Image Credit: NYCHA.

The private and non-profit partnership allows for more funding while maintaining resident public housing rights. On February 17, 2021, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) announced the completion of upgrades in three NYCHA developments across the Bronx. The upgrades at the Baychester, Murphy, and Betances Houses impact 54 buildings and 1,810 units and are the home to an estimated 4,300 people. The renovations cost $261 million.  (more…)

Image credit: NYC Department of Parks & Recreation.

It is the second park to be renovated through the Parks Without Boarders program. Earlier this summer, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation completed a $4.7 million renovation of Jackie Robinson Park in Harlem. Jackie Robinson Park runs from W 155th Street to W 145th Street between Edgecombe and Bradhurst Avenues. The renovations include updated stairways, entrances, seating, lighting, and walking paths at the park’s southern and northern edges and entrances. New plantings, benches, and fencing have been added in the park along Edgecombe Avenue, which is also an Open Streets location. (more…)

Image credit: HPD.

Modernization of apartment complex includes extension of affordability for the next 40 years. On June 5, 2018, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development announced completion of modernization work at the Fox Hill Apartments. The New York State Homes and Community Renewal, Rockabill Consulting-Development, Park Management, and development partners joined HPD in a ribbon cutting ceremony in front of the complex, at 320 Vanderbilt Avenue in Staten Island. (more…)

The City will renovate and restore 1871 building with eye toward casual restaurant. On February 21, 2012, Landmarks approved the City’s renovation plan for the landmarked Tavern on the Green restaurant on the west side of Central Park near West 65th Street. The Victorian Gothic building was built in 1871 as a sheepfold. It was converted into a restaurant in 1934. In 2009, the restaurant’s license holder filed for bankruptcy protection. The restaurant closed and its equipment and furnishings were auctioned. Tavern on the Green has remained vacant except for a temporary gift shop and public restroom. 

At the public hearing, the Parks Department’s Assistant Commissioner Elizabeth Smith explained that the plan would reconfigure the space to make it more “Parkcentric.” Smith said the City was seeking a concessionaire to operate a casual restaurant in the building. Department of Design and Construction Commissioner David Burney noted that the City in 2010 demolished the restaurant’s “Crystal Room,” a glass-enclosed dining area on the park-side of the building built in 1976, and restored the restaurant’s courtyard. Burney said the proposal would reveal the building’s original facade by removing the extraneous additions built over the years. According to Burney, the “wound” left after removing the crystal room would be filled with an all-glass, transparent box facing the terrace. The proposal also included restoring the building’s facades, windows, and dormers to their 1934 conditions. (more…)

Community groups opposed fence on the City’s oldest bridge. On April 5, 2011, Landmarks approved the City’s proposal to build an eight-foot fence and undertake other alterations to the High Bridge footpath spanning the Harlem River between Washington Heights in Manhattan and the Highbridge section of the Bronx. The High Bridge was built in 1848 as part of the Old Croton Aqueduct to bring fresh water into Manhattan. It is the City’s oldest bridge.

The City in 1917 ceased using the bridge as an aqueduct. In 1927, the City replaced five of the bridge’s original fifteen masonry arches with a central steel span to allow large ships to pass underneath. The bridge gained notoriety in the late 1950s after children threw rocks at a passing Circle Line tour boat. After the High Bridge was closed to the public in 1970, Landmarks designated the  bridge as an individual City landmark. The City in 2009 announced plans to restore and reopen the High Bridge to pedestrian and bicycle traffic. (more…)