Arts, Briefly; Preserving the Summit

The Summit Hotel on Lexington Avenue at 51st Street, below, with its sea-foam brick and curving facade, is expected to be designated a landmark today by the New York City Landmarks Commission. The hotel was designed by Morris Lapidus, the Miami architect known for his flamboyant flourishes. The Summit, now known as the Doubletree Metropolitan, has been undergoing renovations, including replacement of the original windows with new units, covering the first-floor panels and blue mosaic tiles, and remodeling the penthouse rooftop. Any further changes would have to be approved by the Landmarks Commission. Modern preservationists who vociferously protested the building's alterations had called for a hearing on the Summit and another Lapidus building, the 1949 Paterson Silks store at Union Square. The Silks building had already been partly demolished when the commission agreed to hold a hearing about it. ROBIN POGREBIN