City and Suburban Homes Company, First Avenue Estate. Image credit: LPC.

Developer claimed that Commissioners irrationally and prejudicially analyzed hardship application, and that designation amounted to an unconstitutional taking. In 1990, Landmarks designated the City and Suburban Homes Company, First Avenue Estate an individual City landmark. The block-sized development is bounded East 64th and 65th Streets and York and First Avenues. Built between 1819 and 1915, it was constructed to provide high-quality housing to low-income New Yorkers in an alternative to crowded, poorly ventilated tenement buildings. The First Avenue Estate is one of only two full-block light court tenement complexes in the City. (read more…)

Entrance to L Train. Image credit: CityLaw.

Pedestrian slipped and fell on sloped, granite sidewalk, the design for which had been approved by the City. On June 18, 2013, Carolyn J. Trawinski was injured when she slipped and fell on a sloped sidewalk adjacent to the side entrance of a mixed commercial-residential building at 183 Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn near the entrance of the L line subway station. The sidewalk was made up of smooth, polished granite, and was wet at the time of the accident. Trawinski suffered multiple injuries to her ankle that required the insertion of eleven screws under general anesthesia. (read more…)