Designation denied on one B.F.Goodrich building

B.F. Goodrich Company Building at 225 West 57th Street in Manhattan. Photo: LPC.

Developer supported designation of one building but opposed designation of related structure. On November 10, 2009, Landmarks voted to designate the B.F. Goodrich Company Building at 1780 Broadway as an individual City landmark, but not its sister building at 225 West 57th Street. Howard Van Doren Shaw designed and built both structures in 1909, using elements from the Chicago School and Vienna … <Read More>


Robin Stout on the Future of the Moynihan Station Project

I n 2005, Robin Stout was appointed President of the Moynihan Station Development Corporation, the Empire State Development Corporation’s subsidiary charged with transforming the James A. Farley Post Office Building into a new train hall named for the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Stout, a Columbia Law School graduate, spent nine years at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP before joining the ESDC as Senior Counsel to the 42nd Street Development Project in 1990. Transforming … <Read More>


Council Member Jessica Lappin on Landmarks, Public Siting, and Site Safety

Council Member Jessica Lappin represents Community District 5 in Manhattan, which includes parts of Midtown and the Upper East Side. She also chairs the Council’s Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Siting & Maritime Uses. A New York native and graduate of Stuyvesant High School and Georgetown University, Lappin was raised in a landmarked house in Gramercy Park. Well-regarded by preservation advocates, she has garnered accolades from the Friends of the Upper East Side and the Historic … <Read More>


DOS garage and salt shed plan opposed by community

Controversial proposal would consolidate three Community District sanitation garages and add salt shed tower. On August 27, 2008, the City Planning Commission heard testimony on the Department of Sanitation’s plan to build a 118-ft. tall service and maintenance garage and 30- 75-ft. tall salt shed in SoHo, Manhattan, just east of the Holland Tunnel. Sanitation’s proposal is a response to the Hudson River Park Act of 1998, which requires Sanitation to vacate Gansevoort peninsula, the … <Read More>


Landmarks devotes meeting to potential designations

Landmarks provides forum for accord and controversy during numerous hearings. On June 24, 2008, Landmarks heard testimony on eight potential City landmarks, as well as one historic district extension. According to spokesperson Lisi de Bourbon, Landmarks grouped the designation hearings on one day to demonstrate certain themes and priorities like post-war architecture, public libraries, and the Commission’s recent review of architecture in the West Village.

The proposed extension of Queens’ Douglaston Historic to encompass 22 … <Read More>


Chase Plaza, Silver Towers get hearing

Chase Manhattan Plaza and NYU’s Silver Towers considered as City Landmarks. On June 24, 2008, Landmarks heard testimony on the potential designation of two iconic modernist sites, 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza in Lower Manhattan, and University Village in Greenwich Village.

Chase Plaza includes a tower office building, designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore Owings and Merrill, and a plaza, featuring a sunken Japanese rock garden and a sculpture by Jean Dubuffet. The entire complex occupies … <Read More>