Showdown Today Over Construction Of 32-Unit Glass Building in Village

As downtown grows amid a citywide housing boom, luxury apartments with all-glass facades have become popular with developers in Greenwich Village, from the "Sculpture for Living" building at Astor Place to architect Richard Meier's towers along the Hudson River.

But tomorrow preservation advocates and elected officials will ask the Landmarks Preservation Commission to reject an application to build an 11-story residential building with an undulating glass facade planned for a site near 13th Street and Eighth Avenue, within the area's historic district. They say they prefer the parking lot that now sits on the site to the 70,000-square-foot, 32-unit building that would replace it.

The director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, Andrew Berman, said it is hard to see how the proposed design relates to the neighborhood's traditional characteristics, which he said favored "quaint" designs built from more solid materials like brick and stone.

"It is a beautiful building, but it's not the right one for one of the city's and the nation's most important historic districts," Mr. Berman said.

The designs were rendered by William Pedersen of the architectural firm of Kohn Pedersen Fox. The firm's works include Baruch College's Manhattan campus, a glass office tower being constructed on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, and the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut.

The developer, David Penick of Hines, one of the largest real estate organizations in the world with assets value at about $11.7 billion, declined to comment on the application before tomorrow's public hearing.

Some supporters of the project, who spoke out at a local Community Board 2 hearing, praised the design and said it would brighten up nearby Jackson Square Park.

Cynthia Crane Story, a block president, said the glass design is better than potential alternatives. "What were you wishing for?" Ms. Story wrote in a letter to the Landmarks Commission. "A solid 11 stories of light-killing brick or cement? I say take it and run."

The president of Manhattan, Scott Stringer, a Democrat, and the executive director of the Historic Districts Council, Simeon Bankoff, will be among those testifying against the project.