Landmark Tin Building is Sticking Point For Seaport Development

When the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing Monday night to consider an ambitious proposal to raze the Pier 17 mall at the South Street Seaport to make room for boutiques, a hotel and a 42-story condo, there was fierce objection from the Municipal Arts Society, who opposed not just the "out of scale" tower but plans to relocate a 1903 landmark building from its current location in the shadow of the FDR to the pier's edge. Formerly part of the Fulton Fish Market, it's called the Tin Building, and NY1 reports that many people don't even know about it because of its lousy location and also because it was gutted by a fire in 1995. The developer sees moving it as an opportunity to restore and rebuild it with "authentic materials," but MAS says relocating it would "set a troublesome precedent...The Tin Building is important because it's really the only historic building on the water side of the FDR Drive."