Work will restore features removed since i ts 1899-1910 construction. Landmarks issued a binding report approving an $18.9 million renovation of the Lion House at the Bronx Zoo, a designated City landmark since 2000, which was built in 1899-1910 and designed by Heins & La Farge.

The Department of Design & Construction proposed substantial repair work, including restoration of the carved terra cotta, copper roofing, limestone and brick masonry and existing parapets. To return the Lion House to its original appearance, DDC proposed new chimneys, skylights, doors and a studio cage, all to mirror historic plans. Alterations would include construction of a tall retaining wall, replacement of entry stairs with a gradual ramp, relocation of two lion sculptures, and the addition of new enlarged windows, doors and sculptures.

Extensive renovations approved for Sara Delano Roosevelt House. At the October 26, 2004 Landmarks hearing, Hunter College gained approval of its extensive plans to restore and preserve the Sara Delano Roosevelt Memorial House, designated in 1973 and located at 47-49 East 65th Street. Sara Delano Roosevelt was the mother of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States, who lived in the house with his wife, Eleanor, and convalesced there from polio in 1921-1922.

The proposed changes include modifying the fence, installing a barrier- free access chairlift, installing rooftop mechanical equipment and rooftop and rear yard additions .

Variance will allow 11 new dwellings and ground floor commercial in a manufacturing zone. BSA approved a use variance, permitting a five-story residential development with ground floor commercial on an M1-1 zoned lot with unobstructed views of lower Manhattan at the corner of Columbia and Congress Streets in Brooklyn.

When the project site, two lots totaling 4,773 sq.ft., was purchased by the variance applicants, Isaac, Jacqueline, and Maurice Douek, it contained two vacant four -story residential buildings. Initially intending to rehabilitate the buildings, the applicants let both buildings sit vacant for several years. In 1992, after Buildings issued an unsafe determination, the buildings were demolished, the foundation walls retained, and the entire lot paved.

Lapsed 1980 variance re-instated and parking spaces increased in Upper East Side apartment. BSA renewed a lapsed variance for the owners of a 116-unit co-op at 1199 Park Avenue at the comer of East 94th Street. The original variance, which allowed the public lease of excess parking spaces not utilized by the buildings’ tenants, lapsed in 1980.

The applicants stated that, in 1980 at the time of the variance’s expiration, 1199 Park Avenue was being converted to a co-op and the required renewal was not conveyed to the new owners. In 1993, a certificate of occupancy was issued permitting only 59 spaces. When a new parking operator, Majestic Car Park, LLC, took over the garage, it noticed a discrepancy and argued that the square footage of the garage permitted 74 spaces.

Four-story building will have 27 new dwellings. BSA approved a use variance, allowing the new construction of a four-story, 27-unit residential building with 14 underground parking spaces in an Ml-2 zoning district on the corner of North 7th and Berry Streets in Williamsburg. The building site, comprising two lots totaling 15,840 sq.ft., contains a former garage and a vacant one-story structure previously used as a food processing facility.

The original application, which sought a six-story 43-unit building, was reduced and redesigned to address Brooklyn Community Board 1’s concern that the proposed structure would be bulkier than neighboring buildings. Even with the reduction, the Community Board still opposed the development.

Private company to convert City building to 296-person senior continuum care center. Health & Hospitals Corporation, Citywide Administrative Services and the Margaret Tietz Nursing and Rehabilitation Center sought the disposition of City-owned land, a special permit to exceed a nursing home bed limit, and an exception to height and setback to permit the Skyline Commons project, a 296- person senior continuum care facility within the existing Queens Hospital Center in Jamaica Queens.

Queens Hospital Center, owned by the City and operated by HHC, has ten buildings totaling 848,934 sq. ft. on a campus bounded by Grand Central Parkway, Parsons, Goethals, 82nd Drive and 161st and 164th Streets. All ten buildings are used for hospital and administrative services, with no dedicated senior facilities.