Commissioners delay vote on addition near High Line

Image: Courtesy of ma.com

Reduction  in  height  of  glass-and- steel  addition  insufficient  to  gain from the existing building. On April 12, 2011, Landmarks considered Taconic Investment Partners’ revised proposal to build an addition on top of a low-rise building at 837 Washington Street across the street from the High Line in the Gansevoort Market Historic District. Taconic first proposed adding a seven-story masonry column wrapped in a torqued glass and steel tower. Landmarks praised the … <Read More>


Three individual Manhattan buildings landmarked

Japanese Society Headquarters

Designations span nearly a century of Manhattan history. On March 22, 2011, Landmarks designated the Japan Society Headquarters in Turtle Bay, the Engineers’ Club Building in Midtown, and the Lower East Side’s Neighborhood Playhouse as individual City landmarks. The buildings feature disparate architectural styles and represent distinct periods of the City’s history.

The Japan Society Headquarters at 333 East 47th Street was designed by Junzo Yoshimura and completed in 1971 on land … <Read More>


District extension in Upper West Side considered

Proposed Riverside-West End extension. Image: Courtesy of LPC.

First of three proposed historic district extensions in area met with mix of support and opposition. On March 22, 2011, Landmarks heard testimony on the proposed Riverside-West End Historic District Extension I in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The extension would encompass 190 properties to the south of the original Riverside-West End Historic District designated in 1989. The proposed district would extend from West 87th to West 79th … <Read More>


Renovation of Fifth Avenue bank interior considered

Vornado proposed dividing building’s recently landmarked interior into two retail spaces. On March 15, 2011, Landmarks considered Vornado Realty Trust’s proposal to renovate the interior of the Manufacturers Trust Company Building at 510 Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street. The 1954 modernist, glass-walled building designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill is an individual City landmark. Landmarks recently designated the first two floors of the building as an interior landmark in February 2011. At Landmarks’ … <Read More>


RFEI issued for vacant Corn Exchange building

Image: Courtesy of Cityland.

City is in process of reclaiming landmarked building after owner failed to redevelop property. On March 22, 2011, the City’s Economic Development Corporation issued a request for expressions of interest for the purchase and redevelopment of what remains of the landmarked Corn Exchange Building at the corner of East 125th Street and Park Avenue in East Harlem. The Lamb & Rich-designed six-story building was built in 1884 and has deteriorated significantly … <Read More>


Knickerbocker Hotel gets OK to revert to former use

BSA approval needed before converting landmarked Times Square office building to a hotel. In September 2010, Highgate Holdings LLP sought an alteration permit to convert the former Knickerbocker Hotel at 1466 Broadway in Times Square to a 395-room hotel. The Knickerbocker Hotel, originally owned by John Jacob Astor IV, operated from 1906 until the prohibition era, when it was converted to office space. In 1979, BSA approved a plan to convert the Knickerbocker into a … <Read More>