Susan M. Hinkson serves as one of the five Commissioners on the Mayor-appointed Board of Standards and Appeals. Hinkson, who is trained as both an architect and an attorney, was born and raised in the Bronx. Her father served as a justice in the Bronx County Supreme Court and her mother was a musician in the theater. Hinkson said her mother probably thought she would also go into theater, but around age fourteen Hinkson declared … <Read More>
Landmarks wins court order to remove illegal signs
- 598 Broadway. Image: Cityland.
Landmarks alleged that building owner and sign company repeatedly installed advertising signs without approvals. In April 1999, 598 Broadway Realty Associates Inc. obtained a permit from Landmarks to install a single advertising sign on the Houston Street-facing facade of a twelve-story building at 598 Broadway in the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District in Manhattan. The permit was valid until April 2005. In August 1999, 598 Broadway applied to Landmarks to install … <Read More>
NOV for low parapet upheld
Repairs to building subject to 1938 Building Code triggered new minimum height requirements. In February, June, and October of 2010, Buildings issued notices of violation to the owner of 331 Columbus Avenue, Manhattan. The issuing officer in each instance observed the same violation of the 2008 Construction Codes: brick parapet walls on the roof were not 42 inches in height.
At a hearing, the owner conceded that the walls in question were less than … <Read More>
Former Bronx Borough President fined $10,000
Adolfo Carrión, Jr. hired architect for private job at same time architect worked on project that Carrión later recommended for approval. Hugo Subotovsky worked as an architect on a Bronx development project known as Boricua Village. Atlantic Development Group LLC was the developer, and Peter Fine, one of Atlantic’s principals, was part of the team seeking City approval for the project through the City’s land use review process. Subotovsky was also part of this … <Read More>
EDC issues RFEI for Staten Island waterfront site
City seeks industrial maritime use for 33-acre site along Arthur Kill Channel. The City’s Economic Development Corporation issued a request for expressions of interest for the reactivation of an industrial maritime use on a waterfront site in Rossville, Staten Island. The 33-acre parcel along Arthur Kill Channel is north of the West Shore Expressway and abuts the Bloomfield Liquefied Natural Gas Tank property on Chemical Lane. Arthur Kill Channel supports deep-draft vessels used in domestic … <Read More>
Nine-story building on Greenwich Street approved
- 403 Greenwich Street. Image: Courtesy of ma.com
Landmarks twice approved designs for new building on Tribeca site, but development stalled. On November 1, 2011, Landmarks approved a proposal to replace a two-story 1947 brick building with a nine-story residential building at 403 Greenwich Street in the Tribeca West Historic District. Landmarks in 2002, and again in 2009, approved buildings for the site, but neither proposal went forward. The 2009-approved proposal called for a six-story building … <Read More>