Historic Buildings Identified as Potential Landmarks ahead of East Harlem Rezoning

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 <Read More>


Strong Community Support Voiced for Twin Commercial Buildings which Housed Studio of de Kooning, and other Post-WWII Artists

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 … <Read More>


Twin 19th-Century Buildings Associated with Abstract Expressionism to be Considered as Landmark

Twin 1867 structures served as home for Willem de Kooning, as well others associated with Abstract Expressionism. The Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to add two buildings to its calendar for consideration as an individual City landmark at its meeting on September 19th, 2017. The significance of the twin buildings, collectively labeled the 827-831 Broadway Buildings, largely derives from their association with Abstract Expressionist artists in post-World War II-era, particularly Willem de Kooning. The buildings … <Read More>


City’s Adult Use Zoning Rules Upheld

The Court of Appeals, after 22 years of litigation, upheld the City’s adult use zoning rules and dismissed the complaint challenging the rules. In 1994 the City’s Department of City Planning completed a study of sexually focused businesses: adult video and bookstores, adult live or movie theaters, and topless or nude bars. The study led to the passage in 1995 of a zoning amendment barring adult establishments from residential and most commercial and manufacturing … <Read More>


Cathedral of St. John the Divine and Six Auxiliary Buildings Collectively Designated an Individual Landmark

Unfinished cathedral, the largest in the world, designated a landmark for second time. On February 21, 2017, Landmarks commissioners voted to designate the St. John the Divine Cathedral and Close an individual City landmark. The cathedral, the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, is the largest church in the United States, and the largest cathedral in the world. It stands at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue, in Manhattan’s Morningside Heights neighborhood.

The Landmarks … <Read More>


Wide Support for Landmarking of St. John the Divine Complex

Landmark site would include six associated buildings, as well as massive Episcopal cathedral. Landmarks held a hearing on the potential designation of St. John the Divine and the Cathedral Close at its meeting on December 6, 2016. Landmarks previously designated the Cathedral an individual City landmark in 2003, but the designation was overturned by the City Council. Council Members wished to see a designation that included surrounding properties, rather than just the footprint of the … <Read More>