Tower moved to new location to diminish impact. The Health and Hospitals Corporation sought Landmarks approval to construct a 132- foot telecommunications tower and an equipment building on the northeastern grounds of Seaview Hospital in Staten Island. The Seaview Hospital complex was, at the time of its 1905-38 construction, the largest and most costly tuberculosis hospital in rowthe country. It was sensitively designed to preserve the rural landscape along a 230-acre portion of Todt Hill … <Read More>
Landmarks denied permit to legalize addition
After constructing an addition without permits, the owner asked Landmarks to allow the illegal structure to be legalized and expanded. 160 East 92nd Street is a vernacular clapboard dwelling with Greek Revival and Italianate style elements. It was built in 1852-53 and was designated an individual landmark in 1988. Without Landmarks approval, Freud 92 Properties LLC, the building owner, demolished a two-story, wood frame rear yard addition and replaced it with an unarticulated, windowless, two-story … <Read More>
Extra floor allowed for small Chelsea building
BSA allowed seventh floor despite community board objection. Steve Edelson, the owner of 209 West 20th Street, a 2,309-square-foot lot in Chelsea, proposed to replace a vacant one-story garage with a seven-story, 7,090-square-foot residential building with twelve units. The seventh floor would exceed the R8B district’s 60-foot height limitation and provide one additional unit setback atop the structure.
Edelson argued that the site’s shallow 81-foot depth coupled with the district’s 30-foot rear yard requirement made … <Read More>
Permit awarded to art school
Performing arts school to convert vacant three-story building. Montgomery Academy, a performing arts school located at 414 Utica Avenue, Brooklyn, sought a special permit to convert a vacant three-story commercial building on nearby Lefferts Avenue into additional school space. Montgomery stated that the building was necessary to accommodate increased enrollment.
Prior to submitting its application, Montgomery sought alternate sites, but failed to find any buildings that allowed a school as-of-right suitable with respect to size, … <Read More>
Circus school gets variance
Trapeze training required higher ceilings. The New Wave Circus Center sought BSA approval to locate a circus school in Coney Island where it planned to offer circus- related classes including tightrope walking, unicycle, trapeze and juggling. To accommodate the space needed for circus activities, New Wave would demolish a one-story commercial building at 2920 Coney Island Avenue and replace it with a newly constructed, 49-foot tall building covering the full extent of the 2,160-square-foot lot. … <Read More>
Two residences allowed on one lot
BSA accepts Buildings’ zoning interpretation of minimum lot area requirement. The Staten Island Borough Commissioner rescinded a stop-work order and approved construction of two, two-story single-family homes on one zoning lot in the Prince’s Bay section of the borough. A civic association in opposition appealed the approval to BSA.
At the BSA hearings, the civic association argued that the project did not meet the 3,800-square-foot minimum lot area requirement set in the City’s zoning code. … <Read More>