Former Ridley & Sons Department Store Buildings Designated as an Individual Landmark, Awaiting Full Council Approval [Update: Designation Approved By Full Council]

Lower East Side department store, closed since 1901, approved for designation after adjacent property removed from consideration. On December 6, 2012, the New York City Council’s Land Use Committee voted to approve the designation of the former Edward Ridley & Sons Department Store Buildings. They voted to approve the designation after its Council’s Subcommittee on Landmark’s, Public Siting & Maritime Uses hearing on December 4, 2012.  Located at 315-317 Grand Street and 319-321 Grand … <Read More>


Marine Midland Bank Building Enters Designation Process

Gordon Bunshaft-designed Mid-century Modernist office tower on trapezoidal site enters process towards designation. On November 20, 2012, Landmarks voted to calendar the Marine Midland Bank building, at 140 Broadway in Lower Manhattan’s Financial District, as potential individual City landmark. The building was designed by Gordon Bunshaft, partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Other individual landmarks in the City designed by Bunshaft include the Manufacturer’s Company Trust Building, and Modernist icon, the Lever House<Read More>


REBNY: Improve the City’s Landmarks Designation Process

The Landmarks Preservation Commission’s (LPC) process for designating New York City historic districts is being used more and more to take the place of zoning.  The designation of historic districts has been pursued to promote many different agendas: to address issues of height and scale, to stop new development and to limit development on vacant or near-vacant sites by purposefully including these sites within the boundaries of historic districts.  These objectives are contrary to the … <Read More>


Sandy Ground designations

569 & 565 Bloomingdale Road. Image: Courtesy of LPC.

Four buildings date to 19th century community founded by African- American freedmen. On February 1, 2011, Landmarks celebrated the beginning of Black History Month by designating as landmarks four buildings in the Sandy Ground community of Rossville, Staten Island. Sandy Ground was established in the 19th century as one of the country’s earliest African-American freedmen communities. The community grew when African-American oystermen migrated from the Chesapeake … <Read More>


Council rejects designation of Queens church building

Courtesy LPC

Opposition by Grace Episcopal Church to the landmarking of its Memorial Hall only emerged after Landmarks approved designation. On January 18, 2011, the City Council rejected Landmarks’ designation of the Grace Episcopal Church Memorial Hall at 155-24 90th Avenue in Jamaica, Queens. Grace Episcopal Church was founded in 1702 and is one of the country’s oldest Episcopal parishes. The church’s main building and graveyard were landmarked in 1967, and Landmarks calendared the Memorial … <Read More>


East Village church opposes designation

 

Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection at 59 East 2nd Street in Manhattan’s East Village. Image: LPC.

Parishioners of 1890s-era Russian Orthodox Cathedral argued that landmarking would add to struggling church’s financial burden. On March 23, 2010, Landmarks heard testimony on the possible designation of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection at 59-63 East 2nd Street in the East Village. Formerly known as the Olivet Memorial Church, the Kentucky … <Read More>