These idiots are going to talk themselves right out of getting any affordable housing on site.
https://www.ilovetheupperwestside.com/an...olition-but-this-one-might-be-different/
Another Upper West Side Landmarked Building Faces Demolition — But This One Might Be Different
Bobby Panza
November 17, 2025
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One application, submitted by Extell Development, seeks to de-landmark 30 West 67th Street, part of the former ABC campus, for a nine-story building designed for affordable units. The other, voted on last week by the full CB7 board, involved West-Park Presbyterian Church, which had filed its second hardship application in recent years. Unlike the church case, the Extell proposal is not a hardship application. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission will have the final say, with a hearing slated for December 9.
Extell came buttoned up, as they always do, with a polished presentation about their plans for the landmarked confines of 30 West 67th Street — the building with floor-to-ceiling windows constructed in 1979 and designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox specifically for ABC’s needs. But before the presentation could get underway, the Preservation Committee, which also came prepared, asked Ward Dennis — the presenter and a principal at Higgins Quasebarth & Partners — to clarify whom he was representing as he began walking through the deck.
“This is a project by Extell,” Dennis replied, before getting a little cheeky and making clear he wasn’t trying to hide that his client is the same Extell planning a 1,200-foot tower just steps away on Columbus Avenue — roughly the size of the Empire State Building without its spire. “If you would, maybe on the next slide or two we’ll get to it, thank you.” Extell wasn’t listed on the agenda either.
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“When Landmarks designated the district, they did not include this southern building. So they really bifurcated the building itself — half the building was put in the district, half out of the district,” said Dennis, who included several New York Times stories: the 1979 piece ‘ABC’s New Buildings: A Lesson in Placating Fearful Neighbors,’ and the 1993 article ‘Making a Street: Forget About Logos on the Skyline,’ both by Paul Goldberger, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for Distinguished Criticism in architecture.
“Neither of the two new ABC structures is a masterpiece, but that is not the point. They are both intelligently designed, discreet buildings, created as background structures more than foreground ones,” wrote Goldberger in 1979, in the early days of the building, while crediting the architects for coming “respectably close” to keeping West 67th Street the way it was — not an easy task considering ABC’s needs at the time. “How could it be, given the massive amount of space added to the block?” Goldberger wrote.
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Dan Lobitz of Robert A.M. Stern Architects LLP presented the plan for 30 West 67th Street. Their vision is a nine-story building with 90 studio apartments, plus a one-bedroom unit for the building’s live-in super, with 13 units per floor. Taking into account the neighboring buildings on the block — Gothic Revival, Renaissance Revival, brownstone with detailed stucco work, warm orange Roman brick, and lighter granite — they said they wanted their design to harmonize with the existing streetscape.
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“That is a magnificent plan. Every detail — the contextual piece, the architecture, the finer points — is just extraordinary. I would hire you,” said CB7 member Sheldon Fine. “But this is a residence for whom? And what relationship — and this involves Extell — to the affordability of the project in general? Is this an affordable residence? If it’s affordable, build it up. If it’s not, it’s just a beautiful addition to the neighborhood.”
Extell and A.M. Stern Architects said they designed the building for “affordable units,” but declined to get into detail or conversation about units being classified as affordable housing, saying that the focus was on determining whether the building contributes to the character of the historic district. One board member questioned, “saying it’s designed to be affordable; what does that mean?” asking if it was ever contemplated to have a certain percentage of affordable housing, and to what income levels did they see the units selling to. “We’re not ready yet today to discuss affordable and what pop[ulation] and you know, what type of units, that’s really not for here, we’re ready to discuss LPC application,” said Lobitz. “I don’t really want to go beyond that for this meeting. I think we’ve been in touch with a lot of people here, but this is really focused on the LPC portion.”
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When it was time for public input, Megan Fitzpatrick, director of Research and Preservation from Landmark West, a historic preservation and land-use nonprofit, shared the following statement:
“The proposed new design for 30 West 67th Street is architecturally beautiful — there’s no question about that. However, in pursuing it, we would lose one of the last remaining vestiges of the ABC campus, the only purpose-built, protected remnant of the broadcaster’s seven decades in the neighborhood, and thus a piece of our neighborhood’s layered history.
“The existing building, although a non-contributing feature of the historic district, is not an eyesore or an afterthought; it is an integrated part of the streetscape, designed to pay homage to the many significant apartment buildings and studios that surround it. Its setbacks and scale complement the surrounding landmarks, allowing their architectural details to stand out rather than compete.
“Additionally, we should ask ourselves what the City truly wants to prioritize. The current structure is well suited for adaptive reuse, particularly for housing, and demolishing it would run counter to the City’s own “City of Yes” proposals, which specifically promote the reuse of existing office buildings and the goal of a carbon-neutral future.
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City Council Member Gale Brewer also joined via Zoom, adding:
“I would say that we have to get the beautiful building, and talking to some of the residents — not everybody — people on the block are willing to go to 13 stories along North Holland. We have to get to 30 percent or more of the entire 2.4 acres as affordable housing. How we get there, I’m not sure, but it has to include, in my opinion, senior housing and definitely family housing. Our schools need families, and the schools around the city need families. The administration of all stripes and sizes is interested in family housing. So how we get there, I don’t know. I think it’s fine to have a discussion, but we need that kind of percentage — 30 to 40 percent of the 2.4 acres — which obviously translates to spread. However we get there, I don’t know, but we are going to get there.”
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“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.
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