Existing building at 200 Montague Street in Brooklyn (left), and proposed new building (right). Image Credit: Beyer Blinder Belle/LPC.

Landmarks Commissioners disagree over the proposed demolition of the existing building and design of the new building. On March 5, 2019, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing on a Certificate of Appropriateness to demolish an existing 1960s altered Modern style commercial four-story building and construct a new 20-story building at 200 Montague Street within the Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District in Brooklyn. The application was presented by Richard Metsky of Beyer Blinder Belle.  (read more…)

32-49 37th Street, Queens. Image credit: GoogleMaps

City sought to demolish derelict, mid-block row-house. The Department of Buildings issued an emergency declaration to demolish a deteriorating, vacant, and dangerous row-house at 32-49 37th Street between Broadway and 34th Avenue in Astoria. In order to demolish the abandoned mid-block building, contractors were required to erect scaffolding protecting the adjoining row-houses that physically abut the derelict building. The owners of the neighboring row-houses refused access to construct the scaffolding unless the City obtained legal permission to use their property and secured protection for their properties and its occupants through insurance and other forms of indemnification. (read more…)

15 Leonard Street

Landmarks approved a revised proposal for the Leonard Street site despite community opposition. On July 17, 2012, Landmarks approved developer Steven Schnall’s revised proposal to replace two one-story garages at 15 Leonard Street in the Tribeca West Historic District with a residential building. The nine-story, 108-foot building would rise seven stories at the streetwall, with a set-back, two-story penthouse. In February 2008, Landmarks approved a different plan to replace the garages with a seven-story building, but the project stalled and the property was sold.

At the proposal’s public hearing in May 2012, Wayne Turett, of Turett Collaborative Architects, presented Schnall’s plan. The building would have a 75-foot-wide, one-story base, with the 60-foot-wide upper floors aligned to the eastern lot line. This would create a 15-foot shaft to provide access to light and air to a neighboring building to the west as required by a property easement. The building’s front facade would be framed in painted metal and feature an asymmetrical, staggered pattern of translucent channel glass with loft sized windows. The penthouse would be clad in a lighter shade of painted metal. The building’s sidewalls would be clad in gray brick. Four garage entrances, made of a mixture of opaque and translucent glass panels, would be built at the ground level, with a central recessed pedestrian entrance in the middle. A steel-and-glass (read more…)

Buildings directed wrecking company to partially demolish privately owned building. Buildings received a complaint on a Friday evening regarding a five-story building located at 100 Clark Street in Brooklyn. An emergency response team inspected the site the next day and determined the building was in imminent danger of collapse due to a bulging wall and an out-of-plumb fire escape. The response team recommended immediate demolition to a safe level, and the Brooklyn deputy borough commissioner agreed. The same day, Buildings issued a declaration of immediate emergency, and a wrecking company under Buildings’ direction began partial demolition.

The wrecking company demolished the top two floors the next day, while Buildings unsuccessfully attempted to contact the building owner. The owner learned of the partial demolition a day or so later, and its engineer toured the site with a Buildings engineer. Buildings allowed the owner to take over work at the site on the condition that the process of shoring and stabilization begin immediately.

The owner commenced an article 78 proceeding, challenging Building’s decision to declare an immediate emergency at the site. The owner argued that the decision was arbitrary and capricious because the City Charter did not allow Buildings to demolish buildings without giving notice to the owner. The owner further argued that Buildings had failed to give proper notice of its decision to move forward with demolition. (read more…)