200 Amsterdam Avenue Rendering Image Credit: SJP Properties

Advocates applaud decision while developers find decision deeply flawed. On February 15, 2020, the Committee for Environmentally Sound Development and the Municipal Art Society of New York,  won an Article 78 case regarding the construction of a 668 foot, 52-story condominium building located at 200 Amsterdam Avenue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. New York County Supreme Court Justice W. Franc Perry’s ruling requires the Department of Buildings to revoke the building permit and compel the developers, SJP Properties and Mitsui Fudosan America, to remove the floors that exceed what is permitted under the Zoning Resolution.

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Twin adjoining buildings at 827 and 831 Broadway, Image LPC.

Attorney for owner threatened to seek demolition through a hardship application should landmarks designate the property and not permit a visible addition. At its meeting on October 17, 2017, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing on the possible individual landmarks designation of two twin adjoining buildings at 827 and 831 Broadway. Completed in 1867, the buildings were designed by architect Griffith Thomas for tobacco-company heir Pierre Lorillard in an Italian palazzi-inspired design. Built in marble with cast-iron piers and columns, the buildings represent a transitional period in Griffith’s career, before he fully embraced the use of cast iron. (read more…)

Loew’s 175th Street Theater in Manhattan’s Washington Heights. Image Credit: LPC.

Six designations sent to full Council where they were ratified; three items held over for further deliberation. On February 27, 2017, City Council’s Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Siting, and Maritime Uses heard testimony and voted on the items designated at the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s last meeting devoted to the backlog initiative. The designated properties were introduced to the Subcommittee by Landmarks’ Lisa Kersavage and Lauren George. The Subcommittee approved designations for six of the items, but laid over three items for further consideration in instances where the property owners objected to designation. The three items not advanced to the Land Use Committee and full Council were the Lakeman-Cortelyou House, the Loew’s 175th Street Theater, and the Protestant Reformed Dutch Church of Flushing.

Prior to hearing public testimony, Council Member Steven Matteo discussed the designation of the Lakeman-Cortleyou House in New Dorp, Staten Island. The House dates to the 17th century, with the oldest part of the building constructed of fieldstone, and possesses a gambrel roof. Commissioners at Landmarks were advised that designation would likely be overturned at the Council level, but nonetheless awarded the property landmarks status due to its antiquity and rarity. (read more…)

The Municipal Art Society launches a dynamic database for searching city-owned and leased property. On November 21, 2016, the Municipal Art Society of New York (“MAS”) issued a report entitled Public Assets: City-Owned and Leased Properties (Public Assets) which aggregated information on city-owned and leased properties and how they relate to the environment, infrastructure, landmarks, population, and local rezonings. The report was accompanied by the first-ever interactive city map that compiles information for more than 14,000 city-owned and leased properties. The interactive tool categorizes properties into four groups: properties with no current use, with a residential use, with a current use that is not residential, and property used for parks and open space. (read more…)

THE MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK,

THE MUNICIPAL ART SOCIETY OF NEW YORK, AND

THE CENTER FOR NEW YORK CITY LAW

present

Rendering of the interior of the Museum. Image Credit: LPC.

Approved addition, occupying a quarter acre of parkland, will increase connections for better museum circulation, provide additional space to store collection materials, and allow visitors to watch scientists at work. At its meeting on October 11, 2016, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to issue a binding report for the construction of an addition, and associated demolition, to the American Museum of Natural History, an individual landmark on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The addition, to be named the Gilder Center for Science, Education and Innovation, will be the first significant intervention on the museum campus since the completion of the Rose Center for Earth and Space in 2000. The addition would be sited on the western side of the museum, and would create new Columbus Avenue public entrance. (read more…)