Landmarks agency shoots down big addition to 135 Montague St.

Redesign required for Brooklyn Heights residential-conversion project

March 13, 2018 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle

This is 135 Montague St.'s proposed rooftop addition, which the Landmarks Preservation Commission rejected. Rendering by Marin Architects via the Landmarks Preservation Commission

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Back to the drawing board, sir!

The city Landmarks Preservation Commission shot down longtime landlord Eli Dweck’s plan to build an eye-catching two-story addition on top of an elegant limestone Montague Street retail building.

The purpose of 135 Montague St.’s proposed makeover was to turn it into a mixed-use residential and commercial building with eight apartments.
At a public hearing Tuesday at the preservation agency’s Lower Manhattan headquarters, Commission Chairwoman Meenakshi Srinivasan questioned whether “an enlargement of this scale is appropriate in Brooklyn Heights.”

Later, she said the proposed addition would be “overwhelming” to the original two-story, 30-foot-tall building, which was constructed in the 1920s on the site of a playground.

“It’s all about proportion,” Srinivasan said.

She told project architect Walter Marin the commission would be open to a smaller, shorter addition.

Readers who are familiar with this genteel Brooklyn Heights commercial corridor will recall that clothing retailer Banana Republic moved out of 135 Montague St. in 2016. The new tenant in the ground-floor space is urgent-care clinic City MD.

The side of the block where the building is located, between Henry and Clinton streets, has brownstones with storefronts, low-rise retail buildings and Gothic Revival-style St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church, which was designed by renowned ecclesiastic architect Minard Lafever.

‘Your eye just doesn’t know where to go’

During public testimony at the hearing, Christabel Gough of the Society for the Architecture of the City told commissioners to “think long and hard” about allowing a two-story addition to be constructed on Montague Street.

And they did.

Commissioner Michael Devonshire said the addition’s height should be reduced by one floor.

Commissioners Jeanne Lutfy and Anne Holford-Smith both thought the addition’s design competes with that of the original building.

“Your eye just doesn’t know where to go,” Lutfy said.

The addition that Marin Architects had designed had brick interiors, big glass windows with metal mullions and outdoor terraces. It was pale-hued to match the original limestone building.

This is a terrace view of 135 Montague St.'s proposed expansion, which the Landmarks Preservation Commission rejected. Rendering by Marin Architects via the Landmarks Preservation Commission

The second floor of the original building would have been used for apartments and the ground floor would have remained a commercial space.

The addition would have brought 135 Montague St.’s height to 50 feet, the maximum allowed for new construction in the landmarked portion of Brooklyn Heights.

The building has belonged to its current owner for a quarter-century.

According to city Finance Department records, Eli Dweck was a partner in a general partnership that paid $975,000 for 135 Montague St. in 1993.

In 2002, the owning structure was switched to a limited liability company, or LLC, with Eli Dweck as managing member, Finance Department records show.