Museum sought to have its own food kiosk; claimed it would reduce concentration of food cart vendors outside main entrance. On October 19, 2010, Landmarks rejected a proposal to build a small, curvilinear food kiosk in front of the land-marked Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The Guggenheim and Restaurant Associates, which manages the museum’s Wright Restaurant and its third-floor cafe, proposed building the free-standing kiosk along the Fifth Avenue facade underneath the museum’s cantilevered overhang. Guggenheim representatives claimed that the kiosk would alleviate the congestion caused by the high number of sidewalk food carts that congregate in front of the museum.

Guggenheim CEO Mark Steglitz testified that the museum wanted to provide patrons and neighbors with high-quality food at a lower price than its indoor options. Steglitz said the kiosk, by limiting demand, would also minimize the “carnival like atmosphere” outside the museum created by street vendors. He also said it would complement the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building, “not compete with it.” (more…)

One building owner intended to demolish house in order to build seven-story office. On July 13, 2010, Landmarks heard testimony on the possible designation of two separately owned Federal-style rowhouses located at 135 and 206 Bowery in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. When the houses were built in the early 1800s, the Bowery was considered a fashionable upper-class residential and commercial district. While both buildings have undergone extensive alterations, they retain their essential forms and characteristics. Landmarks calendared the buildings on June 15, 2010. Council Member Margaret Chin, whose district includes the Bowery, supported designating both structures.

The 3.5-story house at 135 Bowery was built circa 1817 for John A. Hardenbrook, one of the 24 stock brokers who signed the Buttonwood Agreement that formed the precursor to the New York Stock Exchange. Hardenbrook’s daughter, Rebecca Hardenbrook-Somarindyck later lived in the house, and it remained in the family until 1944. The building’s ground floor historically housed commercial businesses while the upper floors were used as apartments. (more…)

Extension includes 74 properties in two sections contiguous to Upper East Side’s original historic district. On March 23, 2010, Landmarks voted unanimously to designate the Upper East Side Historic District Extension. The extension consists of two distinct sections along Lexington Avenue, with one between East 71st and East 76th Streets, and the other between East 65th and East 63rd Streets.

The area first experienced a period of major development in the 1870s, spurred on by the opening of the Third Avenue and Second Avenue elevated rail lines in 1878 and 1880. Neo-Grec and Italianate-style architecture dominated this period of development. The construction of the Lexington Avenue Subway in 1911 triggered a second wave of development. Many existing rowhouses received exterior and interior alterations, and as apartment living became attractive to wealthy New Yorkers, developers began building large Beaux-Arts, Colonial Revival, and neo-Gothic apartment houses. The area’s development history, as well as the scale and character of properties within the extension, matched that of the Upper East Side Historic District, originally designated in 1981. (more…)

Sanitation proposed to reopen marine waste transfer station near Asphalt Green and Bobby Wagner Walk. After the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island closed in 2001, the Department of Sanitation contracted with privately-owned transfer stations, landfills, and waste-to-energy facilities to dispose of residential waste. Sanitation now delivers a large percentage of waste to transfer stations within the City, where tractor- trailers pick up the waste and drive it to landfills in other states.

In 2004, Mayor Bloomberg announced a new 20-year solid waste management plan. The City’s marine waste transfer stations would containerize solid waste onsite, and private companies would transport it by barge or rail, thereby reducing truck traffic and long-term costs. The marine waste transfer station at East 91st Street, bounded by the East River to the north and east, Carl Schurz Park to the south, and FDR Drive to the west, would be redeveloped to containerize waste generated in Manhattan. Sanitation trucks would access the transfer station using an elevated ramp that crossed over Asphalt Green, a sports and recreational complex located between York Avenue and FDR Drive. (more…)

Landmarks approved plan to partially demolish deteriorating rowhouses, but expressed concerns about developer’s townhouse conversion proposal. On January 5, 2010, Landmarks approved part of the Chetrit Group’s redevelopment proposal for six 1885-era rowhouses at 110 through 120 East 76th Street in the Upper East Side Historic District. The proposal required two separate applications. Chetrit Group requested approval to partially demolish at least two of the deteriorated rowhouses, while retaining and stabilizing the front facades. Landmarks also considered the developer’s plan to convert the six rowhouses into three large townhouses with two-story additions.

At the hearing, Tim Lynch, director of Buildings’ forensic engineering unit, testified that the interiors of 112 and 114 East 76th Street were structurally compromised and progressively degrading. He said there was no way to salvage the two buildings beyond shoring and bracing their facades, and that the situation needed to be stabilized “immediately.” Lynch noted that the rowhouses rely on each other for stability and said 116 and 110 East 76th Street would be at risk as well. (more…)