Construction has started on a three-story largely glass addition to 50 Hudson, the sweet little brick building on the corner of Thomas facing Duane Park with J. Crew in the storefront space. (Thanks to F. for first spotting the girders and G. for the pics.) The plans have been in the works since 2017, and were approved back then by the Landmarks Commission.

The new structure will add 8200 square feet of residential space to the commercial building, which must have been built sometime between 1898 (see the photo below) and 1927, when it appears in a photo of Duane Park. (The height will go from 38 feet to 59, according to DOB records, though it seems to me the penthouse structure would add another 10 feet.) When the plans were first shown to the Landmarks Commission in July 2017, they thought it was *too* contextual — they asked that it be more of a departure from the historic part of the building. Tribeca-based architect Thierry Despont (Jacobson Shinoda was the executive architect) obliged and it got glassier: the second iteration, approved later that year, removed the set-back, removed the greenery at the setback and made the addition a smidge taller and added glass at the corners and on the parapet.

You can see the original proposal to Landmarks here. Plans back then also included improvements to the facade of the original structure, including restoration of the windows on the upper floors and the addition of garage doors on the Thomas Street side.