Landmarks unanimously voted to protect a five-story building on Bowery, a Canal Street theater, and an East Village church. On September 7, 2010, Landmarks designated three Manhattan buildings as individual City landmarks. Landmarks unanimously approved a five-story cast-iron building at 97 Bowery, the terra cotta-adorned Loew’s Canal Street Theatre, and the Gothic-Revival style Eleventh Street Methodist Episcopal Chapel.

The Lower East Side’s 97 Bowery Building was built in 1869 to house a carriage-supply business and hardware store at a time when the Bowery was a major commercial thoroughfare. Architect Peter Tostevin designed the five-story structure featuring a three-bayed cast-iron facade with arched windows framed by Corinthian columns. Prior to 1961, the building’s third window bay of each floor was filled in to accommodate an elevator shaft. A visible, one-story rooftop addition was also added to house the elevator machinery. Vice Chair Pablo Vengoechea pointed out that designation would increase the possibility of creating a building restoration plan. Commissioner Margery Perlmutter noted that cast-iron architecture was rare along the Bowery and that its isolation lent the building a special quality. (read more…)