The AIA Guide’s Fran Leadon on Preservation, Development, and the Guide’s Future

Fran Leadon, architect and professor at City College’s Spitzer School of Architecture, coauthored the fifth edition of the American Institute of Architects Guide to New York City along with Norval White, who passed away prior to its publication in 2010. The Guide, published by Oxford University Press, is a comprehensive, and compulsively readable, handbook to the City’s architecturally significant buildings and spaces. It was created in 1968 by former Landmarks Preservation Commission Vice Chair Elliot … <Read More>


Harlem project with 100 affordable apartments OK’d

Twelve-story affordable housing on West 117th Street in Harlem. A nine-story condo building will face West 116th Street. Image: Courtesy of GreenbergFarrow.

Two-building project will include market-rate condominiums on West 116th Street and an affordable rental building on West 117th Street. On August 17, 2011, the City Council approved L+M Development Partners Inc.’s proposal to develop two mixed-use buildings on a through block lot between West 117th and West 116th Streets, in the block between … <Read More>


Coney Island Mixed-Use Development Approved

Multi-building project will create 415 rental units along Coney Island’s boardwalk. On September 8, 2011, the City Council approved John Catsimatidis’s proposed 415- unit, mixed-use project on two vacant parcels on the western end of Riegelmann Boardwalk in Coney Island. The project site consists of an eastern and western parcel separated by West 36th Street and bounded by Surf Avenue to the north, the boardwalk to the south, West 35th Street to the east, and … <Read More>


Whitestone bank commercial rezoning approved

State Senator Tony Avella and community group argued that rezoning would lead to undesirable uses. On July 28, 2011, the City Council approved TD Bank’s rezoning proposal to facilitate the construction of a one-story bank building near the Cross Island Parkway in Whitestone, Queens. The proposal established a C1-2 commercial overlay on the majority of a triangle-shaped block zoned R3A and generally bounded by the Cross Island Parkway Service Road, 15th Avenue, and 148th Street<Read More>


Controversial catering hall rezoning approved

White House Restaurant located in at 10-24 154th Street, Queens. Image: Courtesy of bridgeandtunnelclub.com

State Senator and residents opposed addition of catering hall to Whitestone restaurant. On June 29, 2011, the City Council approved a modified version of Joe Franco’s proposal to rezone the western side of 154th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues in the Whitestone section of Queens. The plan rezoned five lots and will facilitate the expansion of Franco’s White House restaurant … <Read More>


Private rezoning withdrawn prior to Council review

Cambria Heights community expressed concern about impact of proposed one-story commercial building on adjacent community garden. Prior to a public hearing before the City Council’s Zoning & Franchises Subcommittee, Ryan Pedram withdrew his rezoning proposal to extend a C1-3 commercial overlay to an existing R3-2 district at the northeast corner of Linden Boulevard between 226th and 227th Streets in Cambria Heights, Queens. Pedram had requested the rezoning in order to develop a one-story, 8,100 sq.ft. … <Read More>