Early 20th-Century Residential Hotel Designated

Sixteen-story 1907 hotel building is an early example of architecture incorporating light courts, originally devised to allow light and ventilation into tenements. On October 28, 2014, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to designate Mill Hotel No. 3, at 485 Seventh Avenue in Manhattan, an individual City landmark. The hotel was completed in 1907, to designs by the architecture firm Copeland & Dole, a bicoastal firm with buildings throughout the country. The hotel was the third … <Read More>


Variance Granted To Enlarge Private School

Columbia Grammar and Preparatory permitted to establish new building for a middle-school program over community opposition. On October 7, 2014 the Board of Standards and Appeals voted to grant a variance to Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School for the enlargement of an existing school building. The building is located at 5 West 93rd Street in Manhattan’s Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District, between Central Park West to the west and Columbus Avenue to … <Read More>


Operating a Health Club in New York City: A Weighted Issue

Over 72 million Americans are considered clinically obese. With the increased emphasis on diet and exercise, gyms are turning up everywhere throughout New York City. Owning and operating a gym is not a simple process. Gym owners face zoning restrictions, permit requirements, and potential tort liability.


Joe Rose, Former City Planning Chairman on Weisbrod CityLaw Breakfast Discussion

Carl Weisbrod’s discussion of the de Blasio administration’s planning and zoning agenda was noteworthy both for its affirmation of continuity in New York City government’s leadership in the effort to create affordable housing and also in announcing a radical departure from the approach of previous administrations. When Chairman Weisbrod speaks, people should listen.


Community Opposition Voiced Against Lucerne-Adjacent Development

Consensus by Commissioners that proposed sixteen-story building is too tall for site currently hosting four-story structure.  On July 22, 2014, the Landmarks Preservation Commission considered a project at 203 West 79th Street in the Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District.  The proposal called for the demolition of the existing building at the site, where four 19th-century rowhouses were combined into one building with a contemporary facade in the 1970s.  The new building would rise … <Read More>


Tear Down the Chrysler Building?

Save our skyline. If not, tear down the Chrysler building and demolish the Empire State Building. If action isn’t taken these stars of the New York City skyline will be permanently eclipsed. If the public can’t see them, why preserve them? Even the preservation resistant Real Estate Board of New York would likely gasp at the notion of demolishing these two iconic New York landmarks. “The view of the New York skyline is nationally and … <Read More>