<< Back
Landmarks
250 5th Avenue, application for certificate of appropriateness for new doors, signage, lighting and canopies.
At the regularly scheduled monthly Community Board Five meeting on Thursday, February 11, 2021, the following resolution passed with a vote of 44 in favor; 0 opposed; 1 abstaining:
WHEREAS, 250 Fifth Avenue is a five-story bank and office building located at the northwest comer of Fifth Avenue and West 28th Street, was built in 1907-08; in 1913, a five-story, two-bay addition using similar materials and detailing was added on the north side of the original structure facing Fifth Avenue; and
WHEREAS, In 1928, a two-story addition in the same style was built facing West 28th Street to the rear of the original building and all three sections were designed by the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White for the same client, The Second National Bank; and
WHEREAS, Carmellini Café (the “Applicant”) is proposing alterations to an entrance on 28th Street as well as to an entrance on Fifth Avenue; and
WHEREAS, The 28th Street proposed entrance would remove existing non-historic and non-contextual box signage and glass door infill and would replace them with a symmetrical wooden double door within the existing arched entryway topped with a large canopy in a location where a canopy historically existed, adding a pair of light fixtures on each side of the entryway, replicating original Fifth Avenue gas lamps (using LED lights adjusted to replicate gas lamp light temperature), and adding pin-mounted signage on each side of the entryway; and
WHEREAS, The Fifth Avenue proposed entrance would also remove non historic and inelegant box signage, door infill, and would replace them with a new door system replicating the original historic wrought-iron grilles in the east archway door, add a shallow canopy above the door, a pair of light fixtures identical to those proposed for 28th Street, as well as pin-mounted signage on each side of the entryway; and
WHEREAS, The building has undergone a thorough and delicate restoration over the past five years, including replacement of windows, replication of historic elements and removal of non-historic signage with a great care for the building; and
WHEREAS, While Community Board Five does not support non-historic canopies added to historic buildings, in light of the great improvements done to the rest of the building, the reasonable and proportional size and design of the proposed Fifth Avenue canopy and the historic precedent for a canopy at the 28th Street frontage, Community Board Five does not oppose this application; Therefore be it
RESOLVED, Community Board Five recommends approval of the application for a Certificate of Appropriateness for new doors, signage and lighting at 250 Fifth Avenue