By Kevin Korber of Village Confidential
The designs for Karl Fischer’s new East Village apartment building have been revealed. The designs, which were leaked to The Local yesterday, show an East Village apartment building designed very much in what has become Fischer’s controversial style: rows of full-length glass windows and glass-trimmed balconies with red-brown brick trim.
The project, which is being developed and financed by Brody/Amirian, is being built with the intent of being entirely rentals, a rarity among new developments. However, this new East Village apartment building, like seemingly all of Fischer’s projects, does not come without controversy.
Fischer’s new building stands in the site of a former townhouse located at 316 East 3rd Street. Preservationist groups in the neighborhood advocated preserving this building and others like it, saying that its status as a pre-Civil War townhouse in the East Village makes it unique among the structures in the neighborhood. Greenwich Village Society For Historic Preservation president Andrew Berman cited the East Village’s history as a waterfront hub, saying that the townhouse-which may have been home to waterfront merchants-was one of the few remaining historic links to that time in the neighborhood’s history.
However, the Landmarks Preservation Committee approved the demolition of the townhouse, saying that modifications made to the building’s exterior had decreased its historic value. While preservationists were disappointed with the decision, developer Eric Brody remained optimistic in the face of the controversy, saying that he hopes to bring “new life to an underutilized asset and [add] value to the area.”
