On Tuesday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to approve a revised version of the proposed addition to the Pastis building, at 9-19 Ninth Ave., in the Meatpacking District. However, the revised design barely looks different from what the L.P.C. commissioners rejected as a “big, hovering ice cube” back in early May. “We are extremely disappointed with this vote, the last to take place under outgoing L.P.C. Chairperson Robert Tierney,” said Andrew Berman, director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. “Once again, the commission did not allow the public to comment upon or review an amended design before voting to approve. And once more the commission approved a design in direct contradiction to their own prior recommendations, in which they told the applicant to substantially change the design, and that it was too large. The size of the addition is relatively unchanged. We hope the new chairperson will be more conscientious in allowing the public to participate in the process,” Berman said, “truly fulfilling the mission of the L.P.C. to only approve ‘appropriate’ designs in historic districts — and, at minimum, following their own recommendations and directions to applicants when deciding whether or not to approve revised designs.”
Lincoln Anderson
