City Landmarks Commission Says DeNiro’s Hotel Needs Work

By Matt Dunning
POSTED JUNE 17, 2008

After what the developers are calling a procedural misstep, city officials aren’t giving Robert DeNiro and partners a free pass in their efforts legalize unapproved construction of a lush penthouse atop their new Downtown Hotel.

The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) told developers of the Downtown Hotel at 377 Greenwich St. they’d have to make at least some changes to the design of the penthouse before they come back before the commission for a final vote.

“There is a real problem here,” Landmarks commissioner Roberta Gratz told the developers at a June 17 hearing. “This is not an easy thing to let slide. I’d have a hard time letting this exist as it is.”

In 2004, city agencies and Community Board 1 members signed off on plans for the hotel at 377 Greenwich St., including designs for a two-bedroom penthouse suite on top of the new building. The penthouse, which is nearly complete, is more than 1,100 square feet bigger than what developers were told they could build. The penthouse roof is also steeper than designs originally indicated it would be, and more visible from the streets below.

Now, developers have to back through the gauntlet of city approvals, only this time have to explain why the building doesn’t match the plans.

On June 12, DeNiro and company secured the advisory approval of CB1’s Landmarks Committee. In their appearance five days later before the Landmarks Commission, they weren’t as lucky.

 “I think the [commission’s] response was positive,” co-owner Ira Drukier told the Trib after the hearing. “They’ve asked us to take a look at some of the planning elements on the building. We’re working on it.”

DeNiro also seemed cautiously optimistic that the hotel would be approved once his group had a chance to rethink some of the penthouse’s design.

“It’s a process,” DeNiro said.

Plans for the penthouse were altered after developers met with the LPC in 2004, days before the project was in front of the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA). The BSA approved the penthouse as built, as did CB1’s Tribeca Committee, but developers failed to get the new penthouse plans approved by either the LPC or CB1’s Landmarks Committee. Drukier said earlier this month it would cost approximately $1.5 million to tear down and rebuild the penthouse.

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Related Story: DeNiro's hotel up for review During the hearing, DeNiro told the commission that the hotel was a labor of love for him, and that any aspect of the building the commissioners found offensive would likely offend him as well.

“We worked on this project a long time, and to make it as good as we could make it,” DeNiro said. “I did it so it would fit into the neighborhood, so it would feel right.”

Following the presentation, several LPC commissioners, including the vice chairman, Pablo Vengoechea, said they wouldn’t have a problem approving the unauthorized construction.

“I think I can accept the changes that have been proposed,” Vengoechea said. “I don’t think any of this has diminished the reasons that we approved this design.”

Commissioner Stephen Byrns was markedly less forgiving of the design changes, saying he’d prefer to see the roof scaled back, if not replaced with something much less visible from the street.

“I have a bit more of a problem with this,” Byrns said. “The roof is overhanging much more [than in the original design]. I find that it’s not harmonious with what we see in this historic district.”

Even less friendly to the penthouse was Commissioner Roberta Washington, who was not on the LPC in 2004 when plans were initially approved. She said she never would have signed off on the penthouse in the first place.

“When you look at the style of the penthouse, put on top of this gorgeously detailed brick building, I think there’s really a mismatch,” Washington said.

Commissioner Margery Perlmutter took issue with another aspect of the penthouse design, the as-yet-unfinished eastern façade. She said rather than the developers’ planned cement stucco treatment, she would prefer a glass and metal treatment similar to the large studio windows featured on the hotel’s lower levels.

Commission chairman Robert Tierney said he didn’t mind the penthouse as it stands (though he added that it might benefit from some “tweaking”) but determined that the commission needed more time and more information before rendering a decision.

“I think it would be helpful for everyone to see the suggested changes,” he said.

The next hearing date for the hotel has not been set.

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