Image Credit: Department of Buildings
The map provides a 12-month snapshot of building permits, complaints, inspections, violations, and accident reports for every property in the city. On March 8, 2019, Buildings released the DOB Buildings Profiles Map, a new, interactive map that provides insight into Buildings’ interactions with the nearly 1.1 million buildings and 45,000 active construction sites it regulates. The map is Buildings’ latest tool in a series of interactive dashboards, reports, and data tools to give the public information about the City’s buildings and construction sites. The map’s information will allow the user to better understand the recent movement in the construction industry and DOB compliance activities in the City. (more…)
Rendering of 524-536 Halsey Street in Brooklyn. Image Credit: The Brooklyn Company/LPC.
The new plans address many concerns that Landmarks and community members had with the previously approved plans. On January 8, 2018, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to approve new plans for a set of 20th century utilitarian buildings at 524-536 Halsey Street in the Bedford Stuyvesant/Expanded Stuyvesant Heights Historic District in Brooklyn. Both buildings were most recently used as garages. One building is a three-story Queen Anne style which the applicant proposes to rehabilitate and alter for residential uses. The other is currently a one-story garage that would be demolished and replaced with a four story building, also used for residences. The application came just one and a half years after Landmarks had approved the last owner’s plans for the buildings, despite opposition from area residents and the Community Board about the project’s scale and design. To read CityLand’s coverage of the hearings on the previous plans, click here. (more…)
City Council’s new legislation seeks to combat overcrowded New York City Schools through new efficient methods in choosing new school building projects. On September 12, 2018, the City Council announced it will require the School Construction Authority to disclose how it evaluates the location and time frame of new schools being built. City Council Member Ben Kallos authored the measure, Introduction 729, in response to overcrowding in New York City public elementary and middle schools and the City’s plans to build fewer school seats. This legislation intends to make the Department of Education and the School Construction Authority more transparent in their decisions, and create accountability. (more…)
NYC HPD
Request for Qualifications will be used to identify potential buyers who will preserve and maintain affordability. On April 5, 2018, Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Maria Torres-Springer announced the release of a Request for Qualifications to establish a list of Qualified Preservation Buyers. The Request for Qualifications will identify qualified buyers to purchase and rehabilitate buildings in the City. It will be used as a resource to create a list for potential sellers to find buyers who will maintain the affordable units created in purchased buildings. (more…)
Webber Packing House. Image Credit: LPC.
Potential individual landmarks added to the Commission’s calendar include two schools and a former meat packing plant. On November 14, 2017, Landmarks voted to add three items in East Harlem to its calendar for consideration as individual City landmarks. The three buildings are: The Richard Webber Harlem Parking House, at 207 East 109th Street; the former Public School 109, at 215 East 99th Street; and the former Benjamin Franklin High School, at 260 Pleasant Avenue. The identification of the properties were done through a survey undertaken as part of a comprehensive plan to bring affordable housing and other public benefits to East Harlem. (more…)
