Mr. Aby J. Rosen

The landmarks committee of Community Board 8 last night voted 7 to 2 to recommend that the Landmarks Preservation Commission not grant a certificate of appropriateness to a revised and significantly down-scaled plan by Aby Rosen to enlarge the low-rise building that occupies the west blockfront on Madison Avenue between 76th and 77th Streets.

The revised plans call for adding 6 floors to the existing 5-story building at 980 Madison Avenue designed by Walker & Poor that was erected in 1950 to house the Parke-Bernet auction house as well as a Schrafft's restaurant.The original building was modified several times and the Rosen plan calls for restoring it almost completely to its original design, which had far fewer windows.

The landmarks committee of Community Board 8 voted unanimously last night to endorse the restoration part of the Rosen proposal, which will be heard today at the Landmarks Preservation Commission and considered tomorrow night at a "full" meeting of Community Board 8.

The commission did not vote on the first design offered by Mr. Rosen and his architect, Sir Norman Foster, who has also designed the revised plan.
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Mr. Rosen, who is an owner of Lever House and the Seagram Building, two of the city's most famous world-class modern landmarks, regularly attends the evening auctions of contemporary art in the city.
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In October, 2006, the commission did not vote on the initial, larger proposal by Aby Rosen and designed by Sir Norman Foster for the site that is between 76th and 77th Streets.
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The 11-member commission, however, did not take a formal vote and Chairman Robert B. Tierney invited the developer, Aby J. Rosen, and his architect, Lord Norman Foster, to return when they have come up with a design that might meet many of the concerns raised by the commissioners.
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After the meeting, Mr. Rosen indicated that he was pleased that the commission indicated it was not opposed to a rooftop addition to the existing building, which was erected in 1950 for Parke-Bernet, the auction house that was subsequently bought by Sotheby's, and altered substantially about two decades ago.

Mr. Rosen is the owner of the Seagram Building and Lever House and most of the commissioners had very high praise for Mr. Foster and his design, but not atop the existing building.
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Mr. Rosen indicated that his team will study the feasibility of a lower tower as well as one with a warmer color facade that would be, in Mr. Foster's words, "more "bronzy" than the silvery design first presented.
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Mr. Foster is also designing a mixed-use tower for Mr. Rosen at 610 Lexington Avenue immediately behind the Seagram Building.
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The proposed addition has been designed by Lord Norman Foster for Aby J. Rosen, the owner of the Seagram Building and Lever House.He is shown at the right looking at a model of the building just before the opening of the hearing, which was not held at the commission's offices in the Municipal Building, but in a large room nearby in the Surrogates' Court building.

The existing building at 980 Madison Avenue is a five-story, limestone-clad structure that extends from 76th to 77th Streets and is known now as the Carlyle Galleries Building.

Last week, Community Board 8 last night voted 20 to 13 with 2 abstentions to recommend that the Landmarks Preservation Commission not grant a certificate of appropriateness for the project.

980 Madison Avenue was acquired in 2004 for about $120 million from the Peter Sharp Foundation by RFR Holdings Inc., of which Mr. Rosen is a principal.

The proposed plan for 980 Madison Avenue would remove the top floor, which was added in 1987, and erect a reflective glass tower at the northern end.The tower would have 22 floors with only 18 condominium apartments and its plan is two interlocked ellipses for most of its height.

Mr. Rosen's plans call for the creation of a 10,000-square-foot, publicly accessible, rooftop sculpture garden and 24,000-square feet of gallery space on the third and fourth floors for art exhibitions.
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Teri Slater, co-chair of the Defenders of the Historic East Side, a civic organization, warned the commission not to be beguiled and "distracted" by Mr. Rosen's attempt to "alter the debate's focus from one of appropriate additions to the historic district, to one of a discussion of the merits of this single design by an internationally known architect."
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The proposed addition has been designed by Lord Norman Foster for Aby J. Rosen, the owner of the Seagram Building and Lever House, who presented his plans to the board last night.
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980 Madison Avenue was acquired in 2004 for about $120 million from the Peter Sharp Foundation by RFR Holdings Inc., of which Mr. Rosen is a principal.

The proposed plan for 980 Madison Avenue would remove the top floor, which was added in 1987, and erect a reflective glass tower at the northern end.The tower would have 22 floors and 18 condominium apartments and its plan is two interlocked ellipses for most of its height.

A model of the proposed tower is shown at the right.

Mr. Rosen's plans call for the creation of a 10,000-square-foot, publicly accessible, rooftop sculpture garden and about 25,000-square feet of gallery space on the third and fourth floors for art exhibitions.
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Lord Foster is also designing a mixed-use tower for Mr. Rosen at 610 Lexington Avenue immediately behind the Seagram Building, which Mr. Rosen owns.Lord Foster designed the recently completed Hearst Building on the southwest corner of 57th Street and Eighth Avenue and is known for his high-tech designs.

Lord Foster's design for Tower 2 at Ground Zero for Silverstein Properties was recently unveiled.

When the initial application was approved by the commission last fall, Aby Rosen, one of the principals of RFR Realty LLC, told CityRealty.Com that the building will contain 80 to 90 condominium apartments and 45 to 50 hotel rooms.

The revised plan now calls for only 17 apartments, which will be on the top 11 floors of the tower, and 207 hotel rooms, a reflection of the crowded residential condominium market and the high demand for hotel rooms especially in midtown.

The new tower will only utilize about 90 percent of the available, unused air rights from the Seagram Building, which only occupies 52 percent of its site and is widely regarded as an icon of modern architecture that was also very influential in the widespread use of plazas in city zoning.

Mr. Rosen said that Hines, the Houston-based developer and real estate owner that owns the third property on the block, the 36-story, black-glass-clad tower formerly known as Manhattan Tower at 600 Lexington Avenue will be the construction manager for the new tower.
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Aby Rosen, one of the principals of RFR Realty LLC, told CityRealty.Com that the building will contain 80 to 90 condominium apartments and 45 to 50 hotel rooms.

Mr. Rosen said that the new tower will only utilize about 90 percent of the available, unused air rights from the Seagram Building, which only occupies 52 percent of its site and is widely regarded as an icon of modern architecture.

Mr. Rosen said that Hines, the Houston-based developer and real estate owner that owns the third property on the block, the 36-story, black-glass-clad tower formerly known as Manhattan Tower at 600 Lexington Avenue will be the construction manager for the new tower.
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Foster & Partners, the English architectural firm headed by Sir Norman Foster, has been commissioned by Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs to design a mixed-use tower for the former site of the YWCA of the City of New York at 610 Lexington Avenue on the southeast corner of 53rd Street.
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Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs are partners in RFR Holdings, which owns the Seagram Building and the Lever House on Park Avenue and developed 425 Fifth Avenue and are nearly completion of Park Avenue Place at 60 West 55th Street.
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A spokesperson for Mr. Rosen did not return CityRealty.Com's telephone call today.

At the symposium, Mr. Smith threw out a plea to Aby Rosen, a real estate magnate and the owner of Lever House, who was in the audience.
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"Maybe Mr. Rosen would consider looking at the Cigna property," he said from the lectern.

Indeed, he would.Mr. Rosen said this week that he had tried to contact Cigna to discuss alternatives to demolition.Was he interested in buying the buildings?He said that he was just gathering information."I'd like to do the right thing in life, and I think preserving and protecting landmarks is one of them," he said.

That somebody is Aby Rosen, who owns the Seagram Building, and Lever House (see The City Review article) cattycorner across the avenue as well.Mr. Rosen, an active art collector, commissioned Sir Norman Foster of Foster and Partners, whose stainless-steel-and-glass notched tower addition to the Hearst Building on the southwest corner of Eighth Avenue and 57th Street, is nearing completion, to design a tower utilizing the unusued air rights.
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Mr. Rosen, one of the principals of RFR Realty LLC, said in an interview that the building will contain 80 to 90 condominium apartments and 45 to 50 hotel rooms.

Sir Norman Foster, left, Aby Rosen, right, just before start of hearing at Landmarks Preservation Commission
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Mr. Rosen said that the new tower will only utilize about 90 percent of the available, unused air rights from the Seagram Building, which only occupies 52 percent of its site and is widely regarded as an icon of modern architecture.
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Mr. Rosen said that Hines, the Houston-based developer and real estate owner that owns the third property on the block, the 36-story, black-glass-clad tower formerly known as Manhattan Tower at 600 Lexington Avenue will be the construction manager for the new tower.
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Given that 599 Lexington Avenue (see The City Review article), the blue-green tower has a very large and handsome triangular plaza directly across the street at the 53rd Street corner and that Citicorp has a substantial sunken plaza at the same corner and that Mr. Rosen, an active art collector, obviously is enchanted with beautiful buildings, one can most likely not worry about the project having a plaza.

Aby Rosen is a real estate developer and owner of the Seagram Building and Lever House, two of the city's most famous and influential post-war office buildings.

Aby Rosen contemplating model of tower planned atop 980 Madison Avenue

Lord Norman Foster is one of the world's leading architects (see The City Review article on his recently completed Hearst Building project) and has recently designed a mixed-use tower for Mr. Rosen at 610 Lexington Avenue (see The City Review article).His design of a major office tower at Ground Zero for Silverstein Properties was also recently unveiled (see The City Review article).

Lord Norman Foster pointed to rendering of proposed new tower atop 980 Madison Avenue

Mr. Rosen has asked Lord Foster to design a "rooftop addition" for 980 Madison Avenue, the 5-story, limestone-clad Carlyle Galleries Building at 980 Madison Avenue across Madison Avenue from the Carlyle Hotel, the most prominent landmark on the Upper East Side west of Third Avenue since it was erected in 1930.

Aby Rosen making presentation to Landmarks Preservation Commission.
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Mr. Rosen bought 980 Madison Avenue last year for about $120 million with the intention of developing its unused "air rights" and Lord Foster has designed a slender tower with 22 floors with a plan of two interlocked ellipses for the north end of the low-rise building.
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Mr. Rosen's team focused primarily on the preservation aspects of his proposal rather than on the aesthetics of the addition, a tactic not without some justification but one that might hurt its chances.
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Mr. Rosen's team tried to convince the commission that a restored building at 980 Madison with a lower floor and far fewer windows was a worthy preservation cause, an argument that sounds good on paper for preservationists but which in fact denies that fact that the proportions of the existing building and its fenestration pattern are far better and less sterile.
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Lord Norman Foster and Aby Rosen prior to start of landmarks hearing

Recently, the commission has begun to show some appreciation for modern design as opposed to its rather rigid anti-modernist stance of the past.Indeed, it recently approved a plan by Mr. Rosen to have Lord Foster design a slender mixed-use tower immediately to the east of the Seagram Building.
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Mr. Rosen and Mr. Foster could hardly be considered "barbarians - they're usually quite well dressed, if not dapper.
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Mr. Rosen's team did, dismissively, show the commission what an "as-of-right" development on the site preserving the existing structure would look like, as shown in the above diagram.Such a plan, surprisingly, is not altogether unattractive, but, of course, it would not be able to offer many very spectacular, and therefore very costly, vistas for potential condominium buyers.

It should be noticed that the placement of the proposed tower at the north end of the site obviously was done to preserve as much as possible of the views to the west from the Carlyle Hotel, an incredibly neighborly gesture, but one that is of little solace to the prospective condominium owners of apartments that are understood to be planned in the Mark Hotel, directly across 77th Street from the project.

Aby Rosen and Lord Norman Foster listening to testimony at hearing

The Community Board that represents the neighborhood rejected the proposal in an advisory by a margin of 20 to 13.

Teri Slater, co-chair of Defenders of the Upper East Side Historic Districts, giving testimony at landmarks hearing, as Aby Rosen turns his head
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One can have confidence that Mr. Rosen would produce a tasteful kunsthalle and sculpture garden, but they are not facilities that are desperately needed on the Upper East Side, though welcome.

Perhaps part of the problem is that the proposal is almost too serious.Perhaps Mr. Rosen might ask Mr. Koons for a small, stainless steel Puppy (see a photograph of a giant green puppy by Mr. Koons that was exhibited at Rockefeller Center that is illustrated in The City Review article on Rockefeller Center) to put atop the tower.
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Aby Rosen is the developer of the project and is the owner of such major landmarks as the Seagram Building and Lever House, both on Park Avenue.