SoHo hotel plan heard

Restaurateurs propose to build four-story hotel behind federal-style Broome Street building. On May 5, 2009, Landmarks viewed a presentation and heard testimony on proposed alterations to a property at 431 Broome Street in the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District. The applicants, Vincent Boitier and Pierre Casaux, owners of the nearby restaurant l’Orange Bleue, sought approval for a rooftop addition, a new four-story building in the rear yard, and a new storefront infill.

The plan’s architect, Thomas … <Read More>

Robin Stout on the Future of the Moynihan Station Project

I n 2005, Robin Stout was appointed President of the Moynihan Station Development Corporation, the Empire State Development Corporation’s subsidiary charged with transforming the James A. Farley Post Office Building into a new train hall named for the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Stout, a Columbia Law School graduate, spent nine years at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP before joining the ESDC as Senior Counsel to the 42nd Street Development Project in 1990. Transforming … <Read More>

Williamsburg residential rowhouse district designated

Fillmore Place Historic District. Image: LPC.

Built as housing for working-class waterfront laborers, neighborhood remains remarkably intact. Landmarks designated the Fillmore Place Historic District on May 12, 2009. The district, primarily located on Fillmore Place between Driggs Avenue and Roebling Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was privately developed during a period of rapid growth in Williamsburg during the 1850s. Although different developers likely had hands in Fillmore Place, the 29 rowhouses maintain cohesiveness in scale and … <Read More>

Conversion of rowhouses to preschool proposed

Renovation would retain only facade and sidewalls. On May 19, 2009, Landmarks heard testimony on a plan to convert two Georgian-style rowhouses, located at 43 and 45 West 86th Street in the Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District, into a religious preschool. The rowhouses, built in 1895 and 1896, were designed by architect John H. Duncan, designer of Grant’s Tomb in Riverside Park.

Architect Charles Platt, of the firm Platt Byard Dovell White, presented … <Read More>

Audubon Park District supported for Wash. Hgts.

Historic district occupies land once inhabited by naturalist John James Audubon. On May 12th, 2009, Landmarks designated the Audubon Park Historic District. The district, bounded generally by West 158th Street to the north, West 155th Street to the south, Edward M. Morgan Place and Broadway to the east, and Riverside Drive to the west, encompasses 20 buildings, consisting of five- to 12- story apartment buildings, and one mission-style duplex designed by Moore & Landsiedel. Together, … <Read More>

Townhouse Proposed for Vacant Rowhouse Lot

Project would fill gap in historic row near Brooklyn Bridge. On May 5, 2009, Landmarks heard testimony on a proposed new residential building at 9 Old Fulton Street in Brooklyn’s Fulton Ferry Historic District. The four-story-plus-penthouse structure would occupy a vacant lot in a row of 1830s Greek Revival rowhouses.

Calling the vacant lot a “missing tooth” in the street’s composition, the project’s architect, Walter Maffei, testified that the new building would match the height … <Read More>