Art Deco tower and its lobby landmarked

Warren & Wetmore-designed eighteen- story building features an ornate marble and bronze lobby. On September 20, 2011, Landmarks designated the 1925 Madison- Belmont Building at 181 Madison Avenue as an individual City landmark, and the building’s first-floor lobby as an interior landmark. The architecture firm Warren & Wetmore designed the eighteen-story building with Neo-Renaissance and Art Deco elements, including iron and bronze framing on the building’s entrances and first three floors. The lower floor detailing, … <Read More>


New manufacturing district created for Midtown

New zoning district created to protect existing commercial uses will also facilitate private developer’s mixed-use project. On September 21, 2011, the City Council approved the Department of City Planning’s proposal to create the new M1- 6D manufacturing zoning district. The Council also approved an accompanying proposal by Edison Properties to apply the new M1-6D district to the mid-block portions of two blocks bounded by West 28th and West 30th Streets and Seventh and Eighth Avenues<Read More>


Council refused to landmark Bowery rowhouse

135 Bowery. Image: CityLand

Owner of Federal-style building plans to redevelop site with sevenstory office building. On September 21, 2011, the City Council rejected Landmarks’ June 2011 designation of the Hardenbrook-Somarindyck House at 135 Bowery in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The three-and-ahalf story Federal-style rowhouse was built circa 1817 and is owned by First American International Bank. Pursuant to the Charter the Council may modify or disapprove a landmark designation.

The bank purchased 135 Bowery … <Read More>


Renovation of Fifth Avenue landmark blocked

Preliminary injunction issued after preservationists claim renovations exceeded proposal approved by Landmarks. In April 2011, Landmarks approved Vornado Realty Trust’s proposal to renovate the Manufacturers Trust Company Building at 510 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Landmarks designated the Skidmore, Owens & Merrill-designed, glass and metal building as an individual City landmark in 1997. In February 2011, Landmarks designated the building’s first two floors as an interior landmark.

Shortly after the interior landmarking, Vornado proposed … <Read More>


Variance for 6-story project in place of sliver building

Developer sought variance after Buildings revoked permit for twelvestory project. Wai Sun Realty obtained a permit to build a twelvestory, mixed-use building on a narrow through-block lot at 183 East Broadway in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The bottleneck-shaped lot has approximately 26 feet of frontage along East Broadway and 44 feet of frontage along Henry Street. The project site is zoned R7-2 with a partial C1-5 commercial overlay.

Wai Sun demolished a five-story building to … <Read More>


New Brodsky project OK’d on Chelsea seminary

Proposed six-story building adjacent to the existing West Building along West 20th Street. Image: Courtesy of Beyer Blinder Belle.

Private developer will purchase and adaptively reuse portion of General Theological Seminary and construct a new residential building. On July 19, 2011, Landmarks approved the Brodsky Organization’s plan to develop a six-story residential building on a site occupied by a tennis court within the General Theological Seminary’s campus at 400 West 21st Street in the … <Read More>