Ross Sandler

Every four hours around the clock, beginning Tuesday, October 30, 2012, workers from every part of Consolidated Edison’s territory reported to senior management on the status, needs and plans to restore service to Con Edison customers. The reports came in to Con Edison’s Emergency Response Center set up in the nineteenth floor auditorium at Con Edison’s headquarters at 4 Irving Place.

The first reports were sketchy assessments: what was happening and where. As the storm receded, the terrible numbers started to come in. Midland Beach in Staten Island and Gerritsen Beach in Brooklyn were devastated. A storm surge knocked out the East River steam plant, caused an explosion at Manhattan’s 13th Street transmission station, and flooded office towers on Water Street. Trees downed wires all over Westchester County, blocking roads and preventing crews from getting through. Brighton Beach was flooded. Con Edison’s Manhattan workout locations were under water, but Con Edison’s vehicles were safe; Con Edison had removed them to the high ground of Union Square 24 hours before the storm hit.

There was steady, intense professionalism in the Emergency Response Center as the reports kept arriving. A Con Edison worker returning home from a twelve hour shift was robbed at gun point. A mutual aid crew working on a 13,000 volt overhead line failed to follow safety rules; they were sent home to North Carolina. Site safety became a concern, so Con Edison sent trained office workers to downed wire sites in the field. A gasoline shortage threatened to prevent workers from getting to work sites; tankers of gasoline were ordered. A work camp sleeping mutual aid crews was set up at Citi Field in Queens. A hush came over the Response Center when a dog was reported to have been electrocuted by a downed wire.

Eleven days after the storm, the video display in the Response Center charted a constant increase in restorations of power. Con Edison crews had restored electricity to 1,012,316 of the 1,054,972 customers blacked out by Sandy and the following Northeaster.

The extraordinary professionalism, preparation and dedication shown by Con Edison’s executives and by the 14,000 workers in the field were reflected in the successful restoration work. Later there will be investigations and reviews of performance as there should be. In the meantime, as this is written, the hard, house-by-house restoration work continues in the field.

Ross Sandler

Landmarks provides forum for accord and controversy during numerous hearings. On June 24, 2008, Landmarks heard testimony on eight potential City landmarks, as well as one historic district extension. According to spokesperson Lisi de Bourbon, Landmarks grouped the designation hearings on one day to demonstrate certain themes and priorities like post-war architecture, public libraries, and the Commission’s recent review of architecture in the West Village.

The proposed extension of Queens’ Douglaston Historic to encompass 22 more buildings proved controversial, with some area property owners vigorously opposing the plan. Council Member Tony Avella, who represents the district, testified that he supports designation, but stated that the proposal had generated “a real civil war” in the neighborhood and that ill will would remain long after the issue had been settled. In contrast, Midtown Manhattan’s 275 Madison Avenue building, a 1930s Art-Deco skyscraper designed by Kenneth Franzheim, received support from both its owners and preservationists.

The F. W. Devoe & Company Factory, built in 1882 by the firm of Kimball & Wisedale, exemplifies 19th Century industrial design. Currently in residential use , the building occupies a site in the far West Village close to the Hudson River and the former Gansevoort Market. In Harlem, the George Bruce and 125th Street Branches of the New York Public Library were both funded by Andrew Carnegie and designed by Carrere and Hastings and McKim, Mead & White, respectively. The Municipal Art Society endorsed the libraries’ designation and urged Landmarks to look at other buildings along the 125th Street corridor.

Abram and Ann Dissoway Cole House, a 1840s residence, adamantly opposed landmarking, claiming it amounted to condemnation by eminent domain without compensation. The owner’s attorney, Philip Rampulla, testified that the building’s original fabric had been extensively damaged in a 1999 fire, and a representative of Council Member Vincent Ignizio testified that while many buildings in southern Staten Island deserve designation “this is not one of them.” The owner intends to sell the property to a developer aspiring to build a mall at the site, lending urgency to preservationists’ calls for landmarking.

Landmarks has not yet set a date to vote on designations.

LPC: Douglaston Historic District Extension, Queens (LP-2301); 275 Madison Avenue Building, Manhattan (LP-2286); F.W. Devoe & Company Factory Building, 110 Horatio St., Manhattan (LP-2308); N.Y. Public Library, George Bruce Branch, 518 W. 125th St., Manhattan (LP-2304); N.Y. Public Library, 125th Street Branch, 224 E. 125th St., Manhattan (LP-2305); Dissoway Cole House, 4927 Arthur Kill Rd., Staten Island (LP-2310) (June 24, 2008).

Designations include Lord & Taylor store and Eberhard Faber Pencil Co. complex. On October 30, 2007, Landmarks voted unanimously to designate seven individual buildings and one new historic district.

In Manhattan, Landmarks designated the Lord & Taylor flagship store in Midtown, the Manhattan House in the Upper East Side, and two federal-era rowhouses in the Lower East Side. The Lord & Taylor store dates back to 1914 and is an example of the Italian Renaissance Revival style. 4 CityLand 111 (Aug. 15, 2007). At the hearing, Landmarks Chair Robert B. Tierney referred to it as “another landmark hidden in plain sight.” Commissioner Margery Perlmutter enthusiastically supported designation of the Manhattan House, a white-brick apartment building on East 66th Street, stating that the International-Style building set the standard for contemporary architecture. Landmarks also designated two federal-era rowhouses at 511 and 513 Grand Street in the Lower East Side. (more…)

The Morse Building, lower Manhattan; the Staten Island Savings Bank, S.I. Landmarks unanimously designated the two new individual landmarks on September 19, 2006. The crimson red and black brick terra cotta Morse Building, located at Nassau and Beekman Streets in lower Manhattan, was the city’s tallest building when constructed in 1880. Built by two nephews of Samuel Morse, the inventor of the electric telegraph, the building originally contained office space but was converted in 1980 to apartments.

In Staten Island, Landmarks designated the 1925-built Staten Island Savings Bank located on an angular lot at Water and Beach Streets in Stapleton. Designed by Delano & Aldrich, the building features a cast lead dome and a colonnaded portico angled dramatically to take advantage of the lot’s unique shape. Dolphin sconces, scalloped shells and knotted ropes mark the facade. (more…)

Photoplays theater built in 1914. The Claremont Theater building, located at 3320-3328 Broadway in Harlem, Manhattan, is one of the oldest structures in New York City constructed specifically for showing motion pictures, originally called “photoplays.” The 1914 theater was designed in the neo-Renaissance style and faced in white terra cotta and white glazed brick by architect Gaetano Ajello, best-known for his apartment buildings on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The building has an unusual arrangement with three distinct fronts, including an elaborately decorated clipped corner facade that served as the auditorium’s original entrance. In 1915, the theater’s entrance was prominently featured in a short film produced by Thomas Edison. Noting its well-preserved exterior and importance to the city’s cultural history, Landmarks unanimously voted to designate the Claremont on June 6, 2006.

Landmarks also unanimously approved the designation of the Mark W. Allen house in New West Brighton, Staten Island on June 13, 2006. The house, one of only a few remaining craftsman-style homes, was built in 1920-21 for Mark W. Allen, a prominent Staten Island politician. Landmarks noted that the house retains a high degree of original fabric. 3 CityLand 4 (May 15, 2006). (more…)