The New York Times/Rendering by Hayes Davidson
January 16, 2014 – The proposed rooftop enlargement of the Cast Iron House (formerly the James White Building) located at 361 Broadway in Manhattan (as featured in the January 16, 2014 New York Times article entitled, Adding Penthouses for Profit.”), is permitted in part due to an authorization obtained by Sheldon Lobel, P.C. from the City Planning Commission (CPC), pursuant to ZR Section 35-24 (e)(5), to modify the street wall location requirements of ZR Section 35-25 (b)(3). Without the CPC authorization, the penthouses would not have been permitted to be set back from the street as proposed and would have been much less likely to receive Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) approval.
The enlargement was designed by renowned international architect Shigeru Ban, and was part of an overall restoration of the building facade and interior renovation for conversion to residential duplexes. As noted in the article, the penthouse not only increases the profit potential of the property, but the design is so original and in line with the spirit of landmark preservation that it prompted strong unsolicited admiration from Frederick Bland, the LPC commissioner who presided over the approval process.