Potential Historic District Supported by Elected Officials and Community Boards

 

Representatives and members of the Park Avenue Christian Church petitioned Landmarks to ensure that designation would not impede planned development. On February 11, 2014, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing on the potential designation of the Park Avenue Historic District, comprising 68 buildings in Manhattan’s Upper East Side.  The area is characterized by a predominance of early-20th century high-rise apartment buildings, as well as some low rise dwellings, individual mansions, institutional buildings, and … <Read More>


Emergency Demolition May Be Necessary for City-Owned Individual Landmark

Landmarks urged DOB and DCAS to look at all possible alternatives before resorting to demolition. On December 17, 2013, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing for the application for an advisory report to demolish the individually landmarked Public School 31, located at 425 Grand Concourse in the Bronx. The Collegiate Gothic-style building was designed by C.B.J. Snyder and is currently owned by the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, which assumed possession of the … <Read More>


Chairman Proud of Landmarks Commission Accomplishments

Last week CityLand published a Guest Commentary from Steven Spinola, President of REBNY.  Robert B. Tierney, Chairman of the Landmarks Preservation Commission submitted this commentary in response.

The Landmarks Law, enacted in 1965, has been responsive to New Yorkers’ demand that their historic neighborhoods be preserved. The architecturally and historically distinctive streetscapes found in all five boroughs reflect more than 300 years of growth, and play an integral role in our City’s economic well-being.


Proposed Reforms to Improve the Landmarks Preservation Commission

The Landmarks Law, enacted in 1965 to preserve the city’s architectural, historical and cultural resources, contains few standards about what merits designation and few rules governing the process.  This has resulted in broad brush designations that are of questionable significance and that are impeding the City’s larger planning, economic development, and housing efforts.  It is time to amend the Landmarks Law to bring designations more in line with other city policies, provide more timely information … <Read More>


City Planning Sends Greenpoint Waterfront Developments Proposals to the Council

Large Greenpoint Developments, if approved, would produce over 1,400 housing units. On October 30, 2013, the City Planning Commission unanimously voted to approve two major mixed-use developments in Greenpoint, Brooklyn: Greenpoint Landing and 77 Commercial Street. Both projects would allow the City to fulfill commitments to affordable housing and public open space that it made during the 2005 Greenpoint-Williamsburg Rezoning. The 2005 Rezoning of nearly 200 blocks authorized the transformation of Greenpoint’s low-density manufacturing … <Read More>


New Plan Proposed for Partially-Constructed Building

New design would alter massing to use property for residential use instead of a hotel. On November 19, 2013, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing on a new proposal for a through-block lot at 25 Great Jones Street in the NoHo Historic District Extension, with the other façade facing Bond Street. The lot is currently occupied by a partially constructed thirteen-story structure that was permitted before the designation process for the extension began. … <Read More>