Three Federal rowhouses on Dominick Street designated

Landmarks declined to designate a fourth rowhouse at 38 Dominick Street after the owner argued that building had lost its historic fabric. On March 27, 2012, Landmarks designated three adjacent Federal-era houses at 32, 34, and 36 Dominick Street near the Holland Tunnel in SoHo as individual City landmarks. Landmarks had originally calendared the three buildings along with a fourth Federal rowhouse at 38 Dominick Street, but the agency ultimately declined to … <Read More>


Interior and exterior of Art Deco skyscraper considered

70 Pine Street in Manhattan’s Financial District. Image: Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Owner and preservation groups supported designating the exterior and first-floor lobby of 66-story tower at 70 Pine Street. On May 10, 2011, Landmarks simultaneously heard testimony on the potential exterior and interior designations of the Cities Service Building at 70 Pine Street in Lower Manhattan. The 66-story tower was designed and built by Clinton & Russell, Holton & George in 1932 for … <Read More>


Remnants of historic free black community heard

Rossville AME Zion Church at 584 Bloomingdale Road in Staten Island. Image : LPC.

Four 19th century buildings in Staten Island’s Sandy Ground, one of the first communities settled by freed slaves, considered. On August 10, 2010, Landmarks heard testimony on the potential designations of four buildings located in Staten Island’s Sandy Ground community, one of the country’s oldest communities settled by freed slaves. The buildings date to the 19th century and include the Rossville … <Read More>


MAS’s Kent Barwick Reflects on Promoting a More Livable City

Kent Barwick has a stickball bat hiding in the corner of his office. He swears he does not use it, and who can argue with him? His office is in the Villard Houses in Midtown, and its courtyard is too small for a game. But physical boundaries aside, he would never have the time to show off his skills. Mr. Barwick, a graduate of Syracuse University and a Harvard University Loeb Fellow, is the current … <Read More>


HPD proposes large complex for South Bronx

Plan for seven buildings includes Boricua College campus, 679 residential units and over 36,000 sq.ft. of retail. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development proposed to amend the Melrose Commons Urban Renewal Area Plan in the Bronx to facilitate a large, seven building, mixed-use, residential and commercial complex called Boricua Village to be constructed on a 4.2-acre lot in the northeast corner of Melrose Commons.

HPD’s plan called for 18 changes to the existing Melrose … <Read More>


HDC’s Simeon Bankoff Talks About Life on the Preservation Front Lines

The temperature was in the 90s the day Simeon Bankoff met with City- Land. Mr. Bankoff, Executive Director of the Historic Districts Council, a prominent city preservationist organization founded in 1971 as part of the Municipal Art Society, and operating independently since 1986, had just returned from a demonstration on the steps of City Hall. While most would have wilted, the charming and voluble Mr. Bankoff animatedly discoursed for over an hour on the Historic … <Read More>