Privately-owned open space will be converted into a new City park that includes an aptly-placed Aids memorial across the street from the former-Saint Vincent’s Hospital. On August 13, 2015, the City Council approved West Village Residences, LLC and the Department of Parks and Recreation’s application to transfer ownership of WVR-owned open space to the City and officially map the space as City parkland. The open space is bounded by Seventh Avenue South, West … <Read More>
Search Results for: Parks
Residential Redevelopment of Theater Proposed for Bartel-Pritchard Circle Site
Proposal would demolish one-story commercial building to construct five-story-plus-penthouse apartment building, and build a contemporary addition onto 1920s theater. On April 18, 2015, Landmarks considered a proposal to demolish a one-story 1920s commercial building, construct a new apartment building, and alter and build an addition to a 1920s theater at 187-191 Prospect Park West in the Park Slope Historic District Extension. The theater building, at the corner of 14th Street, faces Prospect Park, … <Read More>
Appellate Division Upholds Sloan-Kettering, Hunter College Expansion
Court held City did not act arbitrarily; parkland-for-floor area was not illegal quid pro quo. On October 9, 2013, the City Council approved an application by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and The City University of New York/Hunter College for development of a former New York City Department of Sanitation garage. (See CityLand’s past coverage here.) Residents for Reasonable Development petitioned for injunctive and declarative relief, arguing the environmental impact statement failed to consider Hunter’s … <Read More>
Reconstruction of 19th century Fire Lookout Tower Approved
Because individual landmark will be accessible to the public, railings and other safety features will be incorporated into reconstructed tower, as well a stainless steel structural elements. On July 14, 2015, the Landmarks Preservation Commission considered and approved an application to reconstruct the Watch Tower in Harlem’s Marcus Garvey Park, an individual City landmark. The four-story octagonal tower, built around 1855, originally served as a fire lookout tower for Northern Manhattan. It is the only … <Read More>
Development of Willets Point Blocked on Appeal
Appellate panel found the authorization for private construction on parkland did not extend to a shopping mall. On October 9, 2013, the City Council approved Queens Development Group’s planned 10-story, 200-room hotel and 30,000-square foot mall complex on the Willets Point West site, formerly the location of Shea Stadium. The site was once the north end of Flushing Meadows Park until the state legislature authorized the stadium’s construction in 1961. The development would anchor further … <Read More>
New York State Court of Appeals Permits NYU Expansion Plan
Court found no implied dedication of target parcels as parkland. In 2012, the City Council approved a plan by New York University to develop two “superblocks” bounded by West 3rd Street, Houston Street, Mercer Street, and LaGuardia Place in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan as part of an expansion plan for the campus. Assemblymember Deborah Glick, joined by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, the Historic Districts Council, and other local … <Read More>