The New York Metropolis Landmarks Preservation Fee on Tuesday accepted an software by a Manhattan home-owner to construct a gate on the entrance of what she known as her “superstar staircase.”
The staircase sits in entrance of 66 Perry Road, a brownstone within the West Village that was inbuilt 1866 however gained its superstar standing greater than a century later, when it turned the outside setting for Carrie Bradshaw’s house on the HBO present “Intercourse and the Metropolis.”
Barbara Lorber turned emotional as she defined to the panel of commissioners the necessity to erect a gate that will shield her constructing and its tenants from a relentless stream of followers who come to hang around on the steps and take photographs.
“That home shouldn’t be gated,” she mentioned, “however what was stunning within the late nineteenth century is sadly in want of extra safety in our century, in our time,” she mentioned. “I’d hoped for actually a long time that this is able to go, however at this level I feel even somebody as cussed as I’m has to confess that this isn’t going away within the close to future.”
The brownstone is a part of Greenwich Village’s historic district, which means that any updates to its facade should be accepted. Ms. Lorber, who purchased the three-family constructing in 1979, had submitted a letter to the fee requesting permission to construct the gate, which might “adhere to the prevailing genuine historic fashion.”
On Tuesday, the architect Isidoro Cruz adopted Ms. Lorber’s plea with a presentation of his designs for a metal and cast-iron gate that Ms. Lorber hopes will “add to the great thing about the entrance, not simply seem like a barrier.”
Whereas the eight fee members current for the listening to had been unanimous of their approval of the design, some mentioned they most well-liked to see a extra minimal method that didn’t embrace an arch. It was decided that Mr. Cruz will work with them to discover a answer.
After Mr. Cruz spoke, representatives from two architectural preservation teams, Village Preservation and the Victorian Society of New York, testified in assist of the gate’s design. So did A.J. Parker, a neighbor of Ms. Lorber’s who described the scene on the stoop as “probably the most egregious conditions relating to private property being attacked all day, daily.”
“Intercourse and the Metropolis” ran on HBO from June 1998 till February 2004, however its cultural relevance has endured thanks to 2 subsequent films, the 2021 spinoff present “And Simply Like That …” and a transfer to Netflix that started in April 2024. The coinciding emergence of social media, significantly Instagram, has made the long-lasting entrance stoop a vacation spot for numerous fan photographs and movies.
“Take all the photographs you want standing on the road,” Ms. Lorber mentioned Tuesday. “However please don’t climb into our house and into our home windows.”
