Variance approved for Mill Basin synagogue

Community opponents raised issues of parking and building height. Sephardic Center of Mill Basin proposed to construct a new 1 0,800 square-foot, two-story synagogue to replace its 20-year old, 6,800-squarefoot synagogue on the corner of Strickland and Mill Avenues in Mill Basin, Brooklyn. As proposed, the new synagogue would exceed the permitted floor area by 5,384 sq.ft., exceed the district’s permitted height by seven feet and fail to provide sufficient parking.

The Center claimed that … <Read More>


Signs ok’ed for Rockefeller Center’s new observation deck

Full Council approved zoning amendment granting special authority to Planning Commission Chair. On June 23, 2005, the City Council unanimously approved an amendment to the zoning resolution allowing the Chair of the Planning Commission to authorize the use of illuminated signs in lots occupied by a landmark. The amended zoning resolution applied only to the Fifth Avenue Subdistrict of the Special Midtown District, and impacts the New York Public Library, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and St. … <Read More>


Lincoln Center to enliven West 65th

Changes include street level restaurants and retail, new film center, and expansion of Juilliard and Alice Tully Hall. Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts sought approval for the large-scale redesign by New York firms Diller Scofidio+Renfro and Fox and Fowle Architects of its West 65th Street frontage, requiring an amendment to the zoning text and map and acquisition of an easement over City property.

Under the plan, Lincoln Center’s three parking and loading entrances and … <Read More>


Crawford Clothes Building: designation denied

Landmarks threatens to abandon process of contacting the owner prior to designation. By a unanimous vote on May 17, 2005, Landmarks refused to designate the Crawford Clothes Building at University Place and West 14th Street, which was considered one of the earliest noteworthy designs of New York City architect Morris Lapidus. The three-story brick and metal retail structure had included a glass center tower that revealed the retail activity on each level, but which the … <Read More>


Girls school okayed for private catering business

The cellar of the Bnos Menachem school to house a private onsite catering service and events. Bnos Menachem is a not-for-profit girls school with pre-school to seventh grade classes located in a residentially- zoned area of Crown Heights, Brooklyn. It sought a variance from BSA to allow a private, for-profit catering company, Ragzag, Inc., to operate from the school’s cellar. The caterer would operate after school hours and provide services to the school and the … <Read More>