Bowery SRO not a hurdle to designation

Whitehouse Hotel. Photo: Kristin Daggan.

Council votes to include Bowery SRO in NoHo historic district extension. On September 4, 2008, the City Council voted to approve the proposed NoHo historic district extension and ended the debate over whether the Whitehouse Hotel should be included within the district. The approval adds 56 more buildings, all between Lafayette Street and Bowery, to the district. Landmarks voted to designate the area in May after hearing testimony from residents … <Read More>


Landmarks devotes meeting to potential designations

Landmarks provides forum for accord and controversy during numerous hearings. On June 24, 2008, Landmarks heard testimony on eight potential City landmarks, as well as one historic district extension. According to spokesperson Lisi de Bourbon, Landmarks grouped the designation hearings on one day to demonstrate certain themes and priorities like post-war architecture, public libraries, and the Commission’s recent review of architecture in the West Village.

The proposed extension of Queens’ Douglaston Historic to encompass 22 … <Read More>


Landmarks Calendars NYU Towers for Designation

Towers were part of Robert Moses’ urban renewal project to preserve housing for middle-income Manhattan residents. Landmarks launched public consideration on the designation of three towers, collectively known as Silver Towers or University Village, located on the block bounded by LaGuardia Place and Bleecker, Mercer, and Houston Streets. New York University uses two of the towers for student and faculty housing, while the third is owned by a private cooperative and protected under the Mitchell-Lama … <Read More>


Hearing held on designation of Morningside Park

This buttressed retaining wall is a prominent feature of Morningside Park. Photo:Morgan Kunz.

If designated, the park would be the City’s first new scenic landmark in over 20 years. On April 10, 2007, Landmarks held a public hearing on the proposed designation of Morningside Park as a scenic landmark. If designated the park would be the City’s tenth scenic landmark and the first since 1983.

Resting on steep cliffs separating Morningside Heights from Harlem, the … <Read More>


Board of Estimate vote revisited 16 years later

Landmarks re-designates two City and Suburban Homes buildings carved out from 1990 designation. On November 21, 2006, Landmarks ended the controversial debate over the landmark status of the City and Suburban Homes Company’s First Avenue Estate in Lenox Hill by voting unanimously to amend its landmark status. In 1990, Landmarks unanimously designated all 15 buildings in the First Avenue Estate, a development constructed between 1898 and 1915 over the entire block bounded by East 64th … <Read More>


Rezoning approved for two Verizon sites

Commission approved Verizon’s consolidation plans. Verizon New York, Inc. sought to rezone two sites that it occupies in Clinton, Manhattan. The first proposal would rezone a 45,200 sq.ft. site at the intersection of Eleventh Avenue and West 43rd Street from M2-3 to C6-4. The second would rezone a 143,300 sq.ft. full-block area, bounded by Eleventh Avenue, West 47th Street, Twelfth Avenue and West 48th Street, from M2-3 to Ml- 5. The Commission unanimously approved both. … <Read More>