The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center. Image Credit: NYC LPC
The six buildings are up for consideration in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. On May 14, 2019, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a calendaring hearing for five buildings in Manhattan and one building in Staten Island to consider for future designation. The six sites – the Gay Activists Alliance Firehouse, Women’s Liberation Center, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, the Caffe Cino, the James Baldwin Residence and the Audre Lorde Residence – all reflect some aspect of New York’s LGBT history. (more…)
Park West Village superblock on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. (808 Columbus Ave, center). Image Credit: Google Maps.
Appellate Division finds that Buildings improperly issued construction permit for nursing home after misinterpreting the zoning resolution. Park West Village is a complex located on a superblock bounded by West 100th Street to the north, West 97th Street to the south, Columbus Avenue to the east, and Amsterdam Avenue to the west on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The complex was built in the 1950s and 1960s as part of a federally subsidized middle-income urban renewal project, and includes residential buildings, a parking lot, a school, a church, a public library, a health center, and commercial buildings. Three original 16-story residential buildings remain on the eastern portion of the superblock at 784, 788, and 792 Columbus Avenue. The Park West Village buildings all exist on the same zoning lot. (more…)
Rendering of 430 West Broadway in Manhattan.
Morris Adjmi-designed building would replace three-story commercial structure built in 1986. On June 12, 2018, Landmarks held a hearing on a proposal to construct a new building at 430 West Broadway in the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District. The lot is currently occupied by a three-story commercial structure built in 1986 and redesigned in 1997 to plans by the firm of Greenberg Farrow. The proposal would see the demolition of the existing building, and the construction of a new design by Morris Adjmi Architects, that would rise to six stories at the streetwall, with an additional setback story. (more…)
Courtesy of Landmarks Preservation Commission
Proposed 164-property historic district constructed in late 19th century for upper-middle-class housing; served important role in Harlem and history. On December 12, 2017, Landmarks voted to add the Central Harlem West 130-132nd Street Historic District to its calendar for possible designation. The proposed district consists of the interiors of three blocks on 130th, 131st, and 132nd Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Lenox Avenue. Landmarks staff identified the potential historic district while surveying the area for historic resources related to the Civil Rights movements, and were struck by its architectural integrity and consistency. (more…)
Rendering of proposed 51-story tower at 200 Amsterdam Avenue. Image credit: Elkus Manfredi Architects
City Council Member and community celebrate after the Department of Buildings halt the construction of an Upper West Side tower. In September 2016, developer SJP Properties filed building plans with the Department of Buildings for the construction of a new 51-story building located at 200 Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The plans filed detailed a 642 foot tower containing 583,294 square feet of residential space and 3,016 square feet of floor area on the ground floor for a medical office.
In May 2017, the Committee for Environmentally Sound Development, a local organization that represents residents of the Lincoln Towers community and the surrounding area, filed a zoning challenge with Buildings arguing that the project was not compliant with zoning law requirements. Both City Council Member Helen Rosenthal and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer signed onto the challenge.
The main issue raised involved the weirdly-shaped zoning lot that was created to generate enough air-rights for proposed building. The proposed footprint would be a little over 10,000 square feet while the zoning lot is about 100,000 square feet and reaches throughout the city block. The challenge argued that the zoning district, R8, required a substantial amount of Open Space and that the open space provided did not qualify as Open Space under the Zoning Resolution. The complaint also listed rear yard obstructions and mechanical spaces on the top floors as violations of the Zoning Resolution.
On July 11, 2017, Buildings issued a notice of objections and an intent to revoke the permits in order to verify the open space ratio and that the zoning lot was properly formed. The full audit ordered by the agency will halt the current construction of the site. (more…)
