By Barry Benepe
Major changes are coming to the five blocks of Jane Street. On February 12, building applications were filed to rebuild two existing commercial buildings at 11 and 85 Jane Street. Both are large sites occupied by low two-story buildings occupying 100% of their lot area and are themselves replacements of different uses over a hundred years ago. Both would be converted from commercial to residential uses. Both would be enlarged in height and bulk and would contain off street parking. The chief differences are that 11 Jane in a C1-6 commercial district would be a 74-foot-high, six-story, nine unit apartment house with a 31-foot-deep rear yard and 12 off street parking spaces, while 85 Jane in an R6 residential district would have an 80-foot-high, five-story, single family house with no rear yard, and with five off street parking spaces.
In 1911, 11 Jane Street was the Jane Street Methodist Episcopal Church set back ten feet from the sidewalk. Later, it was replaced by a two-story, 92 space parking garage over 100 feet wide which still exists, and offered reduced rates for workers at St. Vincent’s Hospital, which no longer exists. The brick facade, flush with the street, has a horizontal emphasis totally out of sync with the rest of the block. It has all of the character of a blank wall with no architectural definition whatsoever.
Demand for off street parking appears to be dropping off; witness the men waving red flags on the streets in front of some garages in the community frantically trying to attract motorists. After Hurricane Sandy, cars were left floating in the garage next to the Jane Hotel, while all of the cars on the ground floor at Pier 40 were inundated by the flood.
85 Jane Street is the former home of Pro Piano and sits on the site of a former stable which housed some 100 horses, long gone. It is listed as an alteration, partial demolition and enlargement with the total floor area enlarged from 13,000 to 16,000 square feet—a huge amount for a single family house, more of a mansion than a house. Also
on an interior lot 110 feet wide, the building would cover the entire 8100 square foot lot with no yards and would grow from two to five stories. It sits across the street from the former Bayard mansion where Alexander Hamilton died after being shot in a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr.
Applications have not yet been filed with the Landmarks Preservation Commission which must approve the design of all buildings proposed for the Greenwich Village Historic District. At that time, WestView readers will get their first look at these two building designs.
