Angel Guardian Home, Main Building Image Credit: Brooklyn CB10

Angel Guardian Home would be first landmark designation in the Dyker Heights neighborhood. On June 30, 2020, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to calendar the designation of the Angel Guardian Home, located at 6301 12th Avenue in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn.  The former orphanage, which encompasses the entire 12th avenue frontage between 63rd and 64th Streets, is composed of four original, completely intact buildings: a central administration building, a nursery building, a reception and intake building, and a laundry building. The designation is sought only for a partial portion of the block, specifically the main building.

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Kingsland Homestead Image Credit; Queens Historical Society

Landmark’s works to make sure Kingsland Homestead’s designation is accurate. On May 19, 2020, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to calendar a proposed amendment that would update Kingsland Homestead’s landmark designation to its current location. Kingsland Homestead was built in 1785 on tract of land located near Block 5270 in Flushing, Queens. In 1965, the two-story home was designated as a landmark at 40-25 155th Street in Flushing. Shortly after, in 1968, Landmarks approved a Certificate of Appropriateness to move the landmark to its current Weeping Beech Park location. This amendment would update the landmark designation to 143-35 37th Avenue, the Weeping Beech Park address in Flushing. Timothy Frye, Director of Special Projects and Strategic Planning, presented the application to the commission.

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Engine Companies 264 & 328, Ladder Company 13. Image Credit: LPC

Early 20th century buildings, a firehouse and police precinct house, reflect civic development of Far Rockaway. On March 13, 2018, Landmarks voted to add two buildings in Far Rockaway, Queens, to its calendar. The buildings are the Firehouse, Engine Companies 264 & 328, Ladder Company 13 at 16-15 Central Avenue, and the 53rd Precinct Police Station, at 16-12 Mott Avenue.  A seaside resort community through most of the 19th century, Far Rockaway was not linked to the rest of Queens until the construction of a railway bridge across Jamaica Bay in 1888, when the first year-round residences were constructed. (more…)

Image Credit: LPC.

“Bank Row” buildings represent two eras of 20th-century economic expansion. Landmarks voted to designate two bank buildings in Brooklyn as individual City landmarks at its meeting on January 24, 2017. The elder of the two landmarks, the People’s Trust Company Building, stands at 181 Montague Street, and the second item, the National Title Guaranty Building, adjoins it at 185 Montague Street. The buildings are the only unprotected historic structures on what is known as “Bank Row,” as the north side of the street falls within the Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District.

The People’s Trust Company Building, designed by the firm Mowbray & Uffinger, dates to 1904. Classical Revival in style, the building is fronted by four massive Ionic columns, each carved from a single block of marble, reported to be the largest ever quarried at the time the bank was built. Above the columns is an intricately carved pediment. An original frieze has been lost or covered. The People’s Trust building was one of the first banks to be constructed in the development of Bank Row. The building is now occupies by a Citibank.

The National Title Guaranty Company Building was designed by an early firm specializing in skyscrapers, Corbett, Harrison and MacMurray, with an Art Deco limestone screen at the lower levels designed by Rene Chambellan. The building rises to 16 stories, with setbacks flanking the central bay above the 13th floor. Projecting piers emphasize the tower’s verticality, rising from stepped buttresses at the base. Chambellan also designed the decorative elements of other individual landmarks, including the Daily New Building and Rockefeller Center.

Landmarks’ Research Department said that together the banks were an “important ensemble of early 20th century commercial buildings.”

At a November 29th, 2016, hearing, designation of both buildings was supported by Council Member Stephen Levin, local and citywide preservationist organizations, and area residents. The owners of National Title Guaranty Building, the Montague-Goldman Corporation, opposed designation, saying landmarking would prevent redevelopment, and hamper bringing the building into code compliance.

Both structures were designated unanimously. Chair Meenakshi Srinivasan said the designation would ensure the protection of significant architecture in the history of Brooklyn’s financial industry.

LPC: People’s Trust Company Building, 181 Montague Street, Brooklyn (LP-2586); National Title Guaranty Company Building, 185 Montague Street, Brooklyn (LP-2587) (Jan. 24, 2017).

Key kiosk features. Image Credit: LinkNYC.

Following public testimony on proposed rule, it was modified to require that new kiosks in residential historic district go before Landmarks for review, and increased the distance from which a kiosk replacing a pay phone may be sited near another public communications structure. On June 28, 2016, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to adopt modifications to existing rules regarding pay phones to account for a Mayoral plan to replace all pay phones with new public communications structures. The new kiosks will provide phone service and free Wi-Fi access, and ability to contact emergency services in an initiative named LinkNYC.  The aluminum-clad kiosks will also possess stations for charging one’s phone and an interactive tablet. The rectangular, eleven-inch-wide kiosks will have a smaller footprint than pay phones, but will be taller, with those displaying advertising over ten feet high. (more…)