Rendering of the proposed new building at 250 Water Street, which will replace a parking lot. Image Credit: NYC LPC

Zoning is under attack in New York City. Not here or there, in this location or that, but the concept itself. This has been the long game of the city’s real estate interests, and after a decade of raids those interests have launched a full assault on several fronts. The historic city should expect no quarter. (read more…)

Sandy Hornick. Image Credit: Sandy Hornick/Hornick Consulting, Inc.

I was motivated to respond to an article by Robert Kuttner on The American Prospect website that in general argued that a tax-subsidized project was facing impending collapse which could provide an opportunity for affordable housing. I have no problem with the author disliking Hudson Yards and he wouldn’t be the first or only one to do so. I believe, however, that the American Prospect piece contains misinformation on the Hudson Yards project. This article is an attempt to put Hudson Yards into context and explain how this public/private venture is currently working. (read more…)

Rendering of the proposed new building at 250 Water Street, which will replace a parking lot. Landmarks approved the certificate of appropriateness for the project on May 4th. Image Credit: NYC LPC

On Tuesday, May 4, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) approved by a 6-2 vote an application for a new residential tower at 250 Water Street in the South Street Seaport Historic District. This was the third time the Howard Hughes Corporation had presented the project, and this time, after the architects at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill made a few tweaks to the design, the LPC determined that the building was appropriate. (read more…)

Part of Park West Village. Image Credit: Google Maps

On December 17, 2020, by a 4-3 decision and over a strong dissent, the Court of Appeals reversed the decision of the Appellate Division in Peyton v. NYC Board of Standards and Appeals, 2020 N.Y. Slip Op. 07662.  The decision is an unseemly show of deference to the Board of Standards and Appeals, a body that is widely viewed as captive to the real estate industry, on a pure question of law as to which no deference is owed.  The City Council should follow the lead of the U.S. Congress, which, in the Dodd-Frank Act, legislated a less deferential standard of review for certain actions of an agency widely deemed captive to the industry it is supposed to regulate. (read more…)

The Roosevelt Memorial Sculpture outside the American Museum of Natural History. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons/MacLachlan

Jeffrey Kroessler’s view on the Teddy Roosevelt statue at the entrance to the Natural History Museum is clear and provocative, even if I have no certain answer to the questions it raises. (read more…)

The Roosevelt Memorial Sculpture outside the American Museum of Natural History. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons/MacLachlan

The American Museum of Natural History has requested that the City of New York remove the statue of Theodore Roosevelt from its front stoop. At a time when mobs in the street have vandalized public monuments across the nation, the museum and the city are engaging in their own act of civic vandalism. (read more…)