Image Credit: GoogleMaps.

Red Hook developer converted commercial buildings into residential apartments. Harbor Tech LLC in 1999 purchased a commercial complex located in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn that had been built in the 1920s and used continuously for commercial purposes. Harbor Tech by 2005 had converted the five interlaced buildings of the complex into 100 residential units.

Thirty-five residents of the complex in 2013 sued Harbor Tech to have the City’s Rent Stabilization Law applied to the complex. In response, Harbor Tech argued that the complex was exempt from the Rent Stabilization Code because the buildings were “substantially rehabilitated” as residential units after 1974. The residents argued that the exemption did not apply because the regulations define “substantially rehabilitated” as requiring the replacement of at least 75 percent of the building-wide and apartment systems. The Supreme Court rejected the tenants’ argument, ruling that rent stabilization laws did not apply because the complex had been converted from commercial to residential, and the percentage of systems replaced was irrelevant. (more…)

St. John the Divine Cathedral. Image Credit: LPC.

Unfinished cathedral, the largest in the world, designated a landmark for second time. On February 21, 2017, Landmarks commissioners voted to designate the St. John the Divine Cathedral and Close an individual City landmark. The cathedral, the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, is the largest church in the United States, and the largest cathedral in the world. It stands at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue, in Manhattan’s Morningside Heights neighborhood.

The Landmarks Commission first held a hearing on the potential designation of the cathedral in 1966, and ultimately voted to designate the cathedral a City landmark in 2003. The designation was overturned by the City Council because it was limited to the cathedral’s footprint, and would allow for the development of the rest of the campus.

The Commission again added the cathedral to its calendar on July 19, 2016. This potential designation included six historic auxiliary buildings comprising the cathedral close. (more…)

Image Credit: LPC.

“Bank Row” buildings represent two eras of 20th-century economic expansion. Landmarks voted to designate two bank buildings in Brooklyn as individual City landmarks at its meeting on January 24, 2017. The elder of the two landmarks, the People’s Trust Company Building, stands at 181 Montague Street, and the second item, the National Title Guaranty Building, adjoins it at 185 Montague Street. The buildings are the only unprotected historic structures on what is known as “Bank Row,” as the north side of the street falls within the Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District.

The People’s Trust Company Building, designed by the firm Mowbray & Uffinger, dates to 1904. Classical Revival in style, the building is fronted by four massive Ionic columns, each carved from a single block of marble, reported to be the largest ever quarried at the time the bank was built. Above the columns is an intricately carved pediment. An original frieze has been lost or covered. The People’s Trust building was one of the first banks to be constructed in the development of Bank Row. The building is now occupies by a Citibank.

The National Title Guaranty Company Building was designed by an early firm specializing in skyscrapers, Corbett, Harrison and MacMurray, with an Art Deco limestone screen at the lower levels designed by Rene Chambellan. The building rises to 16 stories, with setbacks flanking the central bay above the 13th floor. Projecting piers emphasize the tower’s verticality, rising from stepped buttresses at the base. Chambellan also designed the decorative elements of other individual landmarks, including the Daily New Building and Rockefeller Center.

Landmarks’ Research Department said that together the banks were an “important ensemble of early 20th century commercial buildings.”

At a November 29th, 2016, hearing, designation of both buildings was supported by Council Member Stephen Levin, local and citywide preservationist organizations, and area residents. The owners of National Title Guaranty Building, the Montague-Goldman Corporation, opposed designation, saying landmarking would prevent redevelopment, and hamper bringing the building into code compliance.

Both structures were designated unanimously. Chair Meenakshi Srinivasan said the designation would ensure the protection of significant architecture in the history of Brooklyn’s financial industry.

LPC: People’s Trust Company Building, 181 Montague Street, Brooklyn (LP-2586); National Title Guaranty Company Building, 185 Montague Street, Brooklyn (LP-2587) (Jan. 24, 2017).

NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer. Image credit: Office of the New York City Comptroller

On June 30, 2016, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer’s office released a Report on the Department of Buildings’ issuance of licenses to site safety professionals. There are two types of site safety professional licenses: site safety manager and site safety coordinator. City law requires that a site safety manager be onsite to oversee all work of any project to demolish or construct buildings 15 stories or more in height, and a site safety coordinator to oversee such work on a structure that is 10 to 14 stories high.

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A Neoclassical and an Art Deco Building, both from the early 20th century, significant contributors to Brooklyn’s “Bank Row,” added to Landmarks’ calendar. On August 9, 2016 the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to add two adjoining Brooklyn buildings to its calendar: the People’s Trust Company Building, at 181 Montague Street, and the National Title Guaranty Building, at 185 Montague Street. Both buildings are prominent members of Downtown Brooklyn’s “Bank Row,” developed in the early 20th century between the burgeoning residential neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights and the commercial and civic hub around Borough Hall. Former bank buildings on the south side of Montague fall within the Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District, and others in the row have been previously designated. The two structures calendared at the meeting are the only historic financial services buildings on the street to remain unprotected. (more…)