New School Hosts Panel Discussion on Historic Preservation and Affordable Housing

Elected officials, affordable housing advocates, and preservationists speak on historic preservation’s impact on New York City’s affordable housing shortage. On September 16, 2014, The Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy at The New School hosted a panel discussion on New York City’s affordable housing shortage and historic preservation. The discussion was co-presented by the Historic Districts Council and the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. The panel featured Manhattan Borough President <Read More>


Synagogue Congregants Oppose Designation

Before serving as a synagogue, 1869 building was home to German Baptist congregation and a Ukrainian Orthodox church. On March 25, 2014, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing on the proposed individual landmark designation of the Congregation Tifereth Israel Town and Village Synagogue located at 334 East 14th Street in Manhattan. The structure was completed in 1869 to designs by the German-born architect Julius Boekell. The Runbogenstil style structure was originally built as the … <Read More>


Salvation Army Representatives Oppose Designation of 14th Street Headquarters

 

Art Deco building from 1929, notable for its three-story arched entryway and asymmetrical massing. On February 11, 2014, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing on the possible designation of the Salvation Army Territorial Headquarters, located at 120-130 West 14th Street in Manhattan. The three-building complex, designed by Ralph Walker of Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker, was completed in 1935.  Walker was the architect of the Western Union Building and the Barclay-Vesey Building<Read More>


New Design Team Selected for Site’s Redevelopment Does Not Quell Controversy

 

Architecture firm BKSK replaced Gruzen Samton on a proposal for new seven-story structure where one-story building now stands. On January 21, 2014, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing for a proposed seven-story development on a triangular site at 130 Seventh Avenue South in the Greenwich Village Historic District, where a 1937 one-story building now stands. Landmarks previously held a hearing on the site’s development in July 2013.  At a later public meeting, … <Read More>


HDC Defends NYC Landmark Preservation

Last week CityLand published a Guest Commentary from Steven Spinola, President of REBNY.  Simeon Bankoff, Executive Director of the Historic Districts Council submitted this commentary in response. 

In his recent editorial in CityLand, Steven Spinola, the longtime President of the Real Estate Board of New York, suggested a number of ways which the Landmarks Law needs to be reformed to adhere to its “spirit.”  This is a curious statement that warrants further examination.  … <Read More>


Greenmarket and the Urbanscape

Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote “In the spring, a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.” May that always be so, but it is equally true today that for many New Yorkers spring also turns thoughts to Greenmarket, a collection of producer-only farmers markets that now blanket the City.

The first Greenmarket opened in July 1976 in a lot on Second Avenue at the Manhattan end of the Queensboro Bridge. Seven farmers sold produce … <Read More>