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It was the Landmarks Preservation Commission that did all the talking to Robert De Niro yesterday.
After more than two years of haggling between the Oscar-winning actor and the commission, the panel finally approved redesign plans for the penthouse atop De Niro’s Greenwich Hotel in TriBeCa.
The commission could have ordered the Oscar-winning actor to tear down his rooftop structure, which is nearly twice as large as the city agency originally wanted.
“I think it was great, and I’m very happy,” said De Niro of the commission’s stamp of approval of his new plans. “I’m glad that sensibility prevailed.”
The penthouse above the hotel had irked landmarks officials more for its design than its size.
Under the redesign, De Niro’s camp will remove the copper mansard roof that had raised the penthouse’s profile, making it more visible from the street and less in character with the neighborhood’s former manufacturing buildings that are almost entirely converted to residential.
“We wanted to make something that looked like it was there forever,” De Niro architect Axel Vervoordt said of the new design.
Vervoordt and fellow architect Tatsuro Miki said they will use only recycled materials found around the city to revamp the current structure for De Niro.
“This has come a long way,” said Robert Tierney, chairman of the commission.
With the penthouse revised, Tierney called the hotel project “a terrific new building.”
The hotel, at 377 Greenwich St. at the corner of North Moore Street, was overseen by the commission because it was built in the West TriBeCa historic district. That meant that the 88-room luxury hotel, built on a vacant lot, had to be in keeping with the district.
“This building has to speak for itself, and I think now this building is speaking a TriBeCa language,” said commission member Diana Chapin.
Vervoordt said the penthouse’s planned new interior will be striking for its minimalist design, based on the Japanese philosophy of Wabi, which he called “the refinement of simplicity.”
Concrete floors will be left exposed, and doors and other treatments will be recycled from old buildings and will get only minimal restoration, he said.
“It will be a luxury suite, but the materials are very poor,” Vervoordt quipped after the meeting.