Community Block Parties

Local Community Boards are an integral part of the approval process to close down a City street for a block party. As the cold, gray dreariness of winter in New York City subsides and the summer weather brings the City streets back to life, block party season is right around the corner. Throughout the streets of New York City, thousands of street related-events are held annually. In the interests of ensuring safety and maintaining … <Read More>


BSA Grants Appeal for Caretaker Apartment in Sign Painting Shop

Sign Painting Shop in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn was granted an appeal to include a caretaker’s apartment within the property. The owners of 1109 Metropolitan Avenue in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn are planning to convert the property into the Sign Painting Shop, which will include a proposed caretaker apartment as an accessory use. On May 4, 2015, Department of Buildings (“Buildings”) determined that the proposed caretaker apartment was not permitted in the manufacturing zoning district. On December … <Read More>


Mixed-Use Development to Replace Pfizer Factory Site

A former Pfizer factory site in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn will be redeveloped into 1,146 housing units, 62,810 square feet of commercial space, 26,000 square feet of publicly accessible open space, and 404 parking spaces. On September 19, 2017, the City Planning Commission issued a favorable report on land use applications by Harrison Realty LLC. The land use applications include: (1) a zoning map amendment to change the current manufacturing district into a residential district with <Read More>


BSA Permits Mixed-Use Building in Residential Zone

Board found the applicant had a vested right to complete construction of the building as designed.  On June 2, 2015 the Board of Standards and Appeals voted to permit 250 Manhattan LLC to continue constructing a six-story mixed commercial and residential building at 250 Manhattan Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  The building will contain eight dwelling units and commercial space totaling 7,613 square feet of floor area.


New Preschool Planned for Vacant Fillmore Place Lot

Applicants say wood in proposed façade would mirror the tone of the historic district’s primarily masonry fabric in contemporary language. On July 8, 2014, the Landmarks Preservation Commission, in its first meeting headed by new Chair Meenakshi Srinivasan, considered a proposal for a new building on a vacant lot at 2 Fillmore Place, at the corner of Driggs Avenue, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The site lies in the Fillmore Place Historic District, a … <Read More>


Planning a Sustainable NYC: Howard Slatkin, Director of Sustainability, NYC Department of City Planning

Howard Slatkin, the director of sustainability for the New York City Department of City Planning, was a frequent visitor to NYC while growing up in New Jersey, but it was not until he moved to the City after studying history at Brown University, that he became interested in architecture and the social life of places. He earned a master’s degree in urban planning at Columbia University in 2000. At that time the concept of sustainability, … <Read More>