Proposed Special Hudson Square District Begins Review

Trinity Church proposed that 18 blocks be rezoned to allow residential uses and accommodate the Church’s future development project near Duarte Square. On August 20, 2012, the City Planning Commission certified Trinity Church’s proposal to create the Special Hudson Square District in Manhattan. The Special District would include 18 blocks generally bounded by West Houston and Canal Streets, Avenue of the Americas, and Greenwich Street. Trinity Church controls approximately 39 percent of the lot … <Read More>


Rainbow Room Enters Landmark Review Process

Currently shuttered nightclub and restaurant venue on top of Rockefeller Plaza calendared for public hearing in September 2012. On August 14, 2012, Landmarks took the first step to consider designating the Rainbow Room on the 65th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza as an interior landmark. The Rainbow Room has been closed since 2009, when Tishman Speyer Properties, the owner of the building, evicted Cipriani Restaurants from the space.

The Rainbow Room opened in 1934, … <Read More>


City Planning’s Carol Samol on Redevelopment in the Bronx and Reforming the City’s Land Use Review Process

As director of the Department of City Planning’s Bronx Office, Carol Samol uses zoning tools to promote sustainable economic development in the Bronx. She has also participated as a leader in a broader City effort to reform the City’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure’s pre-certification process.

Journey to the Bronx. Samol grew up in the upper Ohio Valley near Wheeling, West Virginia and studied English at Berea College, a small liberal arts college in Kentucky. … <Read More>


Large Rezoning in Queens Awaits City Council Review

Contextual rezoning would impact 229 blocks south of Forest Park in Woodhaven and Richmond Hill. On May 23, 2012, the City Planning Commission approved the Department of City Planning’s Woodhaven – Richmond Hill Rezoning proposal. The contextual rezoning would impact 229 blocks along Jamaica and Atlantic Avenues south of Forest Park in Queens. The portion of Woodhaven impacted by the plan is generally bounded by Park Lane South to the north, Jamaica and … <Read More>


Rezonings in Bed-Stuy and Harlem Begin Review Process

City Planning Commission certified 140-block Bed-Stuy North Rezoning and 90-block West Harlem Rezoning: included in the Brooklyn proposal is a text amendment that would also apply Citywide and to areas of the Bronx. At City Planning Commission’s review session on May 7, 2012, the Commission certified the Department of City Planning’s contextual rezoning proposal for the northern half of Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. The Bedford-Stuyvesant North Rezoning plan would impact a 140-block area generally bounded … <Read More>


Rudin’s St. Vincent’s project completes public review

After City Council modifications, Rudin returned to Landmarks for approval to enlarge and reuse Reiss Pavilion. On March 28, 2012, the City Council modified the Rudin Management Company’s plan to redevelop the former St. Vincent’s Hospital Complex on Seventh Avenue in the Greenwich Village Historic District. The modified mixed-use residential project includes a new residential tower along Seventh Avenue, five townhouses along West 11th Street, and the preservation of the Reiss Pavilion on … <Read More>