doom looms for fifth Avenue charmer

BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN

The old Kaskel & Kaskel Building at 316 Fifth Avenue at 32nd Street has little resonance for most New Yorkers. Its inevitable demolition will not make the headlines. And its loss, unfortunately, will not be mourned.

Too bad. Built in 1902 in the Beaux-Arts style as a retail showroom and headquarters for Kaskel, one of the city’s premiere custom shirtmakers, it remains a treasure in white marble — and deserves a better send-off.

Let’s be clear. This is a six-story anachronism that has seen better days. In fact, in many ways, it’s a mess, as the authoritative “AIA Guide to New York City” noted in this charitable description in 2010:

“Crusty old Beaux Arts, in the process of being devoured by its crummy commercial occupants,” the authors wrote. “But a copper-clad mansard roof keeps a hat on what is deteriorating at street level.”

So no, this is not Penn Station, whose 1964-1965 desecration followed protests by architect Philip Johnson and urbanologist Jane Jacobs and led to the creation of the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Or the Morosco and Helen Hayes theaters, whose 1982 destruction could not be halted despite efforts by theatrical luminaries like Joseph Papp, Colleen Dewhurst and Christopher Reeve to block the bulldozers.

Still, it would be nice if residents and workers in the neighborhood — variously known as Koreatown, NoMad and South Midtown and dubbed the “Empire District” in the 1930s in a tip of the hat to the Empire State Building — would get a little bit exercised over its fate.

“Once upon a time this was a place where even the president of the United States bought his custom-made shirts,” said Tom Miller, creator of Daytonian in Manhattan, a blog that tells the stories behind the city’s fabled buildings.

“Originally, this was a very high-end building that served the likes of the Vanderbilts and the Astors and other socially prominent families,” he added.

Miller relates the old gag about the day eponymous haberdasher Max Kaskel was introduced to President Theodore Roosevelt: “I make your shirts!” Kaskel told his most famous customer. To which the old Rough Rider replied, “Oh, yes, Major Schurtz, I’d have known you anywhere.”

Noting that the façade and showroom spaces have been marred by tacky electronics and souvenir shops, he says Kaskel & Kaskel is still a “truly remarkable building — even though it’s been heavily abused and its ground floor has been totally brutalized.”

The structure retains its twin arched openings that span three floors, ornate brackets, rusticated piers, copper dormers, mansard roof and large marble cartouches emblazoned with the carved letter “K,” Miller wrote in his blog.

In 2016, Cottonwood Management LLC, a privately held, Los Angeles-based real estate development and asset management firm, shelled out $19.2 million to purchase the development site.

It filed plans with the city’s Department of Buildings on July 6 to erect a slender, 40-story, 535-foot tower that will house just 27 apartments — expected to be hyper-luxury condominiums — atop three retail floors.

The architect of record is Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, according to the filings. Renderings have not been made public. Demolition permits haven’t been filed yet. The building doesn’t have landmark status, so Cottonwood apparently can raze it as of right.

A Cottonwood spokeswoman on July 18 declined comment.

Bottom line: A once-proud Beaux-Arts charmer will face the wrecking ball. The city will lose another building with architectural merit, history and character. A place that once had class will vanish from the Empire District.

As for its replacement, as Miller put it, “It could be the finest piece of architecture in New York City, but it still won’t fit in, it doesn’t belong there, and it will be totally out of context.”