Building a New Pennsylvania Station for the 21st Century

The decision to demolish Penn Station nearly 50 years ago haunts New York City today as we grapple with the need to expand our rail transit capacity in the 21st century. The current version of Penn Station, pinned beneath Madison Square Garden, is not merely an unsightly and unwelcoming entrance to our City, it is an overburdened facility that is incapable of being expanded with Madison Square Garden at its current location. That is why … <Read More>


Proposal for New Seven-Story Building Stirs Controversy

Application seeks to replace one-story structure with new residential, ground-floor retail building. On July 9, 2013, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing on a proposal to demolish a building at 130 Seventh Avenue South in the Greenwich Village Historic District, and build a new seven-story building at the site. According to Landmarks’ district designation report, the existing building was constructed in 1937 after the southern extension of Seventh Avenue, to the … <Read More>


Church Representative Opposes Designation [UPDATE: Church Designated]

See below for update.

Medieval Revival-style Catholic Church served as home for the Paulist Fathers. On June 11, 2013, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing on the potential designation of the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, at 8 Columbus Avenue in Manhattan. The church, at the corner of 60th Street, was primarily constructed during the period between 1875 and 1885. The upper parts of the church’s two imposing towers were completed … <Read More>


Greenmarket and the Urbanscape

Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote “In the spring, a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.” May that always be so, but it is equally true today that for many New Yorkers spring also turns thoughts to Greenmarket, a collection of producer-only farmers markets that now blanket the City.

The first Greenmarket opened in July 1976 in a lot on Second Avenue at the Manhattan end of the Queensboro Bridge. Seven farmers sold produce … <Read More>


City Council’s Domenic Recchia on South Brooklyn’s Past, Present, and Future

New York City Council Member Domenic M. Recchia Jr. represents District 47, covering Brooklyn’s Bensonhurst, Gravesend, Coney Island, and Brighton Beach neighborhoods. He is Chair of the City Council’s Finance Committee. He graduated from Brooklyn’s John Dewey High School, played football and received his undergraduate degree at Kent State University, and earned his juris doctor from Atlanta Law School. Recchia also has a Brooklyn private practice specializing in medical malpractice and personal injury.

Brooklyn beginnings.<Read More>


Public Hearing Held on Potential Harrison Street Historic District

Local residents and landmark activists testified for and against designation for a block-long, 19th-century residential enclave. On January 15, 2013, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing on the potential designation of the Harrison Street Historic District in Stapleton, Staten Island. The district primarily lies along Harrison Street, between Quinn and Brownell Streets, and also includes the corner of Brownell and Tompkins Streets.

The proposed district encompasses 43 one and two-family residential properties and … <Read More>