From Curbed:Given the staggering value of townhouses in the Upper East Side Historic District, it's hard to imagine anyone intentionally shrinking their ranks, but that's precisely what developers the Chetrit Group suggested to the Landmarks Preservation Commission yesterday. At stake is the future of 110-120 East 76th Street, six brownstones built in 1885 that were owned by nearby Lenox Hill Hospital for decades, which is also how long the structures were left to rot as plans for a sports medicine center gradually died. Now in the driver's seat, the Chetrit Group—along with architecture firm Macrae-Gibson—has another ambitious plan, which involves gutting, restoring and altering the homes, combining them into three single-family megamansions and—attention pitchfork-wielding Upper East Siders—slapping rooftop additions on each. Here comes controversy!
In addition to combining the townhouses and adding two-story rooftop additions (creating three 18,000-square-foot mansions), the Chetrit Group wants to demolish the rear facades of all the buildings, modify the front facades (going limestone in the middle and brownstone on the outer two, while adding touches like balconies and big picture windows), add double-door entrances and more. The opponents in attendance pounced, derisively referring to the mutated double-wides as "bloated McMansions." The LPC didn't vote on the modifications, but the commissioners expressed concerns over combining the townhouses, which is not a good sign for the developer.
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To all those snidely dismissing Archie Bunker and his problems:
Remember the stunts honed in Queens will be in your backyard tomorrow.
Read the Masque of the Red Death.
We are all in this together.
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