St. John the Divine Cathedral. Image Credit: LPC.

Unfinished cathedral, the largest in the world, designated a landmark for second time. On February 21, 2017, Landmarks commissioners voted to designate the St. John the Divine Cathedral and Close an individual City landmark. The cathedral, the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, is the largest church in the United States, and the largest cathedral in the world. It stands at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue, in Manhattan’s Morningside Heights neighborhood.

The Landmarks Commission first held a hearing on the potential designation of the cathedral in 1966, and ultimately voted to designate the cathedral a City landmark in 2003. The designation was overturned by the City Council because it was limited to the cathedral’s footprint, and would allow for the development of the rest of the campus.

The Commission again added the cathedral to its calendar on July 19, 2016. This potential designation included six historic auxiliary buildings comprising the cathedral close. (read more…)

Rendering of 311 Vanderbilt Avenue. Image Credit: LPC.

Sculptural dwelling takes cues from arched bays of carriages houses common to Clinton Hill’s Vanderbilt Avenue. On February 7, 2017, the Landmarks Preservation Commission considered and approved an application to construct a new building on a vacant lot at 311 Vanderbilt Avenue in Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill Historic District. The site, currently used for parking, is on a through-block lot, with an existing 1890 townhouse facing Clinton Avenue. The planned building will rise to four stories, with the top floor set back from the main facade. (read more…)

Image Credit: LPC.

“Bank Row” buildings represent two eras of 20th-century economic expansion. Landmarks voted to designate two bank buildings in Brooklyn as individual City landmarks at its meeting on January 24, 2017. The elder of the two landmarks, the People’s Trust Company Building, stands at 181 Montague Street, and the second item, the National Title Guaranty Building, adjoins it at 185 Montague Street. The buildings are the only unprotected historic structures on what is known as “Bank Row,” as the north side of the street falls within the Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District.

The People’s Trust Company Building, designed by the firm Mowbray & Uffinger, dates to 1904. Classical Revival in style, the building is fronted by four massive Ionic columns, each carved from a single block of marble, reported to be the largest ever quarried at the time the bank was built. Above the columns is an intricately carved pediment. An original frieze has been lost or covered. The People’s Trust building was one of the first banks to be constructed in the development of Bank Row. The building is now occupies by a Citibank.

The National Title Guaranty Company Building was designed by an early firm specializing in skyscrapers, Corbett, Harrison and MacMurray, with an Art Deco limestone screen at the lower levels designed by Rene Chambellan. The building rises to 16 stories, with setbacks flanking the central bay above the 13th floor. Projecting piers emphasize the tower’s verticality, rising from stepped buttresses at the base. Chambellan also designed the decorative elements of other individual landmarks, including the Daily New Building and Rockefeller Center.

Landmarks’ Research Department said that together the banks were an “important ensemble of early 20th century commercial buildings.”

At a November 29th, 2016, hearing, designation of both buildings was supported by Council Member Stephen Levin, local and citywide preservationist organizations, and area residents. The owners of National Title Guaranty Building, the Montague-Goldman Corporation, opposed designation, saying landmarking would prevent redevelopment, and hamper bringing the building into code compliance.

Both structures were designated unanimously. Chair Meenakshi Srinivasan said the designation would ensure the protection of significant architecture in the history of Brooklyn’s financial industry.

LPC: People’s Trust Company Building, 181 Montague Street, Brooklyn (LP-2586); National Title Guaranty Company Building, 185 Montague Street, Brooklyn (LP-2587) (Jan. 24, 2017).

United Nations Hotel

Late 1970s and early 1980s hotel interiors are a rare preserved exemplar of late Modern and early Postmodern design. Landmarks voted to designate as an interior City landmark the hotel lobby and Ambassador Grill of the United Nations Hotel at its meeting on January 17, 2017. The hotel, at 1 United Nations Plaza was built as part of a larger complex by the United Nations Development Corporation. The two interior spaces were completed seven years apart− the Grill in 1976 and the lobby area in 1983. (read more…)

People’s Trust Company Building. Image Credit: LPC.

Elected officials and local residents urge Landmarks to designate 20th century financial-services-industry structures. On November 29, 2016, Landmarks held hearings on the possible individual landmark designations of two buildings built as banks in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. The People’s Trust Company Building, at 181 Montague Street, and the adjacent National Title Guaranty Company Building, at 185 Montague Street, are both part of Brooklyn’s “Bank Row.”  Historic banking structures on the south side of Montague are protected as part of the 2011 Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District. (read more…)

United Nations Hotel. Image Credit: LPC

Some speakers testified that landmarked space should be expanded to connect bar and lobby as one designated interior. At its meeting on November 22, 2016, the Landmarks Preservation Commission heard testimony on the potential designation of two interior spaces on the first floor of the United Nations Hotel at 1 United Nations Plaza in East Midtown. The interiors under consideration are the Ambassador Grill and the Hotel Lobby, built as part of a hotel and office complex by the United Nations Development Corporation. Both designed by the firm Kevin Roche Dinkeloo Associates. The grill was completed in 1976, and the Lobby in 1983. Landmarks voted to add the interiors to its calendar on September 20, 2016. (read more…)