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160 5th Avenue, Certificate of Appropriateness application by the Simons Foundation to construct a canopy and replace infill at the building's main entrance on West 21st Street

At the regularly scheduled monthly Community Board Five meeting on Thursday, April 09, 2020, the following resolution passed with a vote of 37 in favor; 0 opposed; 1 abstaining:

WHEREAS, 160 Fifth Avenue is a 9 story office, store and loft building located at the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and West 21st Street, in the Ladies Mile Historic District, designed by R.H. Robertson and built for E. H. Van Ingen and Company in 1891-92; and

WHEREAS, The applicant is the Simons Foundation, a non-for-profit organization whose mission is to advance scientific research; and

WHEREAS, The applicant proposes to make changes to the outside of the building by modifying the current main entrance on 2 West 21st Street; and

WHEREAS, The applicant proposes to remove the existing entrance doors and replace them with new entrance doors that will include a revolving door, two side doors, and two sidelights; and

WHEREAS, The applicant proposes to add a security camera, an intercom system and card reader and an ADA push plate to the entrance; and

WHEREAS, The applicant proposes to install a new burnished stainless steel canopy above the doors that extends eight feet from the building line with 8” stainless steel address signs on both sides; and

WHEREAS, The applicant proposes to replace the existing external fixed lighting at the entrance with recessed LED lighting and an LED cove light system in the canopy; and

WHEREAS, Although Community Board Five finds the proposed entrance doors appropriate, the proposed canopy obscures significant parts of the existing decorative metalwork above the doorway, is too modern, too large, too bulky, and is out of character for the building; therefore be it

RESOLVED, Community Board Five recommends denial of the application by the Simons Foundation at 160 Fifth Avenue for a certificate of appropriateness to make changes to the outside of the building.

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