The LPC voted 6-2 today to allow an underground parking garage at Riverside Apartments in Brooklyn Heights, "a group of eclectic style brick apartment houses with a central courtyard designed by Alfred White and built in 1890." The original proposal called for the creation of a park space and a garage one story above grade. The proposal, says our tipster, "was criticized by the LPC at a hearing several months ago; several commissioners viewed it as inappropriate because it quantitatively 'violated' the open space. The new proposal brings the parking count down below a hundred and drops the garage to a single, below-ground level, leaving the original open space intact. The garden above the proposed garage is based on the principles that guided the original landscape plan and includes 21 new, mature-trees. The rendering speaks for itself and will hopefully communicate that the current proposal is a major qualitative improvement, appropriate to the district." GMAP
