Landmarks re-designates two City and Suburban Homes buildings carved out from 1990 designation. On November 21, 2006, Landmarks ended the controversial debate over the landmark status of the City and Suburban Homes Company’s First Avenue Estate in Lenox Hill by voting unanimously to amend its landmark status. In 1990, Landmarks unanimously designated all 15 buildings in the First Avenue Estate, a development constructed between 1898 and 1915 over the entire block bounded by East 64th and East 65th Streets and York and First Avenues. In its last meeting before being dissolved, the Board of Estimate carved out two buildings from Landmarks designation: 429 East 64th Street and 430 East 65th Street.

The buildings’ current owner, Stahl York Avenue Company, received permits from the Department of Buildings to remove cornices and parapets, enlarge window openings and stucco over the facades of the two buildings, spurring urgency to Landmarks’ vote. (read more…)