via LPC presentation
A historic bank building on Madison Avenue is getting a rooftop with planter boxes and a glass guardrail, a new kitchen, and a front door with a knocker and doorbell. City records and a recent newsletter point to what it may become.
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The building is 726 Madison Avenue, at the corner of East 64th Street. Carson Griffith, who writes the RPS newsletter, reported last week that JPMorgan Chase is getting into the private members’ club business. She wrote that the bank seems to want to keep it quiet for now. On October 23, she named 726 Madison Avenue as the likely site.The building sits in the Upper East Side Historic District, so its exterior changes had to go before the Landmarks Preservation Commission, at a hearing on September 24, 2024. The plans call for a new Madison Avenue entrance door with frosted glass sidelights, a new decorative marble surround, and a new plaque, door knocker and doorbell. They also add a service door on East 64th Street. On the roof, the plans show the glass guardrail and planter boxes, and a landscape designer is listed on the project team.
City Department of Buildings filings list JPMorgan Chase as the building’s owner. They show a planned change of use from a bank to an “eating & drinking establishment,” with an assembly space on the second floor only. They describe new elevator pits, rooftop units for kitchen exhaust, and new bathroom and kitchen plumbing from the cellar to the roof. The filings refer to the work as “Project Ruby,” with Turner Construction as general contractor and Nelson Architecture & Interiors as architect.
One clue to the building’s future is in those frosted sidelights. The landmarks plans specify the glass as “Bendheim Glass GACH 1055,” which Griffith connects to interior designer Christine Gachot. Gachot mentioned JPMorgan Chase’s members’ club in an interview with Erin Cunningham’s On the House newsletter, RPS reported, and the reference disappeared within hours of publication. Bendheim, an architectural glass manufacturer, has previously worked with Gachot Studios on custom glass for the Metropolitan Opera’s private patrons’ lounge.
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RPS reported that permits put the renovation’s estimated cost at $8.23 million. A Turner document cited by RPS describes a 12,305-square-foot luxury hospitality renovation covering the whole building, from the cellar to the third floor. The project includes two passenger elevators, custom interiors and a commercial kitchen on the third floor, and Turner originally listed August 2026 as the completion target, according to RPS.The building dates to 1932, when architect Morrell Smith designed it for the Bank of Manhattan, according to RPS, which notes that its red-brick façade and white shutters make it resemble an Upper East Side townhouse.
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