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Landmarks
30 East 30 Street, The Martha Washington Hotel, application for certificate of appropriateness of new signage
At the regularly scheduled monthly meeting of Community Board Five on Thursday, July 10, 2014, the following resolution passed with a vote of: 39 in favor, 0 opposed, 1 abstained.
WHEREAS, 30 East 30 Street (29th and 30th Streets between Madison Avenue and Park Avenue) is located in the Madison Square North Historic District; and
WHEREAS, This property is landmarked 12 story building having been opened in 1903 and initially used as the first-of-its-kind hotel for professional women until 1998 when the hotel began to provide rooms for both men and women; and
WHEREAS, This property is described in the Designation Report as follows:
"The Renaissance Revival style Martha Washington Hotel runs between East 29th and East 30th Streets with nearly identical street facades. The main entrance is centered in the 7-bay wide facade on East 30th Street while the East 29th Street facade has two symmetrical entrances, one on each side. Twelve stories high, the building is symmetrically arranged with a tall ground story and piano nobile marked by rusticated limestone and topped by a cornice. The main section is faced with tan brick with rustication along each side, and the top has ornamented terra-cotta panels on the 12th story and a broad, overhanging cornice. Balconettes punctuate the facades, along with bracketed cornices, Palladian windows and quoins. Flagpoles are mounted on the railings at the 3rd story"; and
WHEREAS, The applicant is seeking to re-brand the Hotel with the original "Martha Washington" name and install signage including (2) banners (7'-0" x 10'-0") to be hung from the existing flagpoles, (1) painted sign (10'-0" x 24'-0") to be painted over the existing faded painted sign at the top of the east façade, (1) bronze sign (1'-3" x 6'-1") over the eastern entry on 29th Street, (1) lit bronze sign (3'-2" x 15'-7") at the second story centered on the 29th street façade, and (2) equally spaced bronze plaques (12" x 24") at ground level on the 29th street façade; and
WHEREAS, The Applicant has completed and included as part of its application an extensive amount of research and has exercised considerable restraint and sensitivity to the original design and purpose of the Landmarked Building; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, Community Board Five recommends approval of the application by the Martha Washington Hotel at 30 East 30 Street to install (2) new banners and (5) signs on the 29th street and eastern façades.