Seminary back in good graces after scrapping Ninth Ave. tower plan

Volume One, Issue 29, April 06 - 12, 2007

By Albert Amateau

The General Theological Seminary this week said it would replace its controversial plan for a 15-story residential tower on Ninth Ave. with a seven-story mixed-use building that conforms to current regulations for the Chelsea Historic District.

The April 2 statement by Dean Ward B. Ewing was welcomed by Chelsea preservation advocates and elected officials, who for the past year and a half have been fighting earlier plans for a project more than twice the height allowed by existing historic district zoning.

“This is a tremendous victory for the community and our efforts to preserve the hard-won stipulations of the Chelsea Historic District,” said Andrew Berman, director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.

“The major battle has been won, and we should take great pride in being part of a fight that we were given practically no chance of winning,” said Robert S. Trentlyon, a founder of Save the Chelsea Historic District. “We especially want to thank [City Council] Speaker Christine Quinn, State Sen. Tom Duane and Assemblymember Dick Gottfried for their stand on preserving the integrity of the historic district. I also want to thank the seminary for taking into consideration the interests of the entire community,” Trentlyon said.

But the scaled-back project will not generate the revenue required to restore the crumbling 19th-century buildings within Chelsea Sq., the seminary’s square-block campus known as The Close between Ninth and 10th Aves. from 20th to 21st Sts.

“The reason we sought the higher building was simply to fund the preservation of Chelsea Sq.,” said Dean Ewing, adding, “The smaller building on Ninth Ave will not provide any income for preservation.” He went on to say, “We accept the reality that support for a 15-story building was not forthcoming from elected officials and the community board.” In February, Community Board 4 voted overwhelmingly against the 15-story building

Maureen Burnley, executive vice president of the seminary, said, “The increased challenges to preserve our rapidly deteriorating historical buildings with significantly diminished revenues will test the commitment of all parties involved.”

The seminary will embark on a temporary stabilization program with scaffolding and netting around the most vulnerable buildings “until sufficient sources of revenue can be identified to implement the full $21 million preservation plan,” Burnley said. She told Chelsea Now that the seminary has been looking for restoration money for seven years and is still working on the problem, which the oversized project was meant to solve.

The need to raise at least $21 million to make up for long-deferred maintenance prompted the seminary to engage the Brodsky Organization as a development partner to replace the decrepit four-story Sherrill Hall on Ninth Ave. with a glass tower originally planned at 17 stories, with 82 luxury residential condos plus a library and academic offices for the 185-year-old institution, the oldest Episcopal seminary in the nation.

The 17-story glass tower provoked a storm of protest that last year prompted the seminary to offer an alternative plan for a building 13 stories on Ninth Ave. with a 15-story section set back on the west side of it. The newer plan also called for a new five-story building on an existing tennis court on the 20th St. side of The Close, which would contain the seminary’s academic offices.

But preservationists and block associations were adamantly opposed to anything that exceeding the 75-ft. height limit in the historic district; elected officials would not support the 13-and-15-story building, although most people accepted the five-story building on the tennis court, which remains in the new plan.

In order to build the over-the-limit project, the seminary would have had to get a certificate of appropriateness from the Landmarks Preservation Commission and then apply to the City Planning Commission for what is known as a 74-711 variance available for landmarked properties where the entire revenues from the project are devoted to preservation.

The City Planning Department’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure takes from seven month to a year, and final approval of the old seminary plan would have been uncertain at best.

But the new plan is as-of-right and requires only a certificate of appropriateness from the L.P.C. Dean Ewing said the as-of-right plan “was based on the reality that costs of future construction would continue to rise throughout an extended approval process.” Moreover, Sherrill Hall is deteriorating rapidly, although it was built in the late 1950s, the dean said.

While there are no drawings yet of the proposed seven-story Ninth Ave. building, the seminary statement said it would contain the school’s library and an as-yet-unspecified number of residential condos. The building would also maintain the architectural integrity of The Close.

“The Polshek Partnership, architects for the Brodsky Organization and the seminary is presently working on a new seven-floor design for the Ninth Ave. building,” said Burnley. Beyer Blinder Belle remains as the architect of the 20th St. building.

Lee Compton, chairperson of Community Board 4, welcomed the reduction of the Ninth Ave. building to seven stories, but he said he was concerned about the basic premise of the project.

“I have mixed feelings about the project,” he said this week. One worry is whether the seminary will be able to raise the money to save The Close in Chelsea, and the other is that the project sets a precedent of non-seminary luxury residential use in The Close. “If G.T.S. can’t raise the money for preservation, it might have to leave Chelsea, and we’d be stuck with a square block of high-end residential uses,” Compton said. “I hope it doesn’t come to pass, but it’s a concern, and the community board would be derelict to ignore it,” he said.

Duane applauded the decision to replace Sherrill Hall with a building that conforms to the 75-ft. height limit, which the community-sponsored Chelsea 197-a land-use plan established 10 years ago for the Chelsea Historic District.

“I continue to be hopeful that the seminary will be able to remain in Chelsea and restore and preserve its many landmarked buildings while still conforming to the Chelsea Plan,” he said. “We’ll continue to brainstorm with the seminary to identify public and private financing for the preservation of this important Chelsea institution,” he added.

There is some state historic preservation funding and the possibility of federal preservation tax credits, he suggested. “All the acrimony over this development is behind us, and I expect the Chelsea Community to do all it can to help the seminary survive and thrive in our historic neighborhood for many years to come,” Duane said.

David Ferguson, a 50-year resident of Chelsea, suggested in a Feb. 23 opinion article in Chelsea Now that a community-initiated matching fund might work: “If the seminary comes up with a plan acceptable to the community, I pledge $10,000 to be matched by other donors to start a fund for deferred maintenance,” he said several weeks before the newest proposal.

Burnley, however, was skeptical of the offer. “Pledges of donations to institutions are usually made in a letter to the institution, and we haven’t received any such letter, but we’d be glad to accept it,” she said this week.

Ferguson replied that he was still ready to honor the offer, not directly to the seminary but to a community fund of matching grants dedicated to restoring and maintaining The Close.