Strip Club Owner Joins Preservation Fight

By Andrea Appleton
POSTED MARCH 2, 2007

The Pussycat Lounge, on the ground floor of 96 Greenwich Street, is a typical strip club. There are few windows, but no shortage of mirrors. Red bulbs cast a dim glow over the patrons seated at the bar as girls in heels and little else dance on a raised platform.

But seen from the outside 96 Greenwich Street is something quite different: a humble brick building that has stood for more than 200 years. Beside it are two others, 94 and 94 1/2 Greenwich Street. All are Federal-style buildings, a couple of blocks south of the World Trade Center site. Dating from the late 1700s, they are among the city’s oldest buildings. The Landmarks Preservation Commission is considering them for landmark status. Many preservationists and Community Board 1 members support the designation, as does Robert Kremer, owner of the Pussycat Lounge. “You don’t have to be a big historian,” said Kremer in a telephone interview. “Just look at our three little buildings. If they don’t deserve to be landmarked, what does?” While the other two buildings are in no immediate need of landmark protection, the fate of 96 Greenwich Street, the home of the Pussycat Lounge, may well be in the hands of the LPC. Sam Chang, one of the city’s most prolific hotel developers, bought the building about a year ago with the intention of tearing it down.

The developer is breaking ground on a new hotel at neighboring 98-100 Greenwich Street this summer, and plans to use No. 96 as well. If it isn’t landmarked, that is. 

Gene Kaufman, the architect on this and other Chang projects, argues 96 Greenwich Street is the least worthy of the three for designation.

“Based on the research and analysis that we’ve done,” he said in a telephone interview, “it’s our understanding that 96 has very little of the original facade left.”

The LPC says all three buildings were extensively renovated over the centuries. All were originally 3 1/2 stories with peaked roofs, and later raised a full story and given flat roofs. Details such as keystones and lintels are original on at least part of each building.  

The LPC is not often swayed by the desires of owners.

In June of 2005, for instance, the Commission gave landmark status to 67 Greenwich Street, a nearby Federal-era building, despite the owners’ claim that the building’s upkeep would be an extreme financial burden.

But Chang may be making an offer the LPC cannot refuse.

According to Kaufman, the developer is proposing to restore 94 and 94 1/2 Greenwich Street to LPC specifications at his own expense (though he does not own them), in exchange for the right to demolish 96 Greenwich Street. 

Kaufman added that if the 96 Greenwich Street lot is included in the footprint of the new hotel, the hotel would be 32 floors rather than the proposed 39.

But Kremer is fighting to keep the building standing. For starters, he is contesting in court Chang’s right to demolish the building, claiming he owned it since 1974 with his business partner, who died last year. He said his partner’s brother sold Chang the building without his knowledge.

Noting his extensive renovations to the brick facade, Kremer insists his desire to save the structure is not selfish.  “I happen to love the building,” he said.

In a 1964 city guide, architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable wrote of small houses of this era: “These accidental and anonymous survivors of the city’s early years may be gone before this guide ever reaches the reader’s hands.”

So far these three buildings, at least, have confounded her expectations. Preservationists–and one determined strip club owner–are hoping it stays that way.

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