pearl Paint’s conversion can finally move forward.

• Pearl Paints residential conversion needs to try again, LPC says [Curbed]
• Pearl Paint's residential conversion gets snarled at Landmarks [Curbed]