Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Historic Preservation Modulator Building topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Landmarks panel presents interior landmark nomination for Paul Rudolph apartment duplex; hearing closed and laid over
Summary
The Landmarks Preservation Commission presented a proposal to designate the Modulator Building apartment duplex, a late-20th-century interior by architect Paul Rudolph, as a New York City interior landmark; the subcommittee closed the public hearing and laid the item over.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission asked the New York City Council Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Sitings, and Dispositions to consider its interior landmark designation for the Modulator Building apartment duplex at 246 East 50th Street in Manhattan.
"The Modulator Building's apartment duplex is an important late twentieth century modern interior by the American architect, Paul Rudolph," Margaret Herman, director of research at the Landmarks Preservation Commission, told the subcommittee. She said the commission held a public hearing on Feb. 25, 2025, and that four speakers addressed the commission in support of the designation while none spoke in opposition. Herman listed supporters who submitted testimony, including the Paul Rudolph Institute for Modern Architecture, Docomo US, the Historic Districts Council and the New York Landmarks Conservancy, and said the commission also received 10 written submissions in favor, including from the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project and the Iconic Houses Foundation.
Herman described the duplex as occupying the third and fourth floors of the Modulator Building near Third Avenue, noted its distinctive interlocking multi-level spaces and built-in features, and said the space is "the only publicly accessible interior by Paul Rudolph in New York City" and is open to the public by appointment and through regularly scheduled open houses.
No members of the public testified during the Council subcommittee hearing. After the LPC presentation and questions, the subcommittee closed the public hearing and laid the item over; no final City Council action on the designation occurred at the meeting.
