Landmarks OKs New Build for Vacant Park Slope Lot

Can you spot the planned new building in the rendering above? It’s not the one on the corner but rather next door, with a ground-floor entrance. The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission last week approved the design of the proposed four-story brownstone for the now-vacant Park Slope site — provided the architects work with the commission’s staff to finesse details on the stucco facade and entry.

Following a presentation by architect John Field of Building Studio Architects on Tuesday, March 25, the commission voted in favor of the project at 28 7th Avenue in the Park Slope Historic District. The new build will closely resemble its Neo-Grec neighbors in the row.

Field told the commissioners the previous row house on the lot was one of a row of five houses built in 1873 that signaled the introduction of the Neo-Grec style to Park Slope. The buildings at 30, 32, and 34 7th Avenue are still standing and retain their “ornamental treatment of the doorways, roof cornices, and smaller details, such as the corbel blocks under the windows and faceted keystones at the basement windows and original stoops,” he said.

The building at 28 7th Avenue became a victim of demolition by neglect after LPC, Department of Buildings, and the bank failed to locate an absentee owner for more than a decade, an LPC staffer said at the meeting. The house was sold at a foreclosure auction in 2023 and the new owner filed plans to stabilize it, but DOB said the plans weren’t adequate after the building’s years of deterioration and ordered it torn down that year. Those owners then sold the property to the current owners, who have filed the plans for the new building.

Owner Eran Malka purchased the property under the name Seventh Residence LLC in June 2024 for $1.6 million, according to city records. (The price was $500,000 less that what it sold for at the foreclosure auction the previous year). A new-building permit application, which has yet to be issued, shows Malka’s company as Dido Properties LLC.

The new structure will have four units, Field said, and keep the fenestration patterns and detailing of its historic neighbors. Its stucco finish will mimic brownstone. The new design will have an accessible at-grade entrance rather than a stoop. There will also be a penthouse (set back so it’s not visible from the street). The more modern rear facade will be finished with brick and have balconies with glass and black metal railings, Field said.

“We did not seize on the opportunity for a new, modern building on this parcel in order to reduce the cacophony possible from the dialog between the aesthetics to the north and our history to the south,” Field said. Next door, the rather odd-looking standalone masonry and terra-cotta house on the corner at 138 Sterling Place was built decades after the original structure was demolished as a result of the tragic Park Slope plane crash in 1960.

Two members of the public spoke at the hearing, both in support of the new building but with some modifications. Jeremy Woodoff of the Victorian Society New York stressed the stucco materials for the facade should be decided on before approval, and said a stoop is necessary for historical accuracy. “It makes no sense to replicate a building with what appears to be an egregiously inappropriate alteration. To repeat, replicating a transitional Neo Grec-style brownstone row house in this district is appropriate, but this building type is meant to have a stoop. Building a new one without a stoop will look like, and is, a mistake.”

Woodoff also stressed that the demolition by neglect of the original structure was a failure of city agencies, including LPC, to “successfully enforce the law that requires landmark properties to be maintained.”

“It makes no sense that the city will spend public funds to demolish a designated building but won’t spend those same funds to stabilize it and make it safe. This situation, whether caused by current law or policy, must change, and the commission should be working to make that happen.”

Carroll said that LPC and sister agencies worked hard to save the building, but were unable to do so. “These situations are really extremely rare of the 38,000 buildings and sites under our jurisdiction…we work very hard on them,” she said.

Lucy Levine of the Historic Districts Council said the agency strongly supports the ADA entrance and multifamily housing, but said if there is any way to incorporate a stoop with the ADA entrance that should be done.

“HDC believes more consideration should be given to the design and detailing of the building’s plinth level, so that the ground floor entrance looks intentional, rather than as if it were created by removing a stoop. The reason the grade level entrance currently looks like an alteration is that the rest of the building is designed to replicate the recently demolished historic building at 28 7th Avenue, which had a stoop.”

A rep for the building owner said in response that while the owners have no issue with including a stoop, DOB and the Department of Transportation would likely not allow it because combining an ADA entrance and a stoop means the stoop would go over the property line.

The commissioners agreed the building is fine without the stoop, but unanimously stressed that the plinth level needs more work. Commissioner Fred Bland said without the stoop, the entryway has to be “really well done” and as is, the building is under detailed. The group also said the development team must work closely with LPC staff to land on the right stucco finish, which should match the color and texture of the neighboring property’s brownstone.

Related Stories

• Landmarks Approves New Apartment Building for Vacant Park Slope Lot
• Park Slope Historic District Could Be Expanded Again This Month
• 7th Avenue: The Heart of the Slope

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