UES Tenement Development To Keep Landmark Status Despite Owner’s Lawsuit

Building owners claimed landmark status caused financial hardship. Stahl York Avenue Co., LLC, tenement development owner of 429 East 64th Street and 430 East 65th Street in the Upper East Side, sued the City and the Landmark Preservation Commission in January 2016, asking the court to release the property landmark status in order to permit demolition and construct new high-rises for larger profits. Stahl York Avenue sought to demolish the two buildings, which are part … <Read More>


Challenge to Denial of Hardship Application Fails on Appeal

Developer claimed that Commissioners irrationally and prejudicially analyzed hardship application, and that designation amounted to an unconstitutional taking. In 1990, Landmarks designated the City and Suburban Homes Company, First Avenue Estate an individual City landmark. The block-sized development is bounded East 64th and 65th Streets and York and First Avenues. Built between 1819 and 1915, it was constructed to provide high-quality housing to low-income New Yorkers in an alternative to crowded, poorly ventilated tenement buildings. … <Read More>


Owner penalized for neglect of Manee-Seguine Homestead

Owner of Staten Island landmark who failed to maintain property forced to give landmark to City after accruing $8.55 million in regulatory fines. The Manee-Seguine Homestead in Staten Island was built by Paulus Regrenier in 1670. The City designated the Homestead a City landmark in 1984. In September 2008, the Department of Buildings declared the Homestead was dangerous and dilapidated and ordered its demolition. The Landmarks Commission intervened, preventing the Homestead’s demolishment. Seguine Bay Estates … <Read More>


Court Rules Permit to Disconnect Historic Clock was Irrationally Issued

Landmarks permit that would have seen designated interior converted to inaccessible private residence, and historic clock mechanism disconnected, is ruled to have been issued irrationally and influenced by erroneous legal counsel. The Landmark Preservation Commission designed spaces in the former New York Life Insurance Building, located at 346 Broadway, constructed in 1894 to 1898, as an interior City landmark in 1987. The designation included the 13th floor clock tower, which held the four glass clock … <Read More>


Proponents of Meat Market Plan Prevail

Landmarks Commission approved redevelopment of five buildings in the Gansevoort Market Historic District. On June 7, 2016, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the redevelopment of a block face of the Gansevoort Market Historic District between Greenwich and Washington Streets in Manhattan. The work, spanning five buildings, entailed the addition of three additional stories on a two-story building at 60-68 Gansevoort Street, a new 82-foot-high building  at the corner of Washington Street replacing a bus … <Read More>


Landmark Owner Sues Architect Over Renovation

Architect failed to submit plans to Commission for renovation of landmarked building; owner had to remove alterations. In 2008, Lorraine and Edward Gerrity, the owners of a landmarked building located at 143 Bergen St. in Brooklyn, contracted with architects Herbert Ruderman and George Restivo to renovate their home. The architects submitted plans to Buildings and to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which approved the alteration to the landmarked building. The Gerritys then made changes in … <Read More>