<< Back
Landmarks
1234 Broadway, application to replace all existing wood window sashes with new aluminum sash and frames.
WHEREAS, The building located at 1234 Broadway, also known as 1232-1238 Broadway, at the southeast corner of West 31st Street, is a French Second-Empire style structure, designed by Henry Engelbert, and constructed as the Grand Hotel in 1868; and
WHEREAS, The building was constructed with a Tuckahoe White Marble facade and domestic, gray-colored, slate mansard roof and wood-framed windows, with semi-arched masonry at the fourth and fifth floors, and full-arched masonry at the sixth and seventh floors, and porthole windows at the seventh floor/attic; and
WHEREAS, 1234 Broadway is a building officially designated as an Individual Landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1983; and
WHEREAS, Previous owners of this building have neglected the maintenance, and have been non-sympathetic to the original design having painted the Tuckahoe Marble facade and slate mansard roof; and
WHEREAS, Many of the windows have deteriorated, and are in a condition beyond repair; and
WHEREAS, The building is currently occupied as a single-room occupancy hotel and rooming house; and
WHEREAS, The current owners and applicant, 1234 Broadway LLC and their architect, Building Conservation Associates, Inc., are currently involved in an extensive building restoration of this structure, including removal of the paint and cleaning of the Tuckahoe Marble facade, and removal and replacement of the slate mansard roof; and
WHEREAS, The applicant now seeks to replace all of the existing, wood-framed, window sashes and one-over-one double-hung windows between the second and seventh floors, with aluminum-framed, window sashes and one-over-one double-hung windows with thermo-pane glass; and
WHEREAS, The applicant now seeks to replace all of the existing, wood-framed, round porthole windows at the seventh floor/attic with wood-framed, round, pivot windows with thermo-pane glass with wood-framed, window sashes; and
WHEREAS, The design of the aluminum-framed replacement window minimizes the loss of glass to less than 10%; and
WHEREAS, The applicant demonstrated good faith efforts to comply with the requirements of the Committee and the Landmarks Preservation Commission; and
WHEREAS, The Certificate of Appropriateness was approved in the Landmarks Preservation Commission Public Hearing on Tuesday, September 27, 2005, prior to the applicants meeting with the committee on Tuesday, October 11, 2005; and
WHEREAS, While the committee has expressed a preference for the replacement windows to be constructed with wood frames, which would be historically appropriate; the design of the new windows is somewhat sympathetic to the original design; and
WHEREAS, Community Board Five has expressed a preference that the Landmarks Preservation Commission refrain from granting approval of the Certificate of Appropriateness in advance of the committee's review of the application; therefore be it
RESOLVED, That Community Board Five recommends approval of the application for the window replacement proposal at 1234 Broadway - Grand Hotel.
The above resolution passed with a vote of 26 in favor, 0 opposed, 1 abstention.