Somers Brothers Tinware Factory Building Image Credit: Landmarks
Gowanus community wants Landmarks to continue designating sites before rezoning. On September 24, 2019, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing to designate five buildings in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn as individual landmarks. The five proposed buildings are the Gowanus Flushing Tunnel Pumping Station and Gate House, the Somers Brothers Tinware Factory (later American Can Company), Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) Central Power Station Engine House, Montauk Paint Manufacturing Company Building and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) Rogers Memorial Building. All of the buildings hold a connection to the Gowanus Canal’s industrial history. To read Cityland’s prior coverage of each building, click here.
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Nos. 47 – 55 West 28th Street were the home of many sheet music publishers in the 1890s and 1900s. Image Credit: NYC LPC
The designation received strong public support despite objections from the owner. On April 30, 2019, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing to designate five buildings located at 47 – 55 West 28th Street collectively known as “Tin Pan Alley.” Landmarks calendared the five buildings on March 12, 2019. The street was the home of sheet music publishers in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The street received its moniker from the sound of different pianos playing from the various publishers along the block, which collectively sounded like tin pans banging together. For CityLand’s prior coverage of the Tin Pan Alley designation process, click here. (more…)
Five of the seven buildings calendared for designation. Image Credit: Google Maps
The buildings feature various architectural styles and were home to garment manufacturers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. On September 25, 2018, the Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously voted to add seven buildings to its calendar for consideration as individual landmarks. The buildings are located at 817 Broadway, 826 Broadway, 830 Broadway, 832 Broadway, 836 Broadway, 840 Broadway, and 841 Broadway. All of the buildings are south of Union Square in Manhattan. (more…)
AT&T Building. Image credit: LPC.
Proponents of revitalization stressed need for adaptability in redeveloping currently vacant building, others lamented destruction of lobby, and urged Landmarks to maintain oversight of entire lot. On June 19, 2018, Landmarks held a public hearing on the potential designation of the former AT&T Corporate Headquarters at 550 Madison Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. The 37-foot-tall tower was completed in 1984 and designed by Philip Johnson, recipient of a 1979 Pritzker Prize, and John Burgee. An early significant work of postmodern architecture, in the Headquarters Johnson and Burgee, rejected the unadorned glass curtain walls of International Style modernism, exemplified in New York by the Seagram Building. The building is clad in masonry and employs historicist quotations, including its famous pediment recalling design motifs in Chippendale furniture. It possesses a monumental entrance arch on Madison Avenue that is flanked by more arches that originally opened to Italian Renaissance-inspired arcades beneath the tower, and covered pedestrian space between east 55th and 56th Streets. The arcades have since been filled in. (more…)
Central Harlem West 130-132nd Historic District. Image credit: LPC.
164-building potential district characterized by 19th-century residential architecture, and cultural and political history. Landmarks held a public hearing on the potential designation of the Central Harlem West 130-132nd Historic District at its meeting on April 17, 2018. The district is composed of the block interiors on 130th, 131st, and 132nd Streets between Lenox Avenue and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard. The district includes approximately 164 buildings, chiefly built during a brief period of development in the final decades of the 19th century. The speculative rowhouses were constructed in architectural styles appealing to the middle class of the period, primarily Neo Grec, interspersed Queen Anne, Renaissance Revival, and Romanesque Revival. Landmarks Executive Director Sarah Carroll stated that the proposed designation had come about through Landmarks’ study of properties associated with African-American history and the civil rights movement. (more…)
