March 9, 2020: An update on the project's status is provided at the bottom of this page.

Plans to replace a late 1840s apartment house located at 14-16 Fifth Avenue in the Greenwich Village Historic District are moving forward. Madison Realty Capital will present their proposal for a new 241-foot residential building to the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) next Tuesday with the hope of obtaining a Certificate of Appropriateness—the passkey that will allow them to demolish the historic apartment building now on site.

Located between East 8th Street and East 9th Street, one block north of Washington Square Park, the property was purchased in 2015 by Madison Realty Capital from City Urban Realty for $27.5 million. Since then, updates on a new development for the site have been relatively quiet, save for a handful of leaked renderings depicting a 362-foot tower in 2017, and building permits filed in December 2019.

Now, as the developer hopes to move forwards with construction, we're getting a more complete picture of the 21-story brick building designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects with Hill West Architects as the architect of record.


Robert A.M. Stern Architects

The new Stern design is very much in line with the original proposal, however, the latest iteration has received a haircut of about 121 feet and the removal of its ornate Romanesque Revival crown.

We can assume the alterations were made in anticipation of the ire the original height and the cap's architectural fussiness would generate from local preservationists, who reliably oppose any new development that impinges on the neighborhood's character. In fact, The Village Preservation has already launched a campaign to protect the existing historic structure, calling the Stern design a "dramatically out-of-scale high-rise tower" and the existing historic building an "easily-overlooked lower Fifth Avenue landmark." 

Robert A.M. Stern Architects

Robert A.M. Stern Architects

Blowback will likely also come from housing activists as a result of displacement. The new 90,000-square-foot building would replace the current five-story structure's 20 units (10 of which are rent-regulated, per Patch) with 18 condos, most likely priced as luxury.

The development team will present their plans for the 14-16 Fifth Avenue to the LPC on Tuesday, March 9th. Urbanize NYC will provide updates with respect to the outcome here.

Update: March 9, 2021 

The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) decided to take no action, postponing any vote. Opinions on how to proceed—namely whether or not the existing building should be razed—were split. However, almost all deemed the architecture of the Stern building both handsome and appropriate for its environs.

The applicants were asked to continue to work alongside LPC staff to address some of the comments offered up by the public and the commissioners. This includes the height—which nearly all agreed could be reduced to somewhere between its two neighbors—and whether or not the apartment building now on site (made up of two historic rowhouses) can somehow be restored or integrated into the new development. 

Before the LPC's decision to hold off on any vote, nearly all of the individuals and groups that testified opposed the new tower and any demolition. More than one party criticized the scale of the Stern building, and numerous individuals advocated for the preservation of the existing rowhouses, which are two of only three remaining rowhouses along lower 5th Avenue (the other, 10th 5th Avenue, has been restored), a stretch once defined by this building typology. 

Prior to the hearing, the LPC received over 500 letters opposing the Stern tower and demolition. Interestingly, the New York Landmarks Conservancy came out in favor of a demo.

The development and design team will go before the LPC again after taking the above comments into account.