Landmarks Nixes Greenwich Village Building Design: 'Looks Like A Corporate Hotel Chain'

GREENWICH VILLAGE, NY — The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) did not vote to approve the revised design for a proposed building at 11 Jane St. in the Greenwich Village Historic District during Tuesday morning's meeting. The commission asked the applicant to make further changes to the controversial renderings after more than 200 members of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) sent letters objecting the proposed design.

The proposed building would be residential, with two duplex “maisonettes,” Andrew Berman, the Executive Director of GVSHP, told Patch. The residence would have two apartments per floor, separate street entrances in the lower portion of the building and an underground garage.

The owner of the building is Edward Minskoff, Berman told Patch.

This is the second time the LPC has sent the design back to Minskoff in response to concerns about the design. Commissioners believed the proposed building looked too much like a corporate office in the first renderings.

The applicant resubmitted an updated design about six months later. The new design used brick material rather than the pre-cast concrete previously proposed, but commissioners still didn't approve.

"We felt strongly that the design was out of place and out of character for this Village side-street, and for the Greenwich Village Historic District. It looks too much like a corporate hotel chain, and not like the charming and engaging architecture you typically find on a Village street," Berman said in an email. "We felt the ground floor looked blank and the sliding vertically-divided windows had a mass produced look inappropriate for the area. We also felt the building was still too big."

Lead image via GVSHP