Council Member Brad Lander on Current Initiatives Affecting Land Use in the City

Council Member Brad Lander, chair of the City Council’s Landmarks, Public Siting & Maritime Uses Subcommittee, draws from his experience as a public policy advocate when executing his duties.

Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, Lander in 1991 earned a liberal arts degree from the University of Chicago. He then earned a master’s degree in Social Anthropology at the University College London in the United Kingdom, where he worked with community groups to research how a … <Read More>


Interior of Modernist bank building landmarked

Image: Courtesy LPC

First- and second-floor interiors of four-story Manufacturers Trust Company Building designated. On February 15, 2011, Landmarks designated, as an interior landmark, the first two floors of the Manufacturers Trust Company Building at 510 Fifth Avenue in Midtown, Manhattan. Landmarks designated the former bank building’s fourstory glass and aluminum exterior as an individual City landmark in 1997. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designed the Modernist structure, which opened as a bank in 1954, … <Read More>


Alterations to rowhouses near High Line considered

Landmarks considers proposed rooftop addition and renovations to four rowhouses at 21 – 27 Ninth Ave. in Manhattan. Photo: CityLand.

Community board and preservation groups supported rowhouses’ facade alterations but not the proposed rooftop addition. On November 10, 2009, Landmarks heard testimony on Aurora Capital Associates’ redevelopment proposal for four, three-story Greek Revival rowhouses at 21 through 27 Ninth Avenue in the Gansevoort Market Historic District. The proposal included restoring the 19th century buildings’ red-brick … <Read More>


Williamsburg residential rowhouse district designated

Fillmore Place Historic District. Image: LPC.

Built as housing for working-class waterfront laborers, neighborhood remains remarkably intact. Landmarks designated the Fillmore Place Historic District on May 12, 2009. The district, primarily located on Fillmore Place between Driggs Avenue and Roebling Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was privately developed during a period of rapid growth in Williamsburg during the 1850s. Although different developers likely had hands in Fillmore Place, the 29 rowhouses maintain cohesiveness in scale and … <Read More>


Ross Moskowitz Talks About His Career and Current Land Use Issues

Ross Moskowitz’s legal career, focused on land use and real estate development, has provided him with the chance to work on both sides of the public/private partnerships used to promote the City’s economic development. This experience has served him well in leading the Real Estate Group at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP.

When asked how he became interested in land use and development, Moskowitz explained that after graduating from New York Law School he … <Read More>


Space added for hotel and retail uses on Crosby St

Subcellar, cellar, and first floor of 11-story hotel may be used for hotel and retail uses. On January 28, 2009, the City Council approved Crosby Street Hotel LLC’s special permit application requesting an additional 19,116sq.ft. for hotel and retail uses within an 11-story hotel at 79 Crosby Street in SoHo, Manhattan. The surrounding neighborhood is mostly three- to seven-story buildings and loft buildings with ground floor retail.

Normally prohibited below the floor level of the … <Read More>