The Gowanus Flushing Tunnel Pumping Station. Image Credit: NYC LPC

The buildings all hold a connection to the Gowanus Canal’s industrial history. On June 25, 2019, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to calendar five buildings in Gowanus section of Brooklyn for potential designation as individual landmarks. The five buildings – the Gowanus Flushing Tunnel Pumping Station and Gate House, the Somers Brothers Tinware Factory (later American Can Company), Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) Central Power Station Engine House, Montauk Paint Manufacturing Company Building and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) Rogers Memorial Building. All of the buildings hold a connection to the Gowanus Canal’s industrial history. (more…)

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center. Image Credit: NYC LPC

The six buildings are up for consideration in honor of the 50^th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. On May 14, 2019, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a calendaring hearing for five buildings in Manhattan and one building in Staten Island to consider for future designation. The six sites – the Gay Activists Alliance Firehouse, Women’s Liberation Center, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, the Caffe Cino, the James Baldwin Residence and the Audre Lorde Residence – all reflect some aspect of New York’s LGBT history. (more…)

Nos. 47 – 55 West 28th Street were the home of many sheet music publishers in the 1890s and 1900s. Image Credit: NYC LPC

Proposed buildings were home to prominent sheet music publishers in the late 1800s and early 1900s. On March 12, 2019, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to add five buildings on West 28^th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue to its calendar for consideration for landmark designation. The five buildings – 47 – 55 West 28^th Street – represent a time when the street was known as “Tin Pan Alley” due to the noise of all of the piano music from various sheet music publishers located on the block. (more…)

South Side of Bay Ridge Parkway in Brooklyn. Image Credit: LPC.

Historic district designation would ensure protections for the largely intact, over 100 year-old, block of limestone row houses.  On  March 26, 2019, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to calendar a proposed historic district in the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn. The Bay Ridge Parkway – Doctor’s Row Historic District would be comprised of 54 row houses built in the early 1900s on Bay Ridge Parkway between 4^th and 5^th avenues. Constructed in the Renaissance Revival along with elements of Colonial Revival styles, the intact rows’ high degree of architectural integrity and aesthetic consistency gives them a strong sense of place and distinguishes them in the neighborhood. (more…)

Map of Sunset Park with the four proposed historic districts outlined in red. Image Credit: LPC.

Landmarks research staff spent several years researching the area, surveying and documenting over 4,000 buildings. On January 22, 2019, the Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously voted to add to its calendar four areas of Sunset Park, Brooklyn for historic district designation. The proposals were presented to the Commission following years of extensive survey and analysis by the Landmarks research staff after a request for evaluation of the area from Sunset Park’s Landmarks Committee in 2014. The Sunset Park Landmarks Committee was established in 2012 by area residents and homeowners who were concerned with redevelopment changing the largely rowhouse-character of the area. To read CityLand coverage on the Committee’s efforts in building community support for designation in its early stages, click here. (more…)