Highbridge recreation facility joins previously-designated water tower. On August 14, 2007, Landmarks voted to designate the Highbridge Play Center and Pool in upper Manhattan as an individual City landmark. The Play Center, which opened in 1936 and features an Olympic-sized swimming pool, became the seventh WPA-funded swimming pool built under Parks Commissioner Robert Moses’ auspices to be designated. Landmarks heard testimony on the Highbridge Play Center, along with several others, on January 31, 2007. 4 … <Read More>
Landmarks allows 15-story bldg. in Ladies’ Mile historic dist.
Karl Fischer-designed, through-block building similar to proposal previously approved. At its August 7, 2007 hearing, Landmarks voted to grant a permit to 42 West 18th Street Realty Corp. for the construction of a new residential and commercial building on a vacant lot at 38 West 18th Street and rooftop additions to buildings at 40 and 42 West 18th Street within the Ladies’ Mile Historic District. The plan calls for preserving the facades of the two … <Read More>
Six-story building approved for seaport historic district
Residential building with ground floor retail to be built near Brooklyn Bridge. Landmarks issued a permit for a six-story apartment building in Lower Manhattan’s South Street Seaport Historic District on August 14, 2007. The building, designed by Morris Adjmi Architects, will feature an eight-story facade facing Front Street, and a six-story facade on Dover Street, with a one-story set back penthouse. According to the architects, zinc panels will evoke the feel of brick, the dominant … <Read More>
Chelsea’s former Maritime Union to be 316-room hotel
Unique construction plan of 1964 building created hardship. BSA approved the plan by Hampshire Hotels and Resorts to convert the 162,123-square-foot former National Maritime Union building, located along West 17th and West 16th Streets near Ninth Avenue in Chelsea, into a 316-room hotel. The existing building, built under a 1964 variance approval, most recently housed a transitional youth shelter run by the Covenant House.
Located on an odd-shaped, 11- sided lot, the existing building contains … <Read More>
BSA grants permit to controversial health care facility
Opposition included FDNY, S.I. Boro. Pres., Council member and Community Board. On August 14, 2007, BSA granted a special permit to Gregory Montalbano, allowing proconstruction to move forward for a two-story, 5,565-square-foot orthopedics doctors’ office at 82 Lamberts Lane in Staten Island. The site’s residential zoning limited medical offices to 1,500 sq.ft. absent BSA approval. The two-story facility would employ eight people and operate on weekdays between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Montalbano would demolish … <Read More>
BSA affirms DOB policy on roof cell phone antennas
Vallone and Astoria residents argued that DOB lacked authority to grant cell phone equipment permits. In 2005, Omnipoint Communications received a Department of Buildings permit to install cellular phone antennas and equipment cabinets on the roof of an Astoria, Queens building. Council Member Peter F. Vallone Jr. and Astoria residents appealed the permit to BSA, arguing that Buildings lacked the authority to approve the cell phone equipment. According to Vallone, approval required a special permit … <Read More>