We hope you will join us for a discussion of the MOU and the roof proposal at a meeting:

Discussion of THEORY ROOF GARDEN
Wednesday May 3
7:00 PM
West Village Nursery School
73 Horatio Street

For more information – please refer to Nancy Blanford’s post about the proposal.

As you know, Theory, an international clothing company, has signed a 15 year lease for the building being constructed at 36-40 Gansevoort Street, at the corner of Greenwich and Gansevoort. Executives of Theory and their representatives, Capalino +Company, met with neighbors several weeks ago to introduce themselves and mainly, to describe the roof garden they hope to construct.

They presented the design and assured us that the roof would only be used for casual lunches by employees. However, at the end of the meeting they acknowledged that the roof would of course be used occasionally for parties and runway shows.

At that meeting, Jim Capalino promised to send along a “Memorandum of Understanding,” essentially a non-binding agreement that would describe usage of the roof. This “mou” has not been received.

There are several concerns to be addressed:

I. Landmarks.

The landmarking issues are narrow.

Will the garden constitute a precedent for others to follow?

How much of the construction can be seen from the street? I would ask you to look at the images attached and imagine yourself north (on 9th Avenue) and west (on Gansevoort Street) and visualize the roof garden.

II. Usage.

We are concerned that this roof garden will be used, even if only occasionally, for activities that directly intrude upon our home. A benign gathering of folks talking and drinking on the roof will actively disturb neighbors across the street and next to the building.

With the help of Gregory from Deborah Glick’s office, I now have the city’s noise code in hand. And Jonathan Prosnit from Tom Duane’s office has shared SLA rules.

I hope you will express your opinion on this proposed roof garden.

Many thanks.

Nancy Blanford