Graffiti has become much more than spray-painted tags and quickly disappearing pieces on train cars and underpasses. In some quarters it is now high art. Highly prized are works by Shepard Fairey, the artist behind the “Hope” poster Fairey made for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, Jean-Michel Basquiat, who began as a graffiti artist and whose works today command huge prices, and Banksy, whose street works are carefully preserved.  These dramatic changes in the nature and importance of graffiti have created major shifts in and problems for artists and intellectual property law, as well as for property owners. The tensions are very evident in the most recent judicial opinions in the dispute between artists who used to paint at 5Pointz in Long Island City in Queens and the developers who destroyed the highly decorated buildings for construction of two large apartment buildings which are now under construction. (more…)

Twin adjoining buildings at 827 and 831 Broadway, Image LPC.

Attorney for owner threatened to seek demolition through a hardship application should landmarks designate the property and not permit a visible addition. At its meeting on October 17, 2017, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing on the possible individual landmarks designation of two twin adjoining buildings at 827 and 831 Broadway. Completed in 1867, the buildings were designed by architect Griffith Thomas for tobacco-company heir Pierre Lorillard in an Italian palazzi-inspired design. Built in marble with cast-iron piers and columns, the buildings represent a transitional period in Griffith’s career, before he fully embraced the use of cast iron. (more…)

Harlem African Burial Ground Memorial Rendering. Image Credit: Harlem African Burial Ground Task Force Pitch Book.

The Harlem African Burial Ground, affordable housing, and commercial space will replace the 126th Street Bus Depot. On September 27, 2017, City Council approved the 126th Street Bus Depot redevelopment by a vote of 42-0. The land use application, by NYC Economic Development Corporation, includes a zoning map amendment, zoning text amendment, city map change, and future disposition of city-owned property. This action will facilitate the development of affordable housing, commercial space, and the Harlem African Burial Ground Memorial. For CityLand’s coverage on the prior stages of the project’s ULURP process, click here. (more…)

“The Beach House” Fire House at 257 Beach 116 Street, Rockaway Park. Image credit: FDNY

The City Planning Commission approved the relocation of a Rockaway Park FDNY station. On August 23, 2017, the New York City Planning Commission issued a favorable report on the FDNY’s application to purchase property located at 116-11 Beach Channel Drive to construct a new firehouse. Engine 268/Ladder 137 of the New York City Fire Department currently operates at 257 Beach 116th Street in Rockaway Park, Queens. The three-story, 10,098-square-foot building was built in 1913 by Frank J. Helmie in the Colonial Revival style. After damage caused by Hurricane Sandy, the FDNY determined that the building was past its useful life as a firehouse. In 2013, the building received landmark status. (more…)

New York Public Library Reading Room. Image Credit: NYPL.

UPDATE: Landmarks voted to designate the interior at its meeting August 8, 2017. Commissioner Adi Shamir-Baron spoke of the “rare condition of two block’s worth of interior space,” with 50-foor ceilings. She said the interiors remind us of the meaning of civic space, as a place that “honors and elevates the spirit of the individual and the collective.”

Chair Meenakshi Srinivasan stated that designation as an imperative step in Landmarks’ mission, that would preserve and protect an important part of one of the “City’s finest public civic institutions.” She thanked the New York Public Library’s leadership for their stewardship of the space.

Commissioners voted unanimously to designate the individual landmark.

Original article below:

If designated, reading and catalog rooms would join New York Public Library Building exterior, and Main Lobby and other interiors, as City landmarks. On June 6, 2016, Landmarks voted to add the Main Reading and Catalog Room of the at 476 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan to its calendar, officially commencing the process for designation as a potential interior City landmark. The exterior of the building, as well as the Main Lobby, third floor central hall, and two staircases, are individual and interior landmarks already. The firm of Carrere & Hastings won an architectural competition to design the Library in 1897, with a Beaux-Arts plan. The library opened to the public in 1911.

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