- Located just off Times Square, the Lambs Club hosted famous actors and actresses for nearly a century. Photo:Morgan Kunz.
Four-story addition approved as part of luxury hotel conversion of Times Square landmark. Landmarks issued the permit for a four-story addition to the Lambs Club, a designated landmark located at 128 and 130 West 44thStreet between Broadway and Sixth Avenue. The addition is part of the planned conversion of the 1905 neo-Georgian building to a luxury hotel to be operated by Manhattan socialite Vikram Chatwal. Chatwal originally sought a sevenstory addition, which he reduced by three stories to address Landmarks’ concerns over visibility of the addition.
Voting to approve, Landmarks noted that the four-story addition remained only minimally visible from West 44th Street, obliquely visible from Sixth Avenue and would blend in with surrounding buildings when viewed from Bryant Park. Landmarks also emphasized that Chatwal committed to repointing 100 percent of the terra cotta joints and some of the brick work.
Landmarks designated the McKim, Mead and White designed club as an individual City landmark in 1974. Originally founded by London actors in 1868, the Lambs Club formed in 1874 in New York City and the club later counted McKim, Mead, and White as members. Past members included Mark Twain, Edwin Booth and Frank Mandel. The Lambs Club provided a billiard room, grill room, a small theater and sleeping rooms for its members at the West 44th Street location until the late 1970s.
Landmarks: The Lambs Club, 128-130 West 44th Street (COFA# 07-3888) (Jan. 22, 2007). CITYADMIN