Proposed Redo of Tribeca Landmark Won't Quite Do, Commission Says

Rendering of the proposed extension to 32 Avenue of the Americas, at the corner of Lispenard Street. The tenant would likely be a bar or restaurant. Commissioners approved the concept but said the material should be bronze rather than terra cotta, and some called for a simpler design. "It's kind of too attention grabbing right now," said one. Rendering by Marvel

Rudin Management’s plans to alter its landmark building at 32 Avenue of the Americas, the former AT&T Building, drew plenty of encouragement, but not yet an approval, from the Landmarks Preservation Commission at a recent public hearing. The commissioners’ overall assessment of the proposed changes, which includes an addition to the building at the corner of 6th Avenue and Lispenard Street, was in sharp contrast to an advisory opinion by Community Board 1 that called the alterations “overwhelming and overbearing.”

Having lost a major tenant, iHeartRadio, the 27-story Art Deco building is now 40 percent vacant. (Due to the higher vacancy rate, the building received a credit downgrade, Crain’s New York Business reported.) Along with the proposed 640-square-foot triangular extension geared to a future bar or restaurant, the owner hopes to attract other retail businesses and make office leasing more desirable. Towards that end, they are proposing new doors, windows and signage on all four sides of the full-block structure. 

“We want to make targeted interventions to provide access to the public, welcome the community, and also provide flexibility for the future of this monumental building,” Savinc Yuksel, Rudin’s head of construction, told the commission.

The commissioners sympathized with the owner’s intentions, presented by the architecture firm Marvel. “We have a lot of support for the goals of the project and we really do commend you for thinking about a sensitive way to reuse and activate this building and help in its longevity,” commission chair Sarah Carroll said. 

The former AT&T Building is the third of three Ralph Walker-designed Art Deco-style telecommunications buildings in Lower Manhattan. Completed in 1932, it is an expansion of the original 1914 structure. Rudin bought the building from AT&T in 1999 and it now houses both offices and data centers.

Last November, a CB1 resolution recommended disapproving the applications, saying the changes “would substantially modify the master plan [previously approved for the storefronts] in an overwhelming and overbearing manner…” The previous year, CB1 had also opposed proposed changes to the building’s bronze-and-glass entrance and lobby lighting. The commission approved that proposal, with modifications.

Despite their general support for the project, the commission took no vote and sent the architects back to the drawing board for a number of changes, including the use of different materials for the corner addition, and keeping columns intact at the ground floor, which the owner wants to partially remove to accommodate wider windows and new doors. The commission also took issue with the size and placement of some proposed signs and awnings.

Still, there was agreement that the architects were on the right track. The building, they said, needed to be “opened up.” 

“As a kid growing up in the city, there was more than one building like this and I used to walk by them with some foreboding, like what is going on in the inside of these buildings and why can’t I see it,” said Commissioner Jeanne Lutfy. “So this will be a welcome change, because right now that building feels like it is just sitting there, isolated and alone.”