Map of Sunset Park with the four proposed historic districts outlined in red. Image Credit: LPC.

Landmarks research staff spent several years researching the area, surveying and documenting over 4,000 buildings. On January 22, 2019, the Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously voted to add to its calendar four areas of Sunset Park, Brooklyn for historic district designation. The proposals were presented to the Commission following years of extensive survey and analysis by the Landmarks research staff after a request for evaluation of the area from Sunset Park’s Landmarks Committee in 2014. The Sunset Park Landmarks Committee was established in 2012 by area residents and homeowners who were concerned with redevelopment changing the largely rowhouse-character of the area. To read CityLand coverage on the Committee’s efforts in building community support for designation in its early stages, click here. (read more…)

Rendering of 524-536 Halsey Street in Brooklyn. Image Credit: The Brooklyn Company/LPC.

The new plans address many concerns that Landmarks and community members had with the previously approved plans. On January 8, 2018, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to approve new plans for a set of 20^th century utilitarian buildings at 524-536 Halsey Street in the Bedford Stuyvesant/Expanded Stuyvesant Heights Historic District in Brooklyn. Both buildings were most recently used as garages. One building is a three-story Queen Anne style which the applicant proposes to rehabilitate and alter for residential uses. The other is currently a one-story garage that would be demolished and replaced with a four story building, also used for residences.  The application came just one and a half years after Landmarks had approved the last owner’s plans for the buildings, despite opposition from area residents and the Community Board about the project’s scale and design. To read CityLand’s coverage of the  hearings on the previous plans, click here. (read more…)

The First Hungarian Reformed Church. Image Credit: NYC LPC

The 103-year-old church still serves the same congregation. On January 22, 2019, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to calendar the First Hungarian Reformed Church for landmarks designation consideration. The church, located at 346 East 69^th Street between First and Second Avenues, was built in 1915 and designed by architect Emery Roth. The First Hungarian Reformed Church was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 31, 2000. (read more…)

The 1st Spanish Methodist Church was removed from the Landmarks calendar. Image Credit: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Church removed from Landmarks calendar after complex history divides community members. On December 11, 2018, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a discussion about the 1^st Spanish United Methodist Church located at 163 East 111^th Street and Lexington Avenue in East Harlem. The Church was constructed in 1880 for the Lexington Avenue Baptist Church but was rebuilt in the mid-1960s after a fire destroyed most of the first floor. The Church was calendared in December 2017. (read more…)

Houses on West 217th Street from the proposed historic district. Image Credit: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

First historic district in Inwood preserves 15 buildings. On December 11, 2018, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to designate the Park Terrace West – West 217^th Street Historic District. The historic district covers 15 houses along Park Terrace West and West 217^th Street in the Inwood neighborhood of Manhattan. For CityLand’s prior coverage of this historic district, click here. (read more…)