Search Results for: Restoration

Much-reduced Parke-Bernet addition approved

 

980 Madison avenue

Proposed addition approved almost three years after initial proposal. On October 13, 2009, Landmarks voted to approve Aby Rosen and RFR Holdings LLC’s proposal to build a four-story addition to the former Parke- Bernet Galleries building at 980 Madison Avenue in Manhattan’s Upper East Side Historic District. The application had changed dramatically since January 2007 when Landmarks rejected architect Norman Foster’s proposal calling for a 26- story tower on top of … <Read More>

Ridgewood North Historic District designated

Ridgewood North Historic District designated. Photo: LPC.

District’s “Mathews Model Flats” attracted German immigrants living in Bushwick, Williamsburg, and Lower East Side. On September 15, 2009, Landmarks voted to designate 96 buildings in Ridgewood, Queens as the Ridgewood North Historic District. G.X. Mathews Company and Louis Allmendinger designed and developed the area in 1908 and 1911, setting the standard for future tenement construction. The area is characterized by three-story tenement buildings featuring yellow and orange … <Read More>

Hearings held for nine Staten Island buildings

 

Staten Island Armory in Westerleigh, Staten Island. Image: LPC.
Dutch Reformed Church in Port Richmond, Staten Island. Image: LPC.

Commissioners hear testimony on Armory building, two churches, and several residences within the borough. On August 11, 2009, Landmarks held hearings for nine potential City landmarks on Staten Island. Chair Robert B. Tierney said the hearings were part of Landmarks ongoing effort to preserve the borough’s 19th century heritage. Council Member Kenneth Mitchell, whose district … <Read More>

Conversions of rowhouses criticized

Commissioners concerned that proposal would destroy too many original structures. On July 21, 2009, Landmarks met for a second time to discuss Chabad of the West Side’s proposal to convert into a religious preschool two rowhouses located at 43 and 45 West 86th Street in the Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District. The rowhouses were built in the 1890s and designed by architect John Duncan.

A hearing on May 19 revealed sharp divisions between … <Read More>

Conversion of rowhouses to preschool proposed

Renovation would retain only facade and sidewalls. On May 19, 2009, Landmarks heard testimony on a plan to convert two Georgian-style rowhouses, located at 43 and 45 West 86th Street in the Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District, into a religious preschool. The rowhouses, built in 1895 and 1896, were designed by architect John H. Duncan, designer of Grant’s Tomb in Riverside Park.

Architect Charles Platt, of the firm Platt Byard Dovell White, presented … <Read More>

Leonard Wasserman Discusses Economic Development

Early in his adult life, Leonard Wasserman thought he would pursue a career in urban planning. His perspective changed, however, when he realized he was “better with words than colored pencils.” After college, Wasserman spent a little over a year at the Housing and Development Administration (the agency that later split into Buildings and HPD), but decided to take a leave from the ranks of the employed to attend Brooklyn Law School to focus on … <Read More>