Landmarks approves 20-story condo for Midtown district

LPC approves this glass facade condo for a historic district along Fifth Avenue. Image courtesy of Beyer Binder Belle.

Construction will require the demolition of a non-contributing townhouse. On May 15, 2007, Landmarks approved an application by developer Brandolini Companies to demolish an existing building and construct a new residential condominium at 224 Fifth Avenue in the Madison Square North Historic District. The approved 20-story building, designed by architectural firm Beyer Blinder Belle, features a … <Read More>


Federal row houses near Holland tunnel heard

Support voiced for designation of two homes built in 1823. Landmarks heard testimony on the 486 and 488 Greenwich Street houses on April 10, 2007. Built in 1823 for German-born tailor John Rohr, the two-anda- half story, Federal-style row houses feature dormered peaked roofs, brick cladding, and stone lintels and sills. Rohr built a group of five row houses at the corner of Greenwich and Canal Streets, and 486 and 488 Greenwich remain the only … <Read More>


Queens house designated despite severe alteration

Landmarks re-designates home struck from district by court order. Following a lengthy public hearing, Landmarks voted unanimously on April 3, 2007 to re-include the single- family home at 41-45 240th Street back into the Douglaston Hill Historic District.

Landmarks originally included the home within a December 2004 designation, but a court struck down the home’s inclusion, ordering Landmarks to hold a second hearing focused on the owners’ claim that the home dated to 1920 rather … <Read More>


New district for Brooklyn’s Crown Heights approved

Final Crown Heights North Historic District. Map: LPC.

Landmarks credited the residents of Crown Heights for generating designation. On April 24, 2007, Landmarks voted unanimously to designate the Crown Heights North Historic District encompassing 472 Brooklyn buildings built between the 1860s and the 1930s.

Landmarks Chair Robert Tierney opened the comments by saying that the importance of the designation became clear to him when he stood within the homes of Crown Heights’ residents and viewed … <Read More>


Potential Sunnyside Gardens district proves divisive

Opposing sides report neighborhood friction, allegations of spying and harassment. On April 17, 2007, in front of an audience exceeding the hearing room’s capacity, Landmarks heard testimony on the potential designation of a Sunnyside Gardens Historic District. Sunnyside Gardens, a planned community built between 1924 and 1928, features a mixture of single-, double-, and multi-family dwellings arranged around large, landscaped open courtyards. Funded by a limited dividend company, the development provided high-quality housing for the … <Read More>


HPD pushes through 517 affordable housing units

Manhattan, Bronx and Brooklyn housing projects approved; sent to Council. On March 28 and April 11, 2007, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development obtained Planning Commission approval for eight affordable housing projects, totaling 517 units, to be developed in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx.

Two of the Bronx projects, including the 50-unit Fox Leggett Cooperative Apartments and the 162- unit Grant Avenue Cooperative Apartments, provide ownership opportunities for low- and moderate-income families. Both of … <Read More>