THE MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK,
THE MUNICIPAL ART SOCIETY OF NEW YORK, AND
THE CENTER FOR NEW YORK CITY LAW
present
THE MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK,
THE MUNICIPAL ART SOCIETY OF NEW YORK, AND
THE CENTER FOR NEW YORK CITY LAW
present
Council Member Corey Johnson still feels hesitant about proposed St. John’s Terminal development and seeks more concessions by the developer. On November 1, 2016, the City Council’s Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises held a public hearing on the proposed 550 Washington Street rezoning and redevelopment, and the creation of a special district in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. The proposed development would create three separate city blocks for five separate buildings which would include four mixed-use buildings and on the southern site the fifth building would be zoned for office or hotel space. Currently the four-story St. John’s Terminal Building occupies the site. The approval of the application by the City Council would also serve as a precondition for the transfer of development rights from the Hudson River Park Trust to the developer for $100 million. The transfer of development rights would be made possible by the creation of a special district which would include Pier 40 and the development site, which was part of the application heard. For CityLand’s previous coverage click here. (read more…)
Land use attorney Michael T. Sillerman is often teased by his co-workers that he won’t work on a project unless there is a Pritzker Architecture Prize winner onboard. Although Sillerman doesn’t think that’s entirely true, he admits that his favorite part of being a land use attorney is how it overlaps with his love of architecture. As co-chair of Kramer Levin’s land use department, Sillerman typically spends as much time talking to architects and city planners as he does with other attorneys.
While Sillerman believes that there was “a certain serendipity” to becoming a land use attorney, the lifelong resident of the Upper West Side credits the influence of his mother, a former civic campaigner, and his early exposure to issues of public welfare and its intersection with City government. After studying reform movements in New York City politics at Cornell University and then teaching junior high school, Sillerman attended Columbia Law School. He started his legal career as a litigator at Paul,Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. A major turning point in Sillerman’s career occurred when he became the executive assistant to then- City Council President Carol Bellamy and learned the finer details of the City’s complicated land use process. (read more…)