Design for Swimming Pool Building Is Floated for Tribeca Parking Lot Site

Rendering of a proposed one-story building at 74 Hudson St., long the site of a parking lot. Three co-op buildings are adjacent to the property. Rendering by DXA Studio, via Tribeca Trib

A new one-story commercial building is proposed for the site of a parking lot at Worth and Hudson Streets in Tribeca. The main feature inside? A swimming pool. 

The idiosyncratic one-story structure, sporting a series of arches on both street fronts, would house a pool operated by Goldfish Swim School, which provides swimming lessons to children. A second, unnamed, commercial tenant would occupy an upper level of the building.

Located at 74 Hudson St. in the Tribeca West Historic District, the building’s design needs the approval of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Last week its architect, Sando Thordarson of DXA Studio, presented his plans to Community Board ’s Landmarks and Preservation Committee, which is advisory to the LPC. 

“Our challenge here is to satisfy the appropriateness argument with LPC, as well as be honest to a contemporary building,” Thordarson told the committee. To show that his design fits in with the neighborhood’s historic fabric, the architect presented a slew of examples of Tribeca buildings with repeating arches and columns of one kind or another.

The committee, however, was far from convinced.

“It’s not contextual. It’s out of scale. The arches relate to nothing on the street that I can see,” said committee member Gerald Forsburg.

Zoning would allow a five-story building on the site. But the height of this structure, about 18 feet plus a parapet of another 3.5 feet, is governed by a height easement agreement with the three adjacent buildings—90 Hudson, 1 Worth and 10 Leonard—drawn up in the 1980s, Thordarson said. There are other stipulations about how close, and high, the new structure can be next to those buildings. Some wary neighbors from the buildings were on hand to question whether the plans were in compliance.

“This would completely obstruct my office windows if they built all the way up to the wall,” said Patrick Hall, owner of Élan Flowers, the business next door at 1 Worth St. “There would be no light and air from the windows of my commercial space.”

“All we can do is follow the rules set forth in the easement,” Thordarson said.

The neighbors said they learned of the project just days before the meeting and knew too little about it to say whether they would fight it. They said they wanted to meet with the developer, Constantine Fotos of Ariston Development Group.

“What we’re requesting is more time to be able to understand this and be able to speak to the owner of the property so that we can all be on the same page,” said Michael Schmidt, a 90 Hudson Street resident.

Reached by phone, Fotos, the developer, said only that “we have [spoken] and we will” speak to the neighbors, but declined to answer further questions.

“We’re going to put in our resolution that we don’t like the look of this. It’s not contextual. And we’re also going to say, please, please, please do not move this a step more forward without engaging better with your adjacent neighbors,” said Committee Chair Jason Friedman. “And then that message, for whatever it’s worth, will be delivered to the Landmarks Commission.”

Thordarson said the commission expected to vote on the project on Dec. 10 or 17.