Building complex, dating from 19th century, formerly housed AT&T’s Bell Laboratories and was the first federally-subsidized artists’ colony. On January 12, 2010, Landmarks heard testimony on the possible designation of a building complex in the Far West Village, now known as Westbeth. Located on an entire block bounded by West, Bethune, Washington, and Bank Streets, Westbeth comprises five buildings built between 1861 and 1926. From 1899 to 1966, AT&T’s Bell Laboratories used the complex as a research facility; some of the earliest transistors, televisions, and radar equipment were built on its site. In the 1930s, the New York Central Railroad laid elevated rail tracks, now known as the High Line, through the third floor of the building at 51 Bethune Street.

Bell Labs relocated to New Jersey in 1966, and two years later, the National Endowment for the Arts and the J.M. Kaplan Fund purchased the complex in order to convert it into the country’s first federally-subsidized artists’ colony. Architect Richard Meier renovated the complex, designing 383 studio units and an entrance courtyard. Its mission persists to the current day, housing over 300 artists in a variety of disciplines. Past residents have included dancer-choreographer Merce Cunningham, poet Muriel Rukeyser, and photographer Diane Arbus. (more…)

Following the Ocean on the Park Historic District designation vote, Landmarks agreed to consider extending district to include adjacent vacant lot. On December 15, 2009, Landmarks declined to extend Brooklyn’s recently- designated Ocean on the Park Historic District to include an adjacent vacant lot at 185 Ocean Avenue. Landmarks designated the Ocean on the Park Historic District in October 2009, and it comprises twelve attached rowhouses located at 189 through 211 Ocean Avenue in Brooklyn. The free-standing brick house that formerly occupied an adjacent lot at 185 Ocean Avenue was developed in conjunction with the twelve other buildings, and the lot shares a driveway and a garage with 189 Ocean Avenue. In 2008, the owner of 185 Ocean Avenue demolished the house in order to build an eight-story condominium with a cantilevered portion over the shared driveway of 189 Ocean Avenue. The owner completed the condominium’s foundation before his building permits expired in September 2009.

Landmarks agreed to consider extending the historic district to cover the building site after hearing testimony at the October designation hearing from Fern Bernich, the owner of 189 Ocean Avenue. Bernich testified that the proposed building at 185 Ocean Avenue would negatively impact her property if Landmarks did not include the lot in the district. After Landmarks calendared the lot for consideration, Landmarks counsel Mark Silberman explained that Landmarks could remove it from its calendar if it determined that the owner of 185 Ocean Avenue had valid building permits. 6 CityLand 160 (Nov. 15, 2009). (more…)

Nine Queen Anne style homes on Perry Avenue in the Bronx designated as a historic district. On December 15, 2009, Landmarks designated a row of Queen Anne style houses at 2971 to 2987 Perry Avenue in the Bronx as the Perry Avenue Historic District. The historic district, which is the City’s 100th, consists of nine three-story, wood-frame houses built between 1910 and 1912. Following the extension of the IRT and the Third Avenue elevated line to areas north of Fordham Road, developer George D. Kingston acquired the properties and hired Bronx-based architect Charles S. Clark to design the homes.

The houses feature alternating orange and red brick facades and small yards enclosed by fieldstone walls. The houses at 2971 through 2977 feature three-sided porches, and the remaining five homes have projecting porticos supported on columns. From the 1920s through the 1950s, large multi-family apartment buildings began replacing many of the area’s single-family rowhouses. Despite the area’s change in character, the Perry Avenue houses remained intact. (more…)

Buildings lining the “Grand Boulevard and Concourse”represent a variety of architectural styles, including Art Deco and Moderne structures. On December 15, 2009, Landmarks moved to calendar 73 properties along the Bronx’s Grand Concourse, the first step toward designating the proposed Grand Concourse Historic District. The proposed district would include a section of the Grand Concourse between East 167th and East 153rd Streets and properties along Walton Avenue, west of Franz Sigel and Joyce Kilmer Parks. Significant structures within the proposed district include the Thomas Gardens apartments, the Concourse Plaza Hotel, and the Bronx County Building.

French engineer Louis Reiss envisioned the “Grand Boulevard and Concourse” as a thoroughfare connecting Manhattan’s residents to the Bronx’s expansive parks. Reflecting the urban planning ideals of the City Beautiful movement, the Grand Concourse featured landscaped medians and waysides, and ornate overpass bridges. The Grand Concourse developed rapidly as the City expanded the subway and elevated rail line to reach the area’s relatively inexpensive and undeveloped property. Revivalist architectural styles dominated the Grand Concourse’s initial development, but by the mid-1930s, Art Deco and Moderne style apartment buildings characterized the area. Developers took advantage of the area’s large lots to build block-sized apartment complexes organized around large, landscaped courtyards, referred to as “garden apartments.” (more…)

Church officials and congregation opposed designation. On January 12, 2010, Landmarks designated West Park Presbyterian Church at 165 West 86th Street in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The Romanesque Revival building’s development occurred in two phases. Leopold Eidlitz designed a small chapel completed in 1883. When the church outgrew the building in 1889, it commissioned Henry Kilburn to build a new sanctuary and redesign the small chapel’s facade. Kilburn’s design features distinctive red sandstone cladding, round arch openings, and a large bell tower.

At the July 14, 2009 hearing, Church representatives spoke in opposition, testifying that the congregation had been forced to worship at another site because of the building’s deteriorating condition. Valerie Campbell, West Park’s attorney, said that in order to restore the main building, the Church partnered with a developer to demolish the small chapel and build a residential tower on its footprint. Campbell said the developer withdrew after Landmarks scheduled the designation hearing. Residents, preservation groups, and elected officials testified in support of designation, including Assembly Member Linda B. Rosenthal, and representatives for Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer, and then-Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum. 6 CityLand 138 (Aug. 15, 2009). (more…)