Results tagged “lpc”

Queens has been long ignored by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, but the 160-year-old St. Saviour's in Maspeth has gotten a lot more attention than the likes of Jack Kerouac's old stomping grounds. In fact, Curbed recalls that at one point, "a deal was worked out to save the main church building and relocate it to a nearby cemetery, while the Parks Department works on a potential deal to acquire the land and turn it into a much-needed park." Here's a complete timeline of the saga.

Following the 40th anniversary of Jack Kerouac's death (which was yesterday), a fan of the author is speaking out again about the lack of recognition the beat gets in his one-time home borough of Queens.

There has been talk in the past of saving the Sylvan Court mews, with some questioning why the Landmarks Preservation Commission has ignored them, when all other historic mews districts are preserved and landmarked in the city. Located on 121st Street between Lexington and Third Avenues, one neighborhood blogger notes that "mews are typically former 19th century stable yards that end abruptly in an alley-like layout."

The landmark Corn Exchange Bank Building on 125th Street in Harlem used to be a picturesque structure, but now it's one of the most visible eyesores in the neighborhood. The building, "an 1883-84 Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival structure," according to the Times, will soon lose its top two floors; a decision recently made by the Department of Buildings who found it unsafe. A "fire caused by homeless folk" already aided in the roof collapsing, and there are trees growing inside, according to one neighborhood blogger.

Brownstone Brooklyn, you never cease to amaze us. Long story short: Man buys brownstone in recently landmarked district of Prospect Heights from old woman. Old woman continues to live in the garden apartment. Man decides he wants to put a garage in there. LPC says they have no applications for Landmark approval for the address.

The New York State Pavilion, just one part of the decaying 1964 World's Fair in Queens, won state landmark approval! A designation that the Daily News says "opens it to desperately needed rehab grants." (Plans to do something with the site have been in the works for years.) It's also been nominated as a national landmark. In related news, Jenny 8. Lee pens a breathless piece on city landmark status granted to 100 middle-class residential buildings in Queens and on Staten Island; "The bulk of these buildings, 96, are modest century-old three-story buildings in the Ridgewood North Historic District." It looks like everything is coming up Queens today! Perhaps they'll take another gander at Kerouac's old house.

The owner of what many consider an historic house in Bayside, Queens is sparring with some locals over a landmark status for the home. The Daily News reports that the 19th-century villa was built by farmer Robert Bell in the 1870s for his daughter and son-in-law. Members of the Bayside Historical Society and ther advocates are urging the Landmarks Preservation Commission to save the structure on 213th Street, but owner Robert Bell says it too "inelegant" to get such a status (which would make it difficult for him to make any major changes). Reportedly he declared, "We're not saving something that doesn't need saving!" at a commission hearing earlier this week. His opponents say that the Bell family can be credited with establishing the local water system as well as creating area streets, and their Second Empire style home with a mansard roof deserves to be saved. Of course, one nearby landmark in Fort Totten is currently suffering demolition through neglect.

Yesterday the Landmarks Preservation Commission declared some new places worth saving. First up is the Prospect Heights Historic District, which includes 850 historic buildings, including single-family brownstones, commercial buildings and more dating back to the 1850s. Curbed reports that "There were also three individual landmarks designated: 94 Greenwich Street in Lower Manhattan, Mount Olive Fire Baptized Holiness Church at 304 West 122nd Street in Harlem and the John Peirce Residence at 11 East 51st Street in Midtown." Meanwhile, the much talked about South Village Historic District is scheduled to be discussed at a later date. Related: Queens Crap looks at the city's university/college presidents that live in landmarked areas (the president of Brooklyn College resides in a 1918 neoclassical home in the Prospect Heights historic district).

Brooklyn, you are thisclose to gaining access to Bacon Cheddar Roastburgers™, Bronco Berry Dipping Sauce®, and other assorted food stuffs that will lead to your eventual heart attack. That's right, Arby's is officially opening after many obstacles in setting up shop at the landmarked 372 Fulton Street space. The Brooklyn Paper reports that the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted 7-1 in support of the newly revised Arby's design plan, even if it does include a giant menu board they aren't so thrilled with. The LPC's Roberta Washington stated, “The sign is the one thing that prevents this proposal from being fantastic.” However, project architects countered, declaring that "some kind of large menu board is necessary because Arby’s diners are accustomed to ordering from wall-mounted menu boards." C'mon Arby's customers, class it up a little! In the meantime, look for a late summer opening.

       

What is it about dilapidated hospitals that are make them so beautiful? Today the Kingston Lounge's Richard Nickel, Jr. posted photos from a trip to one within the Fort Totten landmark district near Bayside, Queens. A little history lesson: "Built in 1864, the year in which the primary purpose of the Fort shifted from defense of the mouth of the East River to casualty support and hospital care, the facility served the Army in various capacities until 1974, when it was emptied and abandoned. Sometime before 1920 a cafeteria annex was added to the rear of the structure; at some point prior to abandonment, the hospital appears to have been repurposed for office and administrative use, and the basement for storage."

This morning there was a rally to save the historic Underground Railroad site in Chelsea, which like everything else in this city is being threatened by a building owner's "remodeling" project. Students, activists, local officials and preservationists held the rally and teach-in at the building's site, the Hopper-Gibbons House at 339 West 29th Street, which was a hiding place for runaway slaves. The Landmarks Preservation Commission is actively considering designating it a protected landmark, but meanwhile the current owner continues to receive building permits. One local told the NY Times last year, “Being one of the few African-Americans on the block, I have an emotional connection to this history. You have a lot of cultural history in New York that money seems to want to push out of the way.”

Are Queens and Kerouac getting overlooked by the Landmarks Preservation Commission? Preservationists are making some noise about the Ozone Park walk-up where Jack Kerouac started On the Road. He lived with his parents at the 133-01 Cross Bay Blvd home starting in 1943, after being let out of a Navy psychiatric ward with an "Honorable Discharge With Indifferent Character." The apartment is something locals would like to see preserved and honored, and this Sunday the Queens Historical Society will run a guided trolley tour past not only the home, but seven other sites.

The Landmarks Preservation Committee discussed the proposed renovations to 347 Fulton Street in a meeting this week, as Arby's works towards turning the historic Gage & Tollner space (previously a T.G.I.Fridays) into their standard fast food chain restaurant. Brownstoner reports back, saying, "A majority (six) of the LPC commissioners voted to send the Arby's team back to the drawing board, taking particular exception to their plans for a light-colored floor and the size and structure of the booths and ordering counter; in addition, the commissioners didn't care for the proposed removal of a portion of the mirrored arcade and the addition of certain illuminated signs." The LPC hopes that the Arby's folks will stray from their franchise aesthetic—and after all, isn't that the point of moving into the space anyway? While you wait to sink your teeth into a roast beef sandwich or 1040-calorie sausage gravy biscuit, read Lost City's comparison between the new and the original establishment.

The Landmark Preservation Commission voted unanimously yesterday to make Fillmore Place in Williamsburg a historic district. The one-block street holds 29 mid-19th-century rowhouses, including Henry Miller's boyhood home, which will now be protected from any major alterations. The LPC's chairman told the Brooklyn Paper they were “Constructed for working class-tenants, the architecture of the buildings in this district has more in common with fashionable middle- and upper-class single-family rowhouses than the tenements that were typically built to house them. The district is an evocative reminder of this period in Brooklyn’s history.” Last year there was a machete attack on the block, but hopefully this designation will shine a positive light on what Miller himself once called “the most enchanting street I have ever seen in all my life."

It's been over two years since the Landmarks Preservation Commission received a proposal for the creation of a new South Village Historic District, and preservationists are frustrated with the alterations made to the historic landscape they've been trying to save. The NY Times reports that "owners of buildings in the area began filing for permits to alter or demolish their properties." From townhouses circa 1835 to a strip of 1861 houses that included Le Figaro Cafe, facades are being destroyed and buildings are being gutted. There may be some progress now, however, as the LPC is holding a community meeting tonight "to discuss the designation of the district: a swath of the city extending south from Washington Square Park and West Fourth Street to Broome Street, and bordered by La Guardia Place to the east, and Seventh Avenue South to the west." Are the recent efforts too little, too late? Will the landmarking process move forward? Stay tuned! But as Curbed points out, keep in mind that even the designation goes through, "a historic district does not mean there won't be casualties."

Could the beloved, longest-running movie house in the nation be saved? The NY Post reports that the 91-year-old Ridgewood Theatre in Queens, on the block for $14 million last year after closing (a price that went down), will reopen partly as a theater.

Not too long ago Brownstoner reported on a rumor that a fast food restaurant was looking to set up shop at the former Gage & Tollner space at 374 Fulton Street in Downtown Brooklyn, where the likes of Mae West dined back in the day. The Daily News has now discovered it will be home to the roast beef sandwich slingers of Arby's. The Landmarks Preservation Commission did say there would be a meeting addressing the proposed alterations to the historic interior, but insisted the gas lamps and wall-length mirrors would remain. However, the franchisee Raymond Chera told the News: “We’re keeping everything in place, and anything we move in will be nonpermanent and easy to move out. It will probably be the most beautiful Arby’s ever.” But will it be prettier than the T.G.I.Friday's that was there before it? Meanwhile, over in Queens things at Arby's are looking quite a bit different.

A coalition of community groups and preservationists have filed a lawsuit against the Landmarks Preservation Commission [LPC] and St. Vincent’s Hospital to try and block the demolition of the distinctive O’Toole building in Greenwich Village. You'll recall that after a bitter public battle, St. Vincent's hospital was granted a “hardship-status” exemption last October to raze the landmark building to make way for a 299-foot-tall medical tower. The lawsuit, spearheaded by a group called Protect the Village Historic District, argues that the LPC "did not make an adequate investigation of alternatives, including the potential reuse of St. Vincent's existing buildings." Officials at St. Vincent's have threatened that the hospital would have to close if it could not build an $830 million medical tower on the site of the O’Toole, which NY Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff hails as a representation of "a moment when some architects rebelled against Modernism’s glass-box aesthetic in favor of ornamental facades." Others simply call it the "overbite building."

The landmarking continues, with the latest designation being a group of row houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant. 1010Wins reports that "a cluster of three dozen 19th-century row houses in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn has been designated as New York City's latest historic district." The announcement came after the LPC voted on the Alice and Agate Courts, which Commission Chairman Robert Tierney called "charming." A little less quaint, but also approved today were One Chase Manhattan Plaza and the Consolidated Edison Building near Union Square.

The Commission also held public hearings to discuss future designations, which include the Lamartine Place Historic District in Chelsea that consists of a dozen houses built between 1846 and 1847 that were associated with the Underground Railroad and the Civil War Draft Riots of 1863. And the Fillmore Place Historic District in Williamsburg is still on the table for a designation as well.

Last summer the Hubbard House, one of the last standing Dutch farmhouses in the city, appealed for designation once again to the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Now Brownstoner reports that tomorrow the LPC will meet, and along with the Hubbard House they'll "take the formal step of voting to calendar the Fillmore Historic District, a one block section on the North Side of Wiliamsburg between Driggs Avenue and Roebling Street. The street is notable because it was built as part of a middle-class housing plan and exhibits a strong architectural cohesiveness. It also gets a shout-out in Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer." (More recently, Fillmore is where one of the machete attacks took place!) Stay tuned for more on the fate of the could-be landmarks, history buffs.

The Times concludes its epic, four-part think piece on the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission today. Yesterday, Robin Pogrebin's series looked into why many churches eschew landmark status (cheaper to demolish), Friday was about how sneaky developers send in the demolition crews mere days before the LPC holds their hearing, and last Wednesday's piece noted the fun fact that LPC chairman Robert Tierney has no background in architecture, planning or historic preservation. Today's coda considers the "delicate dance" between preservationists and developers. DUMBO developer Jed Walentas derides landmarking as "one of the best tools that anti-development people have." But his feisty dance partner, Andrew S. Dolkart at Columbia University, argues, "A relatively tiny proportion of New York land is landmarked. It’s hardly an obstacle to economic growth in the city."

In its second article in a series about the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the NY Times examines the "legal loophole" that developers take advantage of: Once they learn their building might be up for landmark status, developers often "[rush] to obtain a demolition or stripping permit from the... Department of Buildings so that notable qualities can be removed, rendering the structure unworthy of protection." This is what happened in 2006, when the cornices of the 19th century Dakota Stables were removed; the LPC didn't landmark it since it was "irreparably changed"-- now you have luxury condo The Harrison. There are proposed City Council bills to prevent builders from similar action, but some think there should be better communication between the DOB and LPC. One LPC commissioner says, "When a property owner goes to the buildings department for a permit to strip, it should be a red flag."

The NY Times begins a series on the Landmarks Preservation Commission's workings. The Times finds an "overtaxed agency that has taken years to act on some proposed designations, even as soaring development pressures put historic buildings at risk." While the LPC says necessary work to research requests cannot be put under deadlines, there is the proposal to enlarge the Park Slope historic district that has been lingering for 7 years. (A judge ordered the LPC to work faster, since letting proposals "languish is to defeat the very purpose of the L.P.C. and invite the loss of irreplaceable landmarks.") Many preservationists chime in about LPC Commissioner Robert Tierney--one says, "He’s a guy who’s had no demonstrable interest in historic preservation, who has the most important preservation job in New York City."

The South Street Seaport redevelopment plan proposed by General Growth Properties and SHoP Architects has been panned by the community since day one, though favored by the Bloomberg administration. Curbed reports the Landmarks Preservation Commission "slapped the proposal around like an abusive drunk stepfather. The massing, scale and height of the new buildings (especially that 42-story condo/hotel on the waterfront) were deemed inappropriate for the Seaport Historic District, and the LPC was also against moving the century-old Tin Building to the end of Pier 17." There was no vote, so the application is still considered active, and the GGP declared they were "undeterred," and "remain committed to our plan to revitalize the seaport district, add necessary amenities and open space, and respect the unique historical character of this cherished neighborhood."

NYU owns the land under the complex and two of the three towers (the third is a moderate-income housing complex for neighborhood residents NYU was required to build). [The University] wished to build a 40-story tower on the soon-to-be-landmarked open space north of the Picasso sculpture, blocking the public view of the art work. GVSHP adamantly opposed the plan, saying it violated the entire notion of landmarking the complex, and urged the LPC to protect the open space as part of its designation.

Earlier today the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to welcome five more structures into the elite family of New York City landmarks. According to City Room, the newly protected locations are:
• The Tompkinsville pool in Staten Island (above left) and its modern L-shaped recreation center, one of five WPA-era pools opened in the summer of 1936. (The most famous of the bunch being McCarren Pool.)
• The Betsy Head Pool and Recreation Center, located within a 10.5-acre park in Brownsville, Brooklyn, which also opened in '36. The commission's statement maintains that "the recreation center is noteworthy for the extensive use of recessed glass-block walls and a rooftop observation gallery with parabolic arches that support a cantilevered canopy on the roof."
• Fire Engine Company No. 53 (above right) at 175 East 104th Street in East Harlem, which was finished in 1884 and now houses the Manhattan Community Access Corporation, a local cable television station. The four-story brick building is comprised of a cast-iron base with a wide entrance, with decorative motifs such as torches, terra cotta sunflowers and sunbursts.
• The Public National Bank of New York building (1923) at Avenue C and Seventh Street, which the commission digs for its "Viennese-inspired, terra cotta wreath of fruit which originally held a clock, an eagle and decorative urns."
• The former Wheatsworth Bakery, a seven-story brick factory located at 444 East 10th Street. Finished in 1928, the bakery was designed in the Art Deco and Viennese Secessionist styles by Williamsburg architect J. Edwin Hopkins for the cracker manufacturer that invented the Milk-Bone dog biscuit. It's now a storage warehouse. A landmarked storage warehouse.

After reviewing a new design that one commissioner promised would “rival the Tate,” the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved revised plans for a massive residential and retail development at the disused Domino Sugar Refinery in Williamsburg. One bit of good news is that the iconic Domino sign, which had been missing from previous designs, is now preserved. Brownstoner was liveblogging the hearing and reports that LPC chairman Robert Tierney called it a "brilliant adaptive plan." Groundbreaking is expected to occur in the fall of 2009. See more approved renderings here, none of which beat the gingerbread designs.

One of the last Dutch farmhouses in the city, the Hubbard House, currently stands in at 2138 McDonald Ave in Brooklyn, but could soon be a thing of the past if it follows in the footsteps of the farmhouses before it. The Brooklyn Eagle reports that the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) will meet next Tuesday to hear out owner John Antonides's case, one that he has been voicing for the past 10 years.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission is once again considering a number of buildings and areas for potential landmarking or historic district designation, such as the Webster Hall, Fisk Terrace-Midwood Park in Broolyn, and One Chase Manhattan Plaza. You can see the list here - PDF.