After sparking oppositionand getting sent back to the drafting tablesin January 2007, Foster + Partners has returned with a dramaticallydifferent design for an addition to a 58-year-old building onManhattan’s Upper East Side. The revamped proposal has placated some,but not all, of the project’s critics.

The firm originally proposed erecting a 30-story elliptical glasstower atop the Parke-Bernet Gallery, a five-story, limestone-cladbuilding at 980 Madison Avenue. The structure, completed in 1950, wasdesigned by the New York firm, Walker & Poor, and sits within ahistoric district where new buildings can’t rise higher than 19 storiesor 210 feet. Foster’s initial plan required a zoning variance, inaddition to approval by the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission{LPC}.

Area residents fiercely opposed the glazed tower, arguing that itwas too tall and out of character for the neighborhood. One arearesident famously described the project as “a glass dagger plunged intothe heart of the Upper East Side.” The developer, Aby Rosen, asked Foster to modify the design.

In May, the architect unveiled the new scheme: a blocky five-storyaddition that is sheathed in bronze screens and mimics the proportionsof the Walker & Poor building. The revised proposal, which complieswith zoning regulations, has won over some critics. Alex Herrera of TheNew York Landmarks Conservancy said his organization is “pleased to seethat the applicant had taken the public’s testimony and thecommission’s comments seriously and returned with a completelydifferent approach.” Lisa Personage of the Municipal Art Society saysher organization finds the new design to be “acceptably appropriate.”

But not everyone agrees. Writer Tom Wolfe, who in 2006 penned a lengthy editorial in The New York Timesagainst the first design, is back. During a LPC public hearing in June,he argued that Foster needs to “come up with something that has moremeaning with the Upper East Side.” Peter Pennoyer, AIA, a board memberof the Institute for Classical Architecture and Classical America, alsoopposes the project. “I don’t think you can put something on top ofthat building and not diminish the overall dialogue with theneighborhood,” he says, noting that the area includes structures byarchitects such as Warren and Wetmore, Cross and Cross, and I.N. PhelpsStokes.”

Foster + Partners declined to comment for this story. The proposalis still under review by the LPC, which expects to host another publicmeeting about the project in early fall.