New renderings are making the rounds this week for a proposed nine-story, 105-foot mixed-use building at 27 East 4th Street in NoHo, a project that would sit directly beside the Merchant’s House Museum. Plans call for ground-floor retail, a community facility stacked above and a modest rear courtyard. Preservation groups and nearby residents say the site’s fraught history turns an otherwise standard infill proposal into a neighborhood flashpoint.
Design and materials
The project’s images, credited to DXA Studio, show an earth-toned facade of glass-fiber-reinforced concrete and brick, large arched windows on the main southern elevation and a grid of smaller arched openings along the eastern lot line. The renderings also depict four cornice lines, a short corrugated-aluminum bulkhead and a rear courtyard dotted with picnic tables, as reported by New York YIMBY.
Permits and community review
A building permit for a nine-story project at the site was filed in early February, with a Feb. 5 filing noted in permit-tracking coverage. Manhattan Community Board 2 heard a presentation on Feb. 11 and, at its Feb. 20 meeting, passed a nonbinding resolution urging the Landmarks Preservation Commission to oppose several proposals in the NoHo Historic District Extension, including this plan. MarketProof highlighted the permit filing, and amNY covered the community board’s resolution.
Neighbors worry about damage
The Merchant’s House Museum, the 1832 rowhouse directly adjacent to the development site, has repeatedly warned that demolition, excavation and heavy construction could cause “irreversible damage” to its original plasterwork and collections. The museum’s own timeline lays out a decade of fights over development at the parcel, including a 2018 City Council rezoning denial and subsequent litigation. Village Preservation also flags the Landmarks Preservation Commission application and hosts the community board presentation materials.
About the architect
The renderings are attributed to DXA Studio, a firm known for material-forward residential projects in the city. AIA New York previously spotlighted DXA’s Maverick Chelsea for its earthen hues and precast elements, a sensibility that shows up again in the NoHo concept.
What’s next
The Landmarks Preservation Commission has not yet scheduled a public hearing, and Village Preservation currently lists the LPC presentation as pending. If the commission places the application on its docket, the plan will return to public review, and preservation groups say they will push for engineering safeguards and monitoring before any demolition or excavation moves forward.
