New Townhouse Approved for Vacant Lot

Sculptural dwelling takes cues from arched bays of carriages houses common to Clinton Hill’s Vanderbilt Avenue. On February 7, 2017, the Landmarks Preservation Commission considered and approved an application to construct a new building on a vacant lot at 311 Vanderbilt Avenue in Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill Historic District. The site, currently used for parking, is on a through-block lot, with an existing 1890 townhouse facing Clinton Avenue. The planned building will rise to … <Read More>


Two Adjoining Bank Buildings Designated as Individual Landmarks

“Bank Row” buildings represent two eras of 20th-century economic expansion. Landmarks voted to designate two bank buildings in Brooklyn as individual City landmarks at its meeting on January 24, 2017. The elder of the two landmarks, the People’s Trust Company Building, stands at 181 Montague Street, and the second item, the National Title Guaranty Building, adjoins it at 185 Montague Street. The buildings are the only unprotected historic structures on what is known … <Read More>


Waldorf-Astoria Interiors Proceed Toward Designation

Speakers at hearing on designation lavish praise on quality and significance of hotel’s opulent Art Deco interior spaces. On January 24, 2017, Landmarks held a hearing on the potential designation of certain interior spaces in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, at 301 Park Avenue in Manhattan. The exterior of the hotel, with its block-sized footprint, was designated an individual landmark in 1993. Landmarks officially added the interiors to its calendar on November 1, 2006.  The specific … <Read More>


Administrative Justice Coordinator David Goldin: A Life in Public Service

The 2005 City Charter Revision Commission proposed a Charter amendment to require the Mayor and the Chief Judge of the Office of the Administrative Trials and Hearings to create a code of ethics for the over 500 administrative law judges and hearing officers in the City’s administrative tribunals. At the time it was unclear to what extent the State Code of Judicial Conduct applied to and could be enforced against ALJs. The proposition passed, and … <Read More>


Commissioners Find Application Much Improved After Revisions, but Still in Need of Further Refinement

Changes made to controversial Jane Street development included the replacement of glass and cast stone with red brick and concrete panels. On January 17, 2017, the Landmarks Preservation Commission considered a revised proposal to replace a 1921 garage building at 11 Jane Street in the Greenwich Village Historic District with a new residential structure. The applicants proposed to replace the two-story garage with a building rising to five stories at the streetwall, with a … <Read More>


Landmarks Leaves Only One Backlog Item Remaining After Last Meeting of 2016

Ten of thirteen items brought to a final disposition were designated by Landmarks and will proceed to City Council for ratification. On December 13, 2016, the Landmarks Preservation Commission made its final dispositive votes on items prioritized for designation in the commission’s Backlog Initiative, with one exception. The initiative, began in 2015, sought to address the backlog of designation items that had been added to the commission’s calendar before 2001 but never brought to … <Read More>