Brooklyn Botanical Garden building designated

Landmarks votes to designate this early 1900s Brooklyn Botanical Garden’s building. Photo: LPC.

Administration building designed by McKim,Mead & White. On March 13, 2007, Landmarks voted unanimously to designate the Laboratory Administration Building within the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. Constructed in phases between 1912 and 1917, the building originally housed a physiological and elementary laboratory along with photography dark rooms and research space. Currently, the building houses the Garden’s library and administrative offices, as well as … <Read More>


$3.2 million tax exemption awarded Brooklyn developer

The Albee Street Mall on Gold Street will be razed to make way for one of the tallest buildings in downtown Brooklyn. Image courtesy of Greenberg Farrow.

Downtown Brooklyn mall to be demolished for large mixed-use retail, office, and residential center. On February 13, 2007, the New York City Industrial Development Agency, a component of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, approved financial assistance for the construction of a new 1.8-million-square-foot mixed-use development in … <Read More>


New BID for Downtown Brooklyn approved

Plan encompasses 130 businesses. On February 7, 2007, the Planning Commission approved an application by the Department of Small Business Services to create a new Court Livingston Schermerhorn Business Improvement District for 350 tax lots and 130 businesses in downtown Brooklyn.

The proposed BID will allow an annual assessment on businesses and residents to enhance security, sanitation, holiday lighting, marketing, maintenance and economic development. Within the boundaries of the BID are a Barnes & Noble, … <Read More>


Plan for Brooklyn Bridge Park Withstands Challenge

Citizens group challenged inclusion of private residential development. In 2002, Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki created the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation as a subsidiary of the Empire State Development Corporation and charged it with the responsibility to design and build a proposed park on Port Authority land along Brooklyn’s East River waterfront. The 2002 agreement required that no less than 80 percent of the acreage be park space, all revenue generated from commercial uses … <Read More>


Court affirms approval of Brooklyn Sanitation garage

Property owners and neighboring residential buildings sued to stop Sanitation garage. The Second Department affirmed the lower court decision of Justice Abraham Gerges dismissing claims brought by property owners, nearby businesses and residents objecting to the condemnation of land in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn for construction of a Sanitation truck garage. 1 CityLand 48 (Dec. 2004).

The court found the parties’ claims untimely since their challenges to the condemnation were entirely based on the land use … <Read More>


New Brooklyn historic district to be considered

Landmarks takes first steps towards designation of historic district in Flatbush. On September 19, 2006, Landmarks voted unanimously to hold a public hearing on the proposal to designate 250 single-family homes in Flatbush, Brooklyn as the Midwood Park – Fiske Terrace Historic District.

Fiske Terrace features single-family homes developed from 1905 to 1920 by Theodore B. Ackerson on a 30-acre, densely wooded estate purchased from George Fiske. In 1905, Ackerson cleared the land, set out … <Read More>