The Board of Standards & Appeals will hold a hearing July 26 on an application to convert and expand the two-story commercial building at 44 Mercer Street in SoHo as a six-story luxury condominium.
The building was erected as a five-story structure in 1855 but it was reduced to two stories after a fire in 1960.
The project has been approved by the local community board and the existing building has been found to be "non-contributing" to the SoHo Historic District by the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission.
The design of the planned construction by TRA Studio, of which Robert Traboscia and Caterina Roiatti are principals, is a very handsome facade that incorporates the surviving cast-iron pillars and granite columns of the existing building's first floor and adds five floors that are highlighted by recessed windows at the sides and gently curved bow windows in the center. At a hearing before the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission, the Historic Districts Council testified that "the front facade is an intelligent and well thought out solution."
If the application for a special permit to allow conversion from manufacturing to residential zoning on the site is approved, the project is expected to be completed in about a year.
The building was erected as a five-story structure in 1855 but it was reduced to two stories after a fire in 1960.
The project has been approved by the local community board and the existing building has been found to be "non-contributing" to the SoHo Historic District by the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission.
The design of the planned construction by TRA Studio, of which Robert Traboscia and Caterina Roiatti are principals, is a very handsome facade that incorporates the surviving cast-iron pillars and granite columns of the existing building's first floor and adds five floors that are highlighted by recessed windows at the sides and gently curved bow windows in the center. At a hearing before the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission, the Historic Districts Council testified that "the front facade is an intelligent and well thought out solution."
If the application for a special permit to allow conversion from manufacturing to residential zoning on the site is approved, the project is expected to be completed in about a year.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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