Empire State Dairy Company Buildings. Image Credit: LPC.

Owners’ attorney said long-empty buildings required significant work to make them inhabitable, and site likely required environmental remediation. On July 19, 2016, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing on the potential designation of the former Empire State Dairy Company. The complex, built as dairy distribution center composed of two buildings located at 2840 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn’s East New York neighborhood. Landmarks added the Dairy to its calendar at its meeting on March 8, 2016. (read more…)

9 DeKalb Avenue. Project Rendering. Image Credit: JDS Development and the Chetrit Group.

Designated bank lobby will be converted to retail space, while new tower will accommodate residential use. On April 19, 2016, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to approve work impacting the individually designated Dime Savings Bank, as well as its lobby, an interior Landmark. The site lies at 9 Dekalb Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, on an irregularly shaped block bounded by Dekalb and Flatbush Avenues and Fulton Street. The proposed tower will displace the Williamsburgh Savings Bank as the borough’s tallest building. The work entails the demolition of a portion of the 1930s addition, the creation of a new entrance on Flatbush Avenue, and alterations to the lobby to adapt it to retail use. The new tower will be partially sited within the landmarked lot. The plan includes extensive restoration work to the bank building. (read more…)

15 East 75th Street. Image Credit: Stephen Wang + Associates.

Application would turn three adjoining rowhouses on the Upper East Side into one, one-family home. At its public hearing on April 4, 2016, the Landmarks Preservation Commission considered a proposal for work related to the conversion of three rowhouses in the Upper East Side Historic District into one single-family dwelling. The rowhouses, at 11, 13, and 15 East 75th Street were originally constructed as part of a row of six Queen Anne-style rowhouses in the late 1880s. In 1923, the front facade at 11 East 75th Street was reconstructed in the neo-Federal style by architect Henry Polhemus. The remaining Queen Anne buildings have also undergone alteration, with their stoops removed and areaways modified. (read more…)

Rendering of 1 Wall Street proposal. Image credit: Macklowe Properties/Robert A.M. Stern Architects/SLCE Architects

Robert A. M. Sterne-designed project would see the addition of several stories to an un-designated annex, and the creation of two additional window bays on south facade, among other work. On January 19, 2016, the Landmarks Preservation Commission considered a proposal for alterations to the individually landmarked 1 Wall Street Building. The 1931, 50-story, Art Deco skyscraper in Lower Manhattan was built as an office tower by the Irving Trust Company to designs by architect Ralph Walker. An annex to the building was constructed in the 1960s, and is not part of the landmarked site. The current owners, Macklowe Properties, intend to convert the building to residential use, with ground-floor retail. (read more…)

Architect rendering of the 327 Bleecker Street proposal. Image credit: FSI Architecture

Applicant had previously planned to restore existing building, but engineers had determined it to be structurally unsound. On November 10 2015 the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing on the proposed demolition of an existing structure, and the erection of a new building at 327 Bleecker Street, in the Greenwich Village Historic District, at the corner of Christopher Street. Landmarks previously approved a plan for the alteration of the existing structure in 2012. (read more…)

Image Credit: LPC

Items at issue included a former retirement community for sailors, a Colonial-era stone farmhouse, a lighthouse, and the Vanderbilt family mausoleum. On October 22, 2015, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held the second of four special hearings to address the backlog of items calendared before 2012 but never brought to a vote on designation. The hearing consisted of three batches, of seven to eleven items each, all located in Staten Island. Twenty-six items in total were considered at the hearing. (read more…)