Penn Club designated

30 West 44th Street Image: CityLand

Beaux-Arts style building once housed Yale’s bachelor graduates,and is currently occupied by the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Club. On February 9, 2010, Landmarks voted unanimously to designate the former Yale Club at 30 West 44th Street as an individual City landmark. Marc Eidlitz & Son built the eleven-story Beaux-Arts style building in 1901. The firm of Tracy & Swartwout designed the structure to function as living, dining, and social … <Read More>


NYU wins variance for six story building on Wash. Sq.

NYU’s proposed Center for Academic and Spiritual Life at 58 Washington Square South. Image: Courtesy of Machado and Silvetti Associates.

NYU claimed that academic center required taller street wall and larger floor plates in order to integrate with neighboring Kimmel Center. New York University applied to BSA for a variance to construct a six-story building, to be called the Center for Academic and Spiritual Life, at 58 Washington Square South in Manhattan. The 12,650 sq.ft. … <Read More>


Curb cuts and parking amendments approved

Text amendment would introduce curb cut prohibitions and limit front yard parking spaces in certain residential districts. On February 24, 2010, the City Planning Commission approved, with modifications, the Department of City Planning’s Residential Streetscape Preservation text amendment. Planning proposed the City-wide amendment in response to community concerns about inappropriate curb cuts and front yard parking spaces in residential districts. Planning seeks to clarify parking requirements and preserve and enhance residential streetscapes.

The proposed amendment … <Read More>


Michael B. Gerrard Discusses His Career and the Future of Climate Change Regulation

Michael B. Gerrard, director of Columbia Law School’s Center for Climate Change Law, traces his passion for environmental protection back to growing up in Charleston, West Virginia, a city dominated by major chemical manufacturing companies like Union Carbide and DuPont. As a child, he lived on the banks of the Kanawha River, where large amounts of toxic chemicals had polluted the water and air.

After graduating from Columbia University, Gerrard worked for a local environmental … <Read More>


Westbeth complex considered

 

Westbeth Artist Housing complex at 463 West Street in Manhattan. Photo: LPC.

Building complex, dating from 19th century, formerly housed AT&T’s Bell Laboratories and was the first federally-subsidized artists’ colony. On January 12, 2010, Landmarks heard testimony on the possible designation of a building complex in the Far West Village, now known as Westbeth. Located on an entire block bounded by West, Bethune, Washington, and Bank Streets, Westbeth comprises five buildings built between 1861 … <Read More>


Court upsets Columbia’s eminent domain option

Property owners challenge ESDC’s authority to use eminent domain on behalf of Columbia. Looking to expand in West Harlem, Columbia University teamed up with the City’s Economic Development Corporation in 2001 to redevelop the area. Not long after, EDC issued a West Harlem Master Plan. The plan stated that West Harlem could be redeveloped through rezoning, and did not mention any blighted conditions in Manhattanville. Columbia began purchasing property in the area in 2002 for … <Read More>