Signs requested by MetroTech BID and local businesses. Landmarks issued a binding report approving MetroTech BID’s proposal to install “way finding signage” throughout downtown Brooklyn. The proposal developed more than three years ago from a general consensus among MetroTech and downtown Brooklyn business groups that there was a lack of signage in downtown Brooklyn to assist pedestrians in finding key destinations. Initially using its own funds, and later obtaining capital funding from Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and the City Council, MetroTech is now working with the Economic Development Corporation to further its proposal.

MetroTech’s plan to install kiosks and pole-mounted signs throughout downtown Brooklyn impacted six historic districts: Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn Heights, Clinton Hill, Cobble Hill, Fort Greene, and Fulton Ferry. The kiosks will be approximately sevenfeet tall and two-feet wide and placed at major pedestrian traffic locations, such as subway and bus stops. They will display a map directory on one side and a detailed, area-wide map on the other. Directional signs, approximately two-feet square, will be mounted on poles approximately 11-feet tall and will complete the signage system by providing directions to specific locations. (more…)

Full Council approved zoning amendment granting special authority to Planning Commission Chair. On June 23, 2005, the City Council unanimously approved an amendment to the zoning resolution allowing the Chair of the Planning Commission to authorize the use of illuminated signs in lots occupied by a landmark. The amended zoning resolution applied only to the Fifth Avenue Subdistrict of the Special Midtown District, and impacts the New York Public Library, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and St. Thomas Church in addition to Rockefeller Center. Under the approved text, Landmarks must approve the signs before the Commission’s Chair can approve.

Rockefeller Center sought to place 16 illuminated signs at four locations: the entrance to Channel Gardens, Atlas Court, and two internal locations in Rockefeller Plaza. The signs would inform visitors of the soon-to-be-reopened observation roof on the 67th, 69th and 70th floors of 30 Rockefeller Plaza and upcoming Plaza events. Retail advertising would be prohibited. The kiosks would replicate the kiosks that were located in Rockefeller Plaza until the early 1980’s when the observation roof was closed. (more…)

Image Credit: NYC Public Design Commission.

Butler has been serving the Public Design Commission in various roles for 15 years. On December 16, 2020, Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Keri Butler as the Acting Executive Director of the Public Design Commission (PDC). The Public Design Commission serves as the City’s design review agency. The Commission oversees the design of permanent structures, landscape architecture and art proposed on City-owned property, and considers the appropriateness of the design, the materials used, how the space can be maintained and how a design best serves the public. Butler will be taking over for Justin Garrett Moore, who had been the Executive Director of the Commission for the past five years. (more…)

Kenseth Armstead and Deborah Marton (pictured above) are the two new members of the NYC Public Design Commission. Image Credit: NYC Public Design Commission

Kenseth Armstead and Deborah Marton join the eleven member board. On November 5, 2020 Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed two new members, Deborah Matron and Kenseth Armstead, to the Public Design Commission. Both were approved by an overwhelming majority of the City Council. (more…)

Rendering of the new building at171 Calyer Street, with a red line indicating the change in height from the previous proposal. Image Credit: NYC LPC

Landmarks approved the demolition and new construction on the condition that applicants fine-tune design details with the Commission. On September 15, 2020, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved a certificate of appropriateness for the demolition and construction of a new commercial building at 171 Calyer Street, in the Greenpoint Historic District of Brooklyn. (more…)