Sixty-one unit apartment building to be built on Varick Street. The owner of 100 Varick Street sought a variance from BSA to build a 79- unit, 109-foot tall, 65,980-squarefoot residential development covering two lots located across from the Holland Tunnel entry plaza in Manhattan, zoned for manufacturing uses. No parking would be added to the development. At the first hearing before BSA, the owners of adjacent 125 Varick opposed the development, explaining that they held … <Read More>
Board of Standards & Appeals
Aeronautics school gets variance for new dorm
New dormitory next to LaGuardia to house 200 students. The Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology operates a school on a sevenacre site at 90th Street and Ditmars Boulevard opposite LaGuardia Airport in Queens. Vaughn applied to BSA for a variance to build its first dormitory on an undeveloped portion of its lot. The three-story, 200- bed dorm would exceed height limits and yard requirements.
Vaughn argued that the proposed dorm was necessary to attract … <Read More>
Residential use approved in Red Hook industrial zone
BSA sides with owner despite strong opposition. On August 22, 2006, BSA granted a variance to Atlas Packaging Solutions Holding Corporation, the owner of a vacant, 2,500- square-foot lot at 146 Conover Street in Red Hook, Brooklyn, to allow construction of a six-unit, four-story, 5,350-square-foot residential building in a manufacturing zone (M2-1). Prior to 1980, the lot contained a residential building.
In support of the variance, Atlas argued that the site’s small size and the … <Read More>
Whitney Museum gets variance for addition
Whitney Museum’s programmatic needs warrant variances for height, floor area, and retail space. On July 25, 2006, BSA granted variances to the Whitney Museum of American Art in the Upper East Side Historic District, Manhattan. The additions, including a nine-story, 178-foot Renzo Piano-designed tower required variances for height, setback, floor area, and frontage.
On May 24, 2005, Landmarks approved the museum enlargement and issued a permit on January 5, 2006. 2 CityLand 73 (June 15, … <Read More>
Permit denied to developer who cheated on demolition
Developer caught on video demolishing building with mechanical excavator and without a permit. In July 2005, Isaac Katan, of Global Development, received demolition permits to dismantle the building at 182 15th Street in Park Slope, Brooklyn to make way for a new 62-unit, 11-story residential building. Buildings issued a stop-work order and then rescinded, stopping Katan’s work for almost a month from October 4th to November 11th. On November 16th, the City Council rezoned Park … <Read More>
BSA grants variance for Harlem church project
Church sought approval for 35 market- rate residential units in East Harlem. BSA granted a variance to the Church of the Resurrection, permitting an eight-story residential building at 325 East 101st Street, in East Harlem, Manhattan. The new 47,984-square-foot building will be located on an 8,629-square-foot lot that currently contains a two-story church, which will be demolished. The new building will contain a church and elementary school on the first and second floors, and 35,552 … <Read More>