Landmarks Chair testified that changes could be better promulgated through agency rule-making rather than by legislative fiat. On September 9, 2015 the City Council held a hearing on two potential bills that would alter the Landmarks Law section of the Administrative Code. The hearing drew a crowd that filled the main Council chamber, with over 100 people filling out forms to testify on the proposals.
Search Results for: Government Transparency
19th-Century Warehouse to Theater Conversion Wins Landmarks Endorsement
Commission heard testimony from those who opposed significant alterations to preserved ruin, and those who wished to see structure used as cultural space. On June 4, 2013, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to issue a favorable advisory report following a hearing on a proposal to convert the stabilized ruins of a tobacco warehouse into a theater and community facility space. The structure stands at 45 Water Street in the Empire Fulton Ferry Park within … <Read More>
2013 Election Special: Campaign Finance Board Executive Director Amy Loprest
The dramatic suicide of Queens Borough President Donald Manes in 1986 shocked the City. Manes was under investigation in the Parking Violations Bureau ticket collection scandal when he drove a knife through his heart while talking on the phone with his psychiatrist. It was out of this scandal-plagued era that the City’s Campaign Finance Board was born. A joint City-State Commission to combat corruption organized by Mayor Ed Koch and Governor Mario Cuomo recommended public … <Read More>
Council Member Stephen Levin: Bringing the City Council to the People
District 33 – Brooklyn Heights, Greenpoint, parts of Williamsburg, Park Slope, Boerum Hill
Council Member Stephen Levin grew up just outside of New York City, in Plainfield, New Jersey. He knew he wanted to be in Brooklyn even while he was attending Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. To get there though, he dabbled with various jobs including working as a waiter (he was fired), a book store clerk, and an artist’s assistant. About a … <Read More>
Robert B. Tierney on the Pursuit of Preservation
Robert B. Tierney comes from a background of law and government rather than architecture, but his experience and training serve him well in his current position as Chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. His love for learning about the City’s fascinating history and built environment, which he describes as a hobby and passion pursued for over 40 years, has allowed him to approach designation from a well-versed position, while his expertise in navigating through City … <Read More>
Architect Lord Norman Foster Talks About His Addition to Madison Avenue
The first addition to New York’s skyline by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Lord Norman Foster opened in October 2006 with a red-carpeted gala attended by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Governor George Pataki and Senator Charles Schumer. The building, Foster’s 42-story diamond-grid steel and glass addition to the Hearst Building, an individual landmark at Eighth Avenue and West 57th Street, won the 2006 Emporis Skyscraper Award, naming it the best skyscraper constructed in the world that year.
Last … <Read More>