Landmarks hearing on Madison Avenue proposal draws split reaction over scale, rear-yard work

The Landmarks Preservation Commission on Sept. 30 heard an application (LPC 26‑01649) to demolish the non‑contributing building at 831 Madison Avenue and construct a new apartment building, add a three‑story rooftop addition and extend the rear yards of the adjacent row houses at 833, 835 and 837 Madison in the Upper East Side Historic District.

Ward Dennis, with Higgins Quays Barth and Partners, told commissioners the proposal would replace a 1956 “no style” building at 831 and integrate it with the three late‑19th‑century row houses to the north. “We are proposing to demolish 831 Madison Avenue, which is a no style, non‑contributing building, and construct a new apartment building on that site,” Dennis said, adding that the project includes storefront restorations, enlarged rears and a rooftop addition at 833 that staff visibility studies show will be “minimally visible.”

The project team, which included David Chipperfield of David Chipperfield Architects and Giuseppe Sirica, presented a design strategy that treats the new 831 volume as a limestone‑faced frontal element with a brick body behind it, and keeps distinct storefront treatments for the historic houses. David Chipperfield said the approach aims “to find a balance between new volume and the existing buildings to sort of protect the existing buildings as much as possible.”

Why it matters: Commissioners, neighborhood groups and residents focused on how a substantially taller, mid‑block building would change the block’s character, and on whether reconstructing the…