Support voiced for designation of two homes built in 1823. Landmarks heard testimony on the 486 and 488 Greenwich Street houses on April 10, 2007. Built in 1823 for German-born tailor John Rohr, the two-anda- half story, Federal-style row houses feature dormered peaked roofs, brick cladding, and stone lintels and sills. Rohr built a group of five row houses at the corner of Greenwich and Canal Streets, and 486 and 488 Greenwich remain the only two not designated.
Brothers Jon and Geoffrey Hendricks, who each spoke at the hearing, own the row houses. Jon testified that “landmarks are an important part of the city,” but that “the process is complex and personally expensive.” Jon proposed that owners should somehow be compensated when Landmarks designates their homes, and requested an opportunity to speak with Landmarks’ General Counsel Mark Silberman about what landmarking would entail. Similarly ambivalent, Geoffrey Hendricks stated that they spent 30 years bringing the “derelict” buildings into their current state, and that increased costs associated with landmarking would be difficult for him as a retired artist.
LPC: 486 Greenwich Street House (LP- 2225); 488 Greenwich Street House (LP- 2224) (April 10, 2007).