The City was forced to halt construction on the pavilion at Union Square Park in 2008. Photo: Jonathan Reingold.

See below for update.

Neighborhood coalition sued Parks over proposed plan to open restaurant in Union Square. Union Square is comprised of 3.6 acres of dedicated municipal parkland, stretching three blocks in length and one block in width. Union Square Park’s pavilion has hosted a myriad of political events and recreational activities for over a century. In 2004, the City announced its plans to open a restaurant in the pavilion. In April 2008, the Union Square Community Coalition (Coalition) obtained a temporary restraining order proscribing the City from undertaking any construction activity associated with its pavilion proposal. (See CityLand’s past coverage here). In March 2009, the New York Supreme Court dismissed the Coalition’s lawsuit. The pavilion was subsequently renovated and is currently being used by the City’s Department of Parks and Recreation as office and storage space.

In March 2012, the City signed a licensing agreement with Chef Driven Market, LLC, (Chef) authorizing Chef to open a 200-seat seasonal restaurant in the pavilion. The restaurant would operate from April 15 through October 15 and boast entrée prices topping over $30. The agreement required Chef to pay the City an annual fee of $300,000 for the first year, increasing to the greater of either $457,777 or 10 percent of its annual gross revenues in the 15th year.

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Former Tammany Hall at 100 East 17th Street, Manhattan. Image Credit: CityLand.

Hall served as home to powerful City political organization after abandonment of 14th Street headquarters. On May 14, 2013, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to calendar the former Tammany Hall, formally commencing the structure’s consideration as an individual City landmark. The building is located at 100-102 East 17th Street, just off Union Square.

The Neo-Georgian building was completed in 1929 based on the designs of the firm of Thompson, Holmes & Converse and architect Charles B. Meyers. Three-and-a-half stories tall, the structure was loosely modeled on Wall Street’s Federal Hall, where George Washington took his oath of office. The building replaced the organization’s former headquarters on 14th Street, a structure that is no longer standing. The building possesses a stone base, with the upper floors primarily clad in brick. Decorative elements include a pedimented portico and sculptural reliefs in limestone and terra cotta.

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Contextual rezoning established streetwall and building height limits for an eight-block area below Union Square. On October 27, 2010, the City Council approved the Department of City Planning’s rezoning of portions of eight blocks in Manhattan’s East Village. The contextual plan rezoned an area bounded by the south side of East 13th Street, the north side of East 9th Street, Third Avenue, and the east side of Fourth Avenue from C6-1 to C6-2A. The blocks are adjacent to the area rezoned in 2008 by the East Village/Lower East Side Rezoning plan. 5 CityLand 165 (Dec. 2008).

The neighborhood is characterized by low- and mid-rise residential and mixed-use buildings with a uniform street wall. A handful of taller and bulkier buildings can be found along Third and Fourth Avenues. The area’s C6-1 zoning, unchanged since 1961, was inconsistent with the built character of the neighborhood and permitted tall and slender tower development, including setback dormitory buildings like those constructed in the neighborhood by New York University and the New School. (more…)

Tribeca building’s 65 fuel tanks store more than 100,000 gallons. In 2002, the Department of Buildings issued violations to Hudson Telegraph Associates after inspectors found fifteen 275-gallon fuel storage tanks on six floors of the Western Union Building, an individual and interior City landmark located at 60 Hudson Street in Tribeca, Manhattan. The code only permits one 275-gallon tank on each story above the first floor. The 24-story, 1.2 million-square-foot Art Deco building houses telecommunications switchboards that serve a large portion of the northeast and require fuel reserves in case of power outages. Overall, the building contained 65 tanks with a 101,521- gallon capacity, less than permitted as-of-right. About 6,875 gallons of diesel fuel were maintained above the first floor.

legalize the tanks’ location, explaining that the floors required multiple tanks since several different telecommunication tenants needed storage tanks, and lease limitations provided no alternative locations. After a two-year review, Buildings issued a variance legalizing the tanks based on the practical difficulties of complying with the code. The variance, granted after consultation with the FDNY, fire safety consultants, and elected officials, stipulated that Hudson employ 25 specific safety measures crafted to address the need to manually refill and transport the fuel and to also deal with storage, delivery and potential spills. (more…)

Holyrood Episcopal Church-Iglesia Santa Cruz, one of the three sites calendared by LPC on January 19th. Image Credit: LPC

Support for landmarking included a push for further preservation of the area south of Union Square. On March 23, 2021, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held public hearings on two proposed landmarks located in Manhattan. The Holyrood Episcopal Church-Iglesia Santa Cruz at 715 West 179th Street in Washington Heights and the Educational Building at 70 Fifth Avenue in Greenwich Village were two landmarks originally calendared as part of the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s new Equity Framework. The Equity Framework highlights the agency’s efforts for landmark designations that represent the city’s diverse and inclusive history. For CityLand’s prior coverage of the Equity Framework and calendaring, click here.  (more…)