Sunday, January 27, 2013

An Appeal for a Picture

According to reports, the windows in the oriel at 721 Warren Street were again a topic of discussion at Friday's meeting of the Historic Preservation Commission. The architect working on the project refers to the windows now in the oriel as "two super big ugly holes" and wants to replace them with windows with muntons. Jack Alvarez, the architect member of the HPC, says the oriel is "very Queen Anne" and thinks the pattern of muntons being proposed is inappropriate to the period.

 Ideally, such questions of appropriateness are resolved by referring to historic photographs that show what a building or a feature of a building was like before later alterations, but in this case no early pictures of 721 Warren Street have been found. So, for the sake of architectural authenticity on Hudson's main street, Gossips is appealing to its very resourceful readers. If you have a historic picture of this building which shows the oriel as it originally was, please contact Gossips and we'll get the image to the Historic Preservation Commission.
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4 comments:

  1. Prison AlleyJanuary 27, 2013 at 5:52 PM

    Did HPC come to a decision on 103 Warren St?














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    Replies
    1. Carole OsterinkJanuary 27, 2013 at 7:01 PM

      It turns out that an evenly split vote was sufficient to deny a certificate of appropriateness to that project.

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  2. tmdonofrioJanuary 27, 2013 at 6:12 PM

    Nearby (723 & 721 Warren) there are similar oriels to the 721 building that could be used as a reference should a photo of the original 721 not be available.

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  3. Ward HamiltonJanuary 29, 2013 at 7:09 AM

    As you said, "Questions of appropriateness are resolved by referring to historic photographs that show what a building or a feature of a building was like before later alterations." No pix, no dice. However, there is an opportunity for negotiation here. Perhaps some form of divided lights would be acceptable if, in exchange, the facade was restored appropriately (ie, get rid of the "sign"/mural.)

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