Greenpoint

Landmarks Preservation Commission okays renovation of Greenpoint wood-frame house that developer wanted to demolish

Third floor and penthouse will be added to 111 Noble St.

February 6, 2018 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle
The owner of 111 Noble St. plans to renovate the wood-frame Greenpoint house. Rendering by MDIM Design via the Landmarks Preservation Commission
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A developer who wanted to demolish a wood-frame 1850s Greenpoint house will renovate it instead, as the city Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) had recommended.
On Tuesday, the commission voted unanimously to approve real estate investor Roei Paz’ restoration plans for 111 Noble St.

Wood-frame houses are especially prized in Greenpoint. They are an important element of its historic heritage.

Many of them were the homes of shipwrights and ship carpenters who worked in the neighborhood in the 19th century.

Ralf Mayer of architecture firm MDIM Design presented the renovation plans for 111 Noble St. at a public meeting at the LPC’s Lower Manhattan headquarters that was held prior to the commission’s vote.

The plans are radically different from initial designs for 111 Noble St. that the LPC was shown in September.

Initially, the house, which was built before the Civil War, was going to be torn down and a modern residential building made of beige bricks with huge windows was going to be constructed in its place.

At the LPC’s September hearing, several commissioners said they didn’t believe the Greenpoint Historic District house is in bad enough shape that it needs to be demolished.

Here are some details of the house-renovation plans that Mayer presented on Tuesday:

* The facade will be covered with painted wood clapboard. It is currently covered with plastic siding.

* The house’s original roofline will be recreated.  

* A modern porch with brick columns will be removed and replaced with a porch with tapered wood columns.

* A metal picket fence that stood outside the house many years ago will be recreated.

* An expansion will be built on the back of the two-story house. And a third floor and a penthouse will be added.

Prior to the LPC’s vote, Commissioner Frederick Bland said there’s a “long history of people adding to their houses over time” in historic districts. So he doesn’t object to the construction of a third floor and a penthouse at 111 Noble St.



Commission Chairwoman Meenakshi Srinivasan said the LPC had received emails from people who do object to the planned increase in the house’s size and height.

Paz purchased 111 Noble St. through an LLC for $1.9 million in September 2016, city Finance Department records indicate.

 

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