Architect rendering of the proposed West End Collegiate development. Image credit: CFA

Demolition of existing building and construction of new residential tower generally supported by community and preservationist organizations. On December 8 2015, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to approve two applications submitted by West End Collegiate Church for the redevelopment of adjoining properties. The sites are currently occupied by the Collegiate School, from whom the church repurchased the property when the school made a decision to relocate. The plan calls for the demolition of the existing building at 260 West 78th Street, called Platten Hall, and to replace it with a new residential tower. The second application entailed the construction of rooftop addition to 378 West End Avenue, with other alterations to the building. The sites to be redeveloped lie within the West End-Collegiate Historic District Extension. Restoration work to the historic church and school, an individual landmark, was not included in the application, and will be handled at staff level. (more…)

Landmarks Preservation Commission. Credit: LPC.

The proposed designation of the former Yuengling Brewery Site in East Harlem proved contentious, dividing preservationists and those who wished to see site developed.  On November 12, 2015 the Landmarks Preservation Commission held the final of four special hearings organized to address the backlog of items added to the Commission’s calendar before 2001, but never brought to a vote on designation.  The final hearing consisted of items in Manhattan, occupying Community Boards six through twelve.  Landmarks is expected to make determinations on the items in early 2016.

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Thirty-three properties were removed from district between hearing and designation, mostly along Broadway. On June 23, 2015, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to designate the Riverside/West End Historic District Extension II. The original Riverside/West End Historic District was designated by Landmarks in 1989, and the first extension was designated in 2012.  The designated area stretches between 89th and 109th Streets, and is bounded by Broadway and Riverside Drive to the east and west.

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Coalition rallies to save the Williams Memorial Residence. Image Credit: CityLand.

Elected officials join senior residents to protest sale and relocation of Upper West senior home to Harlem.  On June 18, 2014, elected officials and senior residents held a rally outside the Williams Memorial Residence, a 15-story independent senior living facility, located at 720 West End Avenue, in Manhattan. The rally, attended by nearly 200 people, was held in protest of the Salvation Army’s plan to sell the property, which it has owned and operated as a senior housing facility for over 45 years. The proceeds from the sale would fund a new facility on 125th Street and Third Avenue, where displaced seniors would be offered housing, including the same services provided for them at the Williams. However, senior residents backed by coalition officials are not prepared to incur the physical or emotional costs entailed in being uprooted from their homes. (more…)

West End-Collegiate HD Extension map. Image Credit: LPC.

Commissioners voted unanimously to approve district two years after initial hearing, though split on the inclusion of modern apartment complex. On June 25, 2013, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to approve an extension to the West End-Collegiate Historic District, encompassing 200 buildings. The extension more than doubles the size of the previously designated district, and lies to the north and to the south of the original district, between 70th and 79th Streets, and Riverside Drive and Broadway. The district is primarily residential, characterized by rowhouses and apartment buildings built in the period between the 1880s and the 1930s.

The first wave of development in the area saw the construction of single-family rowhouses, constructed in brownstone, limestone, and brick in a variety of architectural styles, including Beaux-Arts, Queen Anne, Renaissance Revival, and Romanesque Revival. In the 1890s, as apartment living lost its stigma among the upper class, the neighborhood saw the construction of several “French flats” or small, multi-family dwellings. Through the turn of the century to the turn of the 1930s, elevator apartment buildings dominated new construction.

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