
Final Manhattan Avenue Historic District. Image: LPC.
Manhattan Avenue historic district to encompass 40 buildings. Landmarks unanimously designated the Manhattan Avenue Historic District, a 40-building district that encompasses several sets of row houses built between 1886 and 1889 on West 105th and West 106th Streets and Manhattan Avenue. Included among the buildings are row houses designed by Charles Pierrepont Gilbert, who is also noted for designs of 20 houses within the Park Slope Historic District and a mansion for F.W. Woolworth. The district encompasses an array of architectural styles, including Gothic, Queen Anne and Romanesque.
In voting to approve, Commissioner Margery Perlmutter remarked on the consistency of the buildings’ designs, calling it “unusual for the Upper West Side” and saying its streets feel more like Brooklyn’s. (more…)

The West Park Presbyterian Church. Image Credit: NYC LPC.
Met with both strong support and staunch opposition, a Manhattan church’s hardship application would allow the landmarked building to be demolished. On June 14, 2022, the Landmark Preservation Commission held a public hearing to discuss the future of Individual Landmark West Park Presbyterian Church, located on 165 86th Street in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The West Park Administrative Commission has applied for a Certificate of Appropriateness to demolish the church building on the grounds of hardship. (more…)

Proposed Rendering of 361 Central Park West Image Credit: Landmarks
Upper West Side community weary on rooftop addition and removal of stained glass windows. On March 3, 2020, the Landmarks Preservation Commission heard an application by the Children’s Museum of Manhattan for a Certificate of Appropriateness regarding 361 Central Park West, a Beaux Arts classical style church overlooking Central Park. The building is located on the northwest corner of Central Park West and 96th Street in Manhattan. Approval of the application would permit adaptive reuse of the building by facilitating roof additions, window replacements, alterations to entrances, door replacements, signage installation and the excavation of the cellar.
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200 Amsterdam Avenue Rendering Image Credit: SJP Properties
Advocates applaud decision while developers find decision deeply flawed. On February 15, 2020, the Committee for Environmentally Sound Development and the Municipal Art Society of New York, won an Article 78 case regarding the construction of a 668 foot, 52-story condominium building located at 200 Amsterdam Avenue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. New York County Supreme Court Justice W. Franc Perry’s ruling requires the Department of Buildings to revoke the building permit and compel the developers, SJP Properties and Mitsui Fudosan America, to remove the floors that exceed what is permitted under the Zoning Resolution.
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Image Credit: NYCHA.
The three new appointees bring diverse experience and backgrounds to the board. On June 26, 2019, Mayor de Blasio’s office the appointment of three new members to NYCHA’s seven-member board of directors. The three appointees, Joseph K. Adams Sr., Paula Gavin, and Matt Gewolb, have traveled very different paths to the directorships. (more…)