West Village megamansion of telecom billionaire seeks LPC approval

The facade of the proposed megamansion will come under Landmarks Preservation Commission scrutiny today

A proposal to unify the facades of two adjoining West 11th Street townhouses to lend it the appearance of the 11,000-square-foot megamansion its poised to become will be heard by the Landmarks Preservation Commission today. The West Village megamansion in question is that of Dexter Goei, the telecom exec who purchased the two West 11th Street townhouses in 2016 for $19.1 million, with plans to convert them into a massive single-family home.

The proposal involves removing a drainpipe that visually divides the townhouses, updating its brick facade, replacing both front doors, adding a new cast iron gate and a bluestone walkway, and, most notably, attaching shutters to 17 of the front facade's 21 windows. (Yup, 21 windows.)

The proposal also calls for the restoration of the rear facade as well as the repair of a wrought iron tea balcony that would become the beneficiary of a new seam copper roof. Not under the purview of Landmarks but made apparent by renderings in LPC presentation materials is that the plan also calls for one hell of a grass backyard.

The front facade's proposed shutters have attracted the most push back ahead of the meeting. "This is a commendable project in many respects," the Historic District Council writes in its prepared remarks for the meeting, "but the overall effect seems to erase the specificity of the two historic buildings and replace them with a pastiche of the kind of mammoth townhouse which just never existed in this community."

Plans were filed with the Department of Buildings in October 2016 and approved in January 2017 to combine the two distinct townhouses, once divided into apartments, into one singular townhouse. Floorplans included in Landmarks presentation materials indicate that the townhouse will have one lock-off apartment (perhaps for live-in help), an elevator, a parlor floor study and great room, and four bedrooms plus a master suite with his and hers bathrooms, a dressing room, and two walk-in closets. The townhouse falls within the Greenwich Village Historic District.

The existing facade of the West 11th Street townhouses.

• West Village's newest megamansion buyer revealed [Curbed]
• West 11th Street May Become the Village's Megamansion Row [Curbed]
• LPC Presentation Materials [official]