Oakman-designed Tudor mansion designated

Fitzgerald-Ginsberg House designated. On September 20, 2005, Landmarks designated the Fitzgerald-Ginsberg House, located at 145-15 Bayside Avenue in Flushing, Queens. Built in 1924, the John Oakman design is a neo- Tudor style mansion featuring rusticated fieldstone walls, a multicolored slate roof and leaded glass windows. At the time of its construction, the house was located adjacent to an extension of Flushing’s Old Country Club and golf course. In approving, Landmarks noted that as one of … <Read More>


Far West Village to have district designation hearings

Two new proposed districts would encompass 50 buildings west of Greenwich Village Historic District. Landmarks took the first step towards expanding the Greenwich Village Historic District and creating a new historic district along Weehawken and West Streets in Manhattan by voting unanimously on September 20, 2005 to hold hearings on the designations.

As proposed, the Greenwich Village Historic District Extension would add 36 buildings within the three-block area bound by Perry, Washington, Christopher and Greenwich … <Read More>


Gilbert-designed warehouse designated

Preservationists fear City Council will overturn Landmarks’ designation. Landmarks voted unanimously on September 20, 2005 to designate the Austin, Nichols & Co. Warehouse despite extensive opposition from its current owner, Council Member David Yassky and former City Council Member Kenneth Fisher, who appeared on the owner’s behalf. Constructed in 1913 along the East River in Brooklyn, the six-story reinforced concrete Austin Nichols building is attributed to Cass Gilbert, the architect of the Woolworth Building and … <Read More>


Neon illuminated sign ordered removed

Tanning salon had installed sign on 1884 building. Portofino Sun Center, an indoor tanning bed salon, affixed without permits a large neon sign outside its store at 104 West 73rd Street. The building, a Queen Anne style rowhouse built in 1884 and owned by George Hearn, is located within the Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District.

Landmarks issued a Warning Letter to Hearn for the neon sign and an exterior garbage enclosure, also installed … <Read More>


Three rowhouses to add rear additions

Proposal includes demolition of historic tea rooms. Margaret Streicker applied to Landmarks to alter three adjacent rowhouses on West 22nd Street within the Chelsea Historic District. Streicker proposed to demolish two wood rear porches on the 1851-built pair rowhouses at 327 and 329 West 22nd Street, replacing the porches with four-story additions extending 19 feet from the existing building line and adding one-story rooftop penthouses on each building. On the 1850 Italianate rowhouse at 331 … <Read More>


145-ft. phone tower sited at Seaview Hospital

Tower moved to new location to diminish impact. The Health and Hospitals Corporation sought Landmarks approval to construct a 132- foot telecommunications tower and an equipment building on the northeastern grounds of Seaview Hospital in Staten Island. The Seaview Hospital complex was, at the time of its 1905-38 construction, the largest and most costly tuberculosis hospital in rowthe country. It was sensitively designed to preserve the rural landscape along a 230-acre portion of Todt Hill … <Read More>