Twelve-story, 101,243 sq.ft. East 95th Street school required BSA approval. Trevor Day School, a private school with four Manhattan locations, applied to BSA for a special permit and variance to construct a 12-story combined middle and high school at 312 East 95th Street. The building design called for a four-story, 84-foot tall base with 10,300 sq.ft. floor plates. It would rise an additional eight stories, each with 6,200 sq.ft. floor plates, to a total height … <Read More>
Board of Standards & Appeals
BSA grandfathers 16-story Lower East Side hotel
Hotel developer admits its foundation work damaged adjacent building. Developer D.A.B. Group LLC received a foundation permit on September 29, 2008 for its planned 16-story Lower East Side hotel at Rivington and Orchard Streets. Excavation work began one week after the City Planning Commission voted to downzone the area. D.A.B. then obtained a full building permit at 2:21 p.m. on the day that the City Council voted to approve the East Village/Lower East Side rezoning. … <Read More>
Variance for autism school granted
School’s plans would violate street wall height requirement. The Learning Spring Elementary School, a school for high-functioning autistic children, applied to BSA for a variance to construct a new 27,492 sq.ft. elementary and middle school at 345 Second Avenue at East 20th Street to replace its current Chelsea facility. The building design called for an eight-story section at the corner of East 20th Street running along the first 42 ft. of Second Avenue. The building … <Read More>
Residential use in commercial district allowed
Not-for-profit granted variance partly because of programmatic need to provide affordable housing and hardship associated with protecting adjacent elevated subway. SoBRO Development Corporation applied to BSA for a variance to construct a ten-story, mixed-use building containing 98 dwelling units and ground floor retail. The new construction would be sited on two vacant tax lots, including one that formerly housed an automotive service station for over sixty years. Prior to its hearing before BSA, SoBRO changed … <Read More>
Commercial building allowed in SI special district
Applicant claimed that a conforming residential development would not yield a reasonable return given the lot’s irregular shape, location, and sloping grade. Joseph Maza applied to BSA for a variance to build a one-story commercial building with 21 accessory parking spaces at 4553 Arthur Kill Road in Charleston, a Staten Island neighborhood located just north of the Outerbridge Crossing. The site was located within the Special South Richmond Development District, a district established in 1975 … <Read More>
Building permit reinstated
Tenant’s reliance on past front yard requirements tops Buildings’ new policy. Thomas E. Carroll applied to Buildings for demolition and construction permits to build a single-family home on his designated plot at 607 Bayside Drive in Breezy Point, Queens, a 403-acre private community owned by Breezy Point Cooperative. Carroll leased his plot from the Cooperative in 1960, the same year the Cooperative incorporated. Carroll’s plot, like other individual plots in the Cooperative, had been historically … <Read More>