BY YANNIC RACK | The controversial upzoning of an entire block of Gansevoort St. can move ahead, after the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) this week voted to approve a modified plan to remake the historic row of market-style buildings in the Meatpacking District.
Preservationists and local residents — who have fought the plan, dubbed Gansevoort Row, since it first came to light last August — blasted the LPC for backtracking on its own standards and allowing the developers to, in some cases, more than triple the height of the streetscape.
“We got skunked,” said Keith Anderson, who lives around the corner from the site on Horatio St. and came to the LPC’s public meeting on Tuesday, June 7.
“I think they completely disregarded the guidelines they had set,” said Elaine Young, another critic of the plan who helped start the opposition group Save Gansevoort.
Young and her fellow residents particularly took issue with the fact that the LPC’s commissioners themselves had asked the architects at their last hearing in February to scale down the proposed buildings — and although they did, the plan’s opponents say the changes were by far not drastic enough.
The commission had previously rejected the design, by BKSK Architects, because it was too “fussy” and some of the buildings were too tall.
“It’s like this: Keep your word,” Young said after the meeting, holding up a sign that read as much. “But they didn’t.”
The proposal, by Aurora Capital Associates and William Gottlieb Real Estate, aims to demolish some of the low-slung former meat market buildings on the south side of Gansevoort St. from Ninth Ave. to Washington St. and replace them with buildings up to 81 feet high. Others would be restored and topped with multi-story additions.
The developers and their architects argue that the higher structures are an echo of warehouse buildings historically found in the neighborhood, but their opponents say the proposal should stick to the largely lower tenements that more recently stood on the street.
“We are disappointed that LPC has arbitrarily reached back to an earlier stage in the district’s history to justify replacing existing low-rise market buildings with massive new construction,” Save Gansevoort wrote in a recent letter to the landmarks commission.
“If the rationale is to return Gansevoort Street to its earlier tenement configuration, then the new buildings at 60-68 and 74 Gansevoort must conform to the size of their predecessors.”
Under the new plans, the two tallest buildings, at 60-68 and 70-74 Gansevoort St., will now be 61 and 81 feet tall respectively — only a few feet less than originally proposed and still considerably higher than the 50-55 feet that city records show the tenements at the site to have been, as the plan’s critics point out.
“This is the last remaining block of one- and two-story market buildings in the entire borough of Manhattan,” said Zack Winestine, another leader of Save Gansevoort who lives on Horatio St.
“It’s the epitome of what the Gansevoort Historic District is about, and these buildings are going to completely transform this block.”
Recent changes made to the two buildings also include more simplified façades, as well as removal of previously proposed penthouse additions on both structures.
The eastern end of the block, a two-story building at 46-48 Gansevoort St., will be restored and largely kept intact. Fifty Gansevoort St., which originally was to be demolished and replaced by a larger three-story building, will now simply be restored as well.
“The change is pretty significant,” said Harry Kendall, of BKSK Architects.
“We feel very confident that what we’ve done is appropriate.”
The two-story building in the middle of the block, which currently houses the Gansevoort Market food hall, will largely remain the same and eventually become the new location for Keith McNally’s Pastis restaurant.
Jared Epstein, vice president of Aurora Capital Associates, said the next step would be starting demolition, although there is no specific timeline yet.
“We have always said this neighborhood has not one, but many histories, and today’s action ensures the complete story of its evolution over the past 130 years will continue to be told to future generations of New Yorkers,” he said in a statement after the vote, according to DNAinfo.
“Today is an important milestone, and we are grateful for the guidance and input of local residents, stakeholders and particularly the Landmarks Preservation Commission, whose thoughtful and sensitive approach to the process will preserve the integrity and character of this neighborhood while allowing for its continued growth.”
The block does have a restrictive declaration in place, which limits the types of tenants Aurora can lease to and includes a ban on housing or office space.
LPC chair Meenakshi Srinivasan said that she felt the changed proposal fit in nicely with the surrounding area, which was partly landmarked as the Gansevoort Historic District in 2003.
“I think, if you look at it in context, it very much reminds of the original buildings,” she said of the design. “It’s all very consistent with the district.”
Before the commissioners voted 8-2 in favor of the proposal, she also noted that 900 people wrote emails to the commission in opposition to the proposal.
“It’s so dismissive of the greater population [to approve this],” said Vera Lutter, another local resident.
“It’s crazy. The damage can’t be turned back.”
