L.P.C.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission held an emergency hearing today to in order to hear testimony from the public regarding the former Van Tassel and Kearney horse auction house at 126-128 East 13th Street.

Built in 1904, the building served as an auction house for well-heeled New Yorkers including the Belmont and Vanderbilt families to buy horses in the early 20th century. After the 20's, when cars replaced animals as the city's preferred mode of transportation, the building was turned into a machinery shop, and during World War II trained women in the industrial arts while the men were off in Europe fighting. Then, in 1978, artist Frank Stella housed his studio there, until the building was sold in 2005.
Representatives from various elected officials' offices came to voice concern over losing the building, including State Senator Tom Duane, Assemblywoman Deborah Glick and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. Councilwoman Rosie Mendez pleaded for the building's landmarking in person. Other organizations with representatives that testified in favor of the landmarking included the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, the Municipal Arts Society, the Union Square Community Coalition, and the Metropolitan Chapter of the Victorian Society in America, along with several area residents.
The 11,777-square-foot building was sold in 2005 for $10 million, according to city records, with the owner listed as Isaac Mishan. At the L.P.C. hearing, when asked by The Real Estate, the alleged owner refused to identify himself, nor would he answer any questions. His attorney, in testimony to the L.P.C., said that the developer would prefer to work with the commission to find some sort of compromise, but if forced into a corner would consider seeking a hardship variance in order to demolish the extant building and build a seven-story condo building.
Johnathon Hayes, a 15-year area resident, told the L.P.C. at the meeting, "The space cries out for adaptive reuse .... We cannot live by luxury condominiums alone."
The L.P.C. tabled the matter as they have a 40-day stand-still agreement with the owner. It will be taken up again in the near future.  read more »

-Matthew Grace

On Sept. 19, the Landmarks Preservation Commission will be considering the designation of a Crown Heights North historic district. Tucked between Eastern Parkway on the south and Atlantic Avenue on the north, this neighborhood is smack-dab in the middle of Brooklyn's Caribbean-immigrant enclave. It's also got a rich history, according to the L.P.C.'s monograph on the 'hood:

Originally a rural area tucked inside the village of Bedford, at the eastern reach of the city of Brooklyn, most of the land was owned by the Lefferts family and worked by the family's slaves. The Leffertses started to sell their holdings in the 1850's, and by the 1870's wealthy folks started to move to St. Mark's Avenue.
After the Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883, a large influx of people started to transform the rural area, and large-scale development started in the early to mid-1880's.
Having lived in the area ourselves, we can attest to the beauty of some of the large mansions in the area. We've got no pictures for as of now, but let's see what happens over the weekend.  read more »

-Matthew Grace

The Villager (you have to wait till tomorrow for the article to go online) reports today that the Landmarks Preservation Commission's Tuesday hearing was once again a face-off between supporters and opponents of developer Gregg Singer and his plan to convert the old P.S. 64, on East Ninth Street near Tompkins Square Park, to a school dorm.
After much debate and ado, the L.P.C. extended a standstill agreement until June 21, when it would convene once again to discuss the future of the building.
The Real Estate had a chat with Mr. Singer today, who wanted to clear up some misconceptions about his project. According to Mr. Singer, there's been a misunderstanding regarding the allowable floor-area ratio (F.A.R.) of the building. It's been reported that he's seeking a larger F.A.R. of 6.5 through a community-facility-use bonus. But, according to Mr. Singer, a deed restriction mandates that the property be developed for community use (such as the planned dorm), and the F.A.R. is 6.5 as of right. Whew! Everybody understand that? We've got a call out to the Department of City Planning right now to confirm that. Check back later for updates.
We took the occasion to ask Mr. Singer about his Article 78 and seperate $100 million civil lawsuit against the city, and he said he's confident that he'll prevail in both. "We think we're going to win that, and so does the city, so they're trying to stop it" through landmarking, he said.
Mr. Singer said that the city's conspired to pressure schools to not commit to using his planned dorm. As Mr. Singer said, schools that might need cooperation from the D.C.P. or Board of Standards and Appeals for future projects will not cross the Mayor on this particular project. But, he said, he's confident that the dorm will be used once--and if--it's built. Possible candidates include N.Y.U., the New School and S.V.A. Asked what would happen if no school agreed to use the dorm after it's built, Mr. Singer said that it would be "our financial loss--eventually the lenders would take over."
Mr. Singer also cautioned against what he said would be a bad legal precedent if the push for landmarking P.S. 64 went through. He insists that he has a legal right to build the dorm, and if activists stop his project, the door will be open to the capricious whims of activists to stop projects that on paper a developer has every right pursue.
See our earlier coversage of P.S. 64 here.
-Matthew Grace

On Tuesday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated three city properties as landmarks. The first, shown here, is the Loew's Paradise Theater interior, at 2405-2419 Grand Concourse, in the Bronx.

The John Eberson-design building was completed in September of 1929; it was one of five so-called "wonder" theaters, which served large population centers outside of Manhattan. It has 4,000 seats and was designed "to evoke the art and architecture of the late Renaissance or early Baroque period," as the L.P.C. puts it. Boston's Caproni and Brother produced many of the sculptures that grace the interior, along with artificial trees, vines and birds.

The theater was converted to a multiplex in 1973, then closed in 1993, before reopening as an entertainment center in October 2005.

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According to this week's Villager (article not yet online), Diane von Furstenberg forgot to go before Community Board 2 in her quest to combine and renovate two buildings--at 444 and 446 West 14th Street--before she went before the Landmarks Preservation Commission this past Tuesday.

While community boards serve in a strictly advisory capacity, the L.P.C. (and other city agencies) do listen to their input. The L.P.C. told Ms. von Furstenberg to go before the board before applying for a certificate of appropriateness again. Because the two buildings are in the Gansevoort Market Historic District, the L.P.C. must approve the plans.  read more »

Ms. von Furstenberg bought the properties in 2004 from meat wholesaler Gachot & Gachot for $10.5 million. She intends to convert them into a complex with theaters, event spaces, offices and an enclosed roof space, according to The Villager.

-Matthew Grace

On Tuesday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission declined to make a decision regarding 122 Greenwich Avenue, at Eighth Avenue and 13th Street in the Village. According to City Realty and other attendees, there was much back and forth, with some residents--and the New York Landmarks Conservancy and the NYC Chapter of the American Institute of Architects--favoring Hines' plan to develop the current parking lot into an 11-story, 36-unit glass-sheathed undulating residential tower, and several dozen opposed to it. The ground floor, at 8,000 square feet, is planned for retail.  read more »

The Sheraton Russell, at the corner of 37th Street and Park Avenue, is slated to close next month in preparation for demolition so that SJP Properties, of Parsippany, N.J., can develop a 21-story condominium at the site.

But Assembly member Dick Gottfried, the Historic Districts Council and Community Board 6 are trying to get a hearing in front of the Landmarks Preservation Commission before then to see if they can get the building, built in 1922, landmarked. They sent a letter asking for just that to the L.P.C. earlier this week.  read more »

SJP bought the bought the building late last year for $40 million.

-Matthew Grace

The Washington Square Methodist Church, at 135-139 West Fourth Street just down the street from the park, will be getting a major renovation in order to convert it to a residential building. Talk about sweet digs: This Romanesque Revival church was designed by Charles Hadden and built in 1860, has some great stained-glass windows in front, and is located smack-dab in the middle of the N.Y.U. neighborhood.

Last night, Community Board 2 approved changes to the bluestone behind the church's fence and some minor changes to its rear facade, in addition to the construction of an extra floor. The five floors will be divvied up into eight apartments, if the Landmarks Preservation Commission follows the community board's recommendation and gives it the nod. It has not yet been calendared at the L.P.C.  read more »

We'll post details about the apartments as soon as we can get our hands on them.

- Matthew Grace

The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Austin, Nichols & Co. Warehouse at 184 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg a landmark yesterday. The building sits smack on the East River, making it a distinctive part of the Brooklyn skyline when viewed from Manhattan. The six-story building, built in 1915 and designed by Cass Gilbert, was used to process and package many types of food, from dried fruit and coffee to peanut butter for Sunbeam Foods.

According to the L.P.C. press release, buildings like this--with exposed concrete elevations sloping inward and crowned by flared cornices, it's an example of the Egyptian Revival style!--influenced Le Corbusier and his remarkable Radiant City designs (see Matthew Schuerman's article in The Observer this week for a discussion of Corbusier's influence in New York City; also, check out Michael Calderone's rundown on the Williamsburg real-estate scene).  read more »

It remains to be seen how this will influence developer Louis Kestenbaum's plan to convert the building into 240 luxe condos. The L.P.C.'s designation will wreck havoc on his plans (by architect Karl Fischer, who's all over Billyburg) to enlarge the building's windows, add four additional floors, and insert a 80-by-20-foot open-air courtyard in the center of the 500,000-square-foot building, all by 2008 (we'll see about that).

- Matthew Grace

A new 114,319-square-foot, eight-story residential development on the corner of at 253 Atlantic Avenue (corner of Boerum Place) got the green light from the Board of Standards and Appeals last week. Currently the site of a Mobil gas station, the 64-unit development will finally fill in the squalid gap between downtown Brooklyn and Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens on the Atlantic Avenue strip.

The B.S.A. had to sign off on variances for floor-area ratio, lot coverage and building height requirements.

Views from this building, when completed, will include the lovely, but now defunct, Brooklyn House of Detention right across the street.

This stretch of Atlantic Avenue is booming: the Courthouse, Two Trees' giant newly opened luxe development, is a block away; the Board of Education condo conversion is nearby; and Two Trees' other currently stalled condo project will be atop and adjacent the Independence Bank one block west.

And another Two Trees venture was kicked at and scratched by Brooklyn Community Board 6 last week, but wasn't bitten. The board's land-use and landmarks committee recommended denying Two Trees' application for a rooftop extension on a factory and loft building at 164-168 Atlantic Avenue between Clinton and Court streets. The Italianate-style building was constructed in 1859-1864 and is noted for its stone quoins and bracketed roof cornices.

The property is currently already in the middle of a renovation into an 18-unit, 22,340-square-foot residence. Although Two Trees' has the necessary permits to convert the property, a larger bulkhead, according to board members at the meeting, is necessary because of the switch from commercial use to residential (showers, toilets, etc. take up more hot water, so more mechanicals are necessary on the rooftop).

Despite assurances from Two Trees representative Laura Cheng and attorney J.H. Beyer--who said that the "primary goal is restoration," the bulkhead would be "unobtrusive as possible" and "the spirit of the project is still intact"--the committee was not happy with the changes. Board members called the new bulkhead "distinctly jarring with the antique building," and some suggested "something screwy is going on"--perhaps not pleased that the original plans, already approved by the board, are being changed so drastically. The full board still has to vote on this before it goes back to the Landmarks Preservation Commission for a final decision.

Interestingly, the Historic Districts Council testified before the L.P.C. in 2003 that it had concerns regarding the proposed bulkhead design; it explicitly stated that a historically accurate design be used. Two years later and it's the same old problem.  read more »

- Matthew Grace

City Council member Bill Perkins has taken the 2 Columbus Circle fray to the legislative chamber by introducing a bill that would require the Landmarks Preservation Commission to hold public hearings on alterations to any building the City Council thinks it should hold hearings about. All the council needs to do is get a majority to vote for having the hearings.

Preservationists and activists have been trying to compel the L.P.C. to hold a hearing on the Edward Durrell Stone-designed building for years. To no avail, though; the L.P.C. is standing by its 1996 decision that the building doesn't have enough historical or architectural import for consideration.  read more »

Mr. Perkin's legislation also requires the L.P.C. to hold a hearing to determine whether any building under landmarks consideration should be listed on the state Register of Historic Places.

- Matthew Grace

According to a source who was there, Bank of America's new plan for the renovation of 670 Sixth Avenue at 21st Street was greeted with enthusiasm this past Tuesday at the Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing.

Problem was, the L.P.C. didn't have a quorum: no quorum, no vote. In June, the BoA got approval from Community Board 5 for an earlier design for this future bank branch, which was originally two former brownstones built in the 1850's and combined in 1963; the board was quite taken with it, but the L.P.C. thought it didn't fit in well with the Ladies' Mile Historic District.

So it was back to the drawing board for architectural firm Whidden Silver, brand-design firm Gilmore Group and the BoA's environmental-design team.

It appears to have worked, but we won't know for sure till next month's L.P.C. meeting, when the commission is slated to consider it once again.

Let's hope that the BoA retains some of the geometric quirkiness of this building; as is, it looks nice and funky.

The Real Estate had a quick chat with BoA spokesperson Tara Birk, who flat-out refused to give up any information about the changes and wouldn't make a rendering available. ("We're not going anywhere" is how she put it).  read more »

Oh, well!

- Matthew Grace

Sherida E. Paulson, former chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission (2001-03), wrote an Op Ed in July 30's New York Times on the fate of 2 Columbus Circle, the vaguely Moorish-looking monolith designed by Edward Durrell Stone which is in danger of having its facade ripped off and replaced by a modernistic response to the Time Warner Center.

Ms. Paulson, who refers to Stone's controversial masterpiece in the Op Ed as "the black hole of Columbus Circle," said that " ... preservationists have pressed with new urgency to have the the building designated a landmark. But 2 Columbus Circle simply doesn't qualify. That is the professional judgment of the 19 people, myself included, who have served on the New York Landmarks Commission since 1996."

But--oh damn--one of those 19 people, current L.P.C. commissioner Roberta Brandes Gratz, wrote back to The Times on Aug. 6, saying, "Neither I as an individual commissioner nor the current commission as a whole has rendered a 'professional' judgment on whether there should be a hearing or a designation."

Snap!

Adding fuel to the fire was a letter, on the same day, from Beverly Moss Spatt. Who is Ms. Spatt, you ask? Only the chair of the L.P.C. from 1974 to 1978!! She wrote that she "find[s] it difficult to believe that the 19 commission members since 1996 could have reached an absolute consensus that the building is unworthy of even a public hearing to weigh its merits."  read more »

"If such overwhelming consensus is indeed the case, where is the public record of this decision? The failure to hold a hearing is a distressing sign of how out of touch the current commission is with the public it serves."

Double snap! - Matthew Grace

(Left: The Andrews Coffee shop, as it is now. Right: Apple's rendering of its plan to replace the building with its newest New York store.)

With the vaguely retro-chic Andrews Coffee Shop at Fifth Avenue between 18th and 19th Streets now shuttered, Apple Computers' plan to build a store on the site is running into some trouble.

Last March the board recommended that the Landmarks Preservation Commission not allow the computer company's proposed renovation of the two-story building at 136 Fifth Avenue.

The building, built in 1850 as a four-story rowhouse, had its upper two floors destroyed in a fire in 1960; Andrews opened there in 1982. Apple wanted to remove the existing façade and replace it with gray limestone, and also to extend the rooftop.

The main point of contention was the massive illuminated Apple logo that would serve as the sole identifier of the store. Because it would sit in the Ladies' Mile Historic District, the board was none too happy with the modern, bright design.

So, instead of trying to convince the L.P.C. of the merits of its design over the board's objections, Apple literally went back to the drawing board and came up with a more subdued design.

Now, instead of a renovation, Apple wants to demolish the existing building and construct a new one. But the board found the company's plan once again too too.

Board member Harold Mendes called it "brutally modern, and nothing to do with the context of the neighborhood." Former Board 5 chair Kyle Merker said that Apple's last design was "very troubling," and said of the new proposal: "This is a very modern design, and we're trying to preserve a historic district .... It's a great-looking building, but it's in the wrong place."

Not everyone seems to think the old coffee shop was so in tune with the design of the neighborhood. Bergman said: "It's a refreshing sight for the block. The coffee shop was an eyesore for so long."

Apple's plan is due to go before the L.P.C. on July 26. No word on whether the company will try to convince the commission to sign off on its project without the community board's backing. Calls for comment from Apple are as of this writing unreturned. A spokesperson in California promised to get back to us, and when they do, we'll get back to you.

UPDATE: Apple spokesperson Monica Wik finally got back to The Real Estate. Here we reprint her strange message in its entirety: Matthew In researching the store location you point our below [sic], 136 Fifth Ave.. [sic] I see no such plans for a store, as such I consider the location a speculation at this time and therefore cannot comment on speculation and rumor. Thank you, Monica

Note: As of this posting, the Landmarks commission still has a hearing scheduled to consider the application for an Apple store at 136 Fifth Avenue on July 26. And that rendering, posted above? It's theirs.  read more »

- Matthew Grace

Landmark West (which is hereby on notice that we're not using the exclamation point that is a part of their name! the people have spoken!) is holding a "people's hearing" this Thursday, starting at 1 p.m. at the General Society for Mechanics and Tradesmen Library (20 West 44th Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues).

The group has been taking the Landmarks Preservation Commission to task lately for the commission's refusal to schedule public hearings about the future of 2 Columbus Circle, the imposing and odd, yet strangely beautiful, Edward Durell Stone-designed building that, frankly, is super-cool and should be left the fuck alone (ahem ... back to journalistic impartiality).

Landmark West! is trying to preserve the building's facade from being modernized, and the organization wants to you to show up and testify, whether you're for or against the Museum of Arts and Design's proposed renovations.

And Tom Wolfe (writer, white-suit advocate) is scheduled to give a little speech about the L.P.C.'s lack of the right stuff (get it?). Power to the people!  read more »

- Matthew Grace