Building Plans Scaled Back – Just not Enough

It's been a year and a half since Landmarks Preservation Commission denied plans for a real estate development on top of a historical site but developer Aby Rosen isn't giving up yet.

by James R. Lindamood

It's been almost a year and a half since real-estate developer Aby Rosen was sent away from a Landmarks Preservation Commission meeting, whose ruling denied his original plans for a new residential tower on the Upper East Side. The real-estate development would have been placed atop the historic Parke-Bernet Gallery.

The latest proposal by Mr. Rosen and project architect Norman Foster was significantly more conservative, having been cut down to 118 feet in height. However, even with Mr. Rosen's concessions, he is still facing an uphill battle for control of his would-be development. Several local groups, among them New Yorkers for Responsible Development are fighting against Rosen. The group is opposing Mr. Rosen's project, both the original and the revision, because they think it is “out of character” for the district, according the group attorney Caroline Harris.

While many groups that were originally opposed to the project have since come onboard with their support, the people from New Yorkers for Responsible Development say they would only support the new tower if it was set further back from the street and was made to better fit the colors and design of the neighborhood.

The revised tower, a 118 foot tall spire of glass would have been a world-class piece of architecture, and, “Its color would be somewhere between champagne and terra-cotta, “ said Brandon Haw, a senior partner of Foster and Partners, the architects behind the 152,000-square-foot development. The tower is expected to cost 180 million dollars, in addition to the 120 million that Mr. Rosen already paid for the gallery, in 2005. Since the zoning is in Mr. Rosen's favor, all the stands in his way is the Landmarks Commission's decision, which should be rendered soon.