Results tagged “historicpreservation”

Later today, the city will discuss whether the I.M. Pei-designed Silver Towers should be landmarked. The Observer reported that NYU announced its support today, a reversal from an earlier position over three years ago.

The fate of the Moynihan Station in the James Farley post office building remains up in the air and it's unclear whether Madison Square Garden will also relocate to the Farley building. If MSG moves, plans say the old MSG would be razed and a new train tracks would be put on top. The Municipal Arts Society's New Penn Station campaign shares a plan from students (at Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture's Historic Preservation Program) offering a different idea.

For the 1964-1965 World's Fair, architect Philip Johnson designed the New York State Pavillion in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Besides the well-known observation towers (think Men in Black) and the Theaterama, he commissioned a "130-foot-by-166-foot terrazzo replica of a Texaco New York State road map."

Donald Trump held a press conference to welcome his yooge Soho condo-hotel hybrid this afternoon, and it was a Trump family affair: Donald, Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric were all involved in pointing out various aspects of the project. Trump said, "I want to thank all the protesters outside for making this project so successful."

When William Gottlieb died in 1999, he left behind an estate worth hundreds of millions (if not near a billion) that included over a hundred buildings, many in Greenwich Village and the Meatpacking district. His sister Mollie Bender was the sole beneficiary of his will, and with her recent death, her daughter is now fighting with her brother for control of the estate.

Look out, Jones Beach regulars. Trump’s moving in.

The Moondance Diner shut its doors at the end of June at which time it was rumored that it would live out its years at a museum in Pennsylvania. The free-standing diner has changed its path, however, and now it's headed to the small town of La Barge, Wyoming.

A while back we reported on possible changes at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, more widely known as "the birthplace of hip hop." Tenants of the apartment complex, as well as its supporters, have been fighting to get the building landmarked. Just as important, they want to keep the apartments rent stabilized.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation released its 20th annual list of the 11 Most Endangered Places in the United States and Brooklyn's Industrial Waterfront topped the 2007 list of sites. The organization describes the industrial waterfront's history:

For more than a century, the New York City region was one of this country’s dominant manufacturing hubs. Due to its location on the East River and the New York Harbor, Brooklyn was the city’s industrial center with scores of maritime operations, factories, warehouses and sugar refineries. In the second half of the twentieth century, industry declined, and what’s left of that striking architectural and historical legacy is now at risk. Also at risk are the places that make Brooklyn “work,” the buildings and sites that house manufacturing and industrial jobs.

Last fall, preservationists failed to prevent the planned demolition of the Dakota Stables on West 77th And Amsterdam Avenue. Though preservationists were trying to have the Dakota Stables landmarked, the Landmarks Preservation Committee denied it landmark status because some of its facade was stripped by the developer - while it was being considered for landmark status! Talk about gaming the system.

The Villager is reporting that the Greenwich Village Society of Historic Preservation last week submitted a report calling for the creation of a South Village Historic District. Comprised of 38 blocks and about 800 buildings, it would be the city’s first tenement-based district.

That Donald Trump. Just last week, there was all this attention about his hotel planned for Soho hitting a snag - well, actually many, many human remains - when a graveyard was found. The Department of Buildings issued a stop-work order and community groups criticizing the 45-floor Trump Soho Hotel rejoiced for the moment. And then Tara Conner happened.

After The Real Deal reported that skeletal remains were found on the Trump Soho site Monday night, the Department of Buildings issued a stop work order on the building. Naturally the developers were surprised. The Post spoke to Julius Schwarz from developer Bayrock Group, who said, "Despite the fact that our counsel has advised us that there is no authority to issue this order, we are fully cooperating with the Department of Buildings and we'll be discussing the matter with them [this] morning." Dude, bones were found! We think you stop work! Schwarz added that the area where the bones were found will eventually be a landscaped plaza, not where the 45-story building will be built (so investors and future hotel guests, do not freak out!).

It looks like Donald Trump will get to build his 45-story Trump SoHo Hotel Condominium at 246 Spring Street. Though the city hasn't officially issued construction permits, the Greenwich Village Society of Historic Preservation heard from city officials that the hotel would be allowed, and made its grievances known.

The divergent fates of two historic stable buildings on the Upper West Side crystallized yesterday, following votes by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The former New York Cab Company Stable on Amsterdam and West 75th Street (pictured, right) will survive as a designated historic landmark, while the former Dakota Stable, just up the street at West 77th and Amsterdam (pictured left), will be demolished to make way for a new condominium building to be designed by the architect Robert A.M. Stern.

Heckling (followed by civility) was alive and well at last night's Community Board 3 meeting at Cooper Union. Wearing "Please IMPROVE the Plan!" stickers, East Village and Lower East Side residents interrupted Department of City Planning Commissioner representatives as they presented a plan for the area's first rezoning since 1961 ("Define affordable," shouted one audience member - $56,000 for a family of four, in case you're wondering, and, no, they didn't have numbers for individuals).

Galas make us kind of nervous, but we attended this week's Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation dinner at Balthazar honoring the work and life of Jane Jacobs to hear what more could be said about the revered author and activist.

The hoopla over the new NYU dorm rising above St. Ann's Church we moaned about last week looks to be heating up. After the Villager reported on the 242-foot-tall dormitory NYU associate vice president of government and community affairs Alicia Hurley has started fighting back by defending the plans. She contacted us about the story in an e-mail:

Last week's "news" of our new residence hall hit the bandwith [sic] and airwaves with very little accuracy and was orchestrated by a local group whom I can only guess feels they have been left out of the process. But the group's executive director has taken on NYU in an effort to build his own political profile and career, and frankly it has come at the expense of open dialogue between NYU and the community. At this point we have decided that we need to find a mechanism for outreach and communication that might not call on that group or its executive director as a middle point. The story you are reporting comes from the agitation of that decision.

Seems that Donald Trump is heading into some real community problems with his attempt to build his 45-story Trump International Hotel & Tower on Spring Street. Though Trump claims he's got proper zoning to build his newest behemoth (the project will be overseen by Trump spawn Don Jr. and Ivanka along with winner Sean Yazbeck) local activists say "nuh-uh."

The World Trade Center memorial, Reflecting Absence, will finally gets the chance to change from design to reality as crews prepare the area at Ground Zero for the memorial. However, some families of September 11 victims are still upset with the design and plan to protest today at noon. Their main complaints are that the memorial does not preserve the footprints of the old WTC building, the memorial is submerged in the ground and that the names of victims are listed randomly. The state Historic Preservation Office is looking into whether or not the footprints should be kept, and critics are going to try to have a judge block construction. Mayor Bloomberg said, "That decision was made - now we have to go and build it. The time for expressing yourself has come and gone, and now we should rally behind this design and go ahead ... [and] build this memorial." While redevelopment has not been very smooth, Gothamist has to agree that the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation seems to have tried to use public comment to inform the design - and that some of these issues have been in the news for over two years (the NY Times had an article about the difference between the WTC footprints and the memorial's "voids" two years ago).

“NYU is the largest private university in the United States and they are growing,” Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, told Community Board 2 Thursday night. “They are growing at a much faster pace than our neighborhood is. NYU has always been here. It should always be here. I don't think the Village would be the Village if NYU wasn't here. But I don't think the Village can stay the Village if it is predominantly NYU”

Kate Wood, executive director, LANDMARK WEST!

The airline media darling, Jet Blue, looks like it will be able to build a new terminal at JFK. Plus, it means that Terminal 5, the gorgeous Eero Saarinen-designed space that used to be the TWA terminal, will reopen, which comes after what must be at least months of negotiation for the Port Authority. The NY Times reports that the Port Authority "struck a deal" with the FAA, NY State Historical Preservation Office, and Advisory Counil on Historic Preservation to "restore and find another use" for Terminal 5 - and that the new Jet Blue terminal would be connected to Terminal 5 via "pedestrian tubes." Pedestrian tubes? That sounds so Jetsons and maybe perfect for the swooping, curving Terminal 5 that seems to undulate.