The temperature was in the 90s the day Simeon Bankoff met with City- Land. Mr. Bankoff, Executive Director of the Historic Districts Council, a prominent city preservationist organization founded in 1971 as part of the Municipal Art Society, and operating independently since 1986, had just returned from a demonstration on the steps of City Hall. While most would have wilted, the charming and voluble Mr. Bankoff animatedly discoursed for over an hour on the Historic … <Read More>
Search Results for: Landmarks
BSA and DOB overturned on East Village dorm
Local school affiliation not a requisite for building permit. In 1998, Gregg Singer purchased the lot at 609 East 9th Street from the City subject to a deed restriction that the site could only be used for a community facility. Singer then applied to the Department of Buildings to construct a new 19-story dormitory and demolish the P.S. 64 building that occupied the site. Since Singer’s plan showed full kitchens in each unit, Buildings asked … <Read More>
New cat habitats for Central Park and Prospect Park Zoos
Amur and Snow Leopards headed to New York City. Landmarks issued permits to allow the Wildlife Conservation Society, which operates the Central Park and Prospect Park Zoos, to add new exhibits. Within the Central Park Zoo, a Snow Leopard habitat will replace an existing River Otter habitat in the zoo’s western section. The plan calls for construction of a 2,300-square-foot, wood-clad holding center adjacent to an open-air leopard enclosure and viewing pavilions also clad in … <Read More>
Domino Sugar designation receives great support
Developer testified to the great cost of converting buildings to housing. On June 26, 2007, Landmarks held its first hearing on the potential designation of three 1884 buildings within the former Domino Sugar Processing Plant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The plan received overwhelming support.
Among those in support included representatives from the development team that plans to convert the plant to a mixed-use complex containing 2,200 units of housing, 660 of which would be reserved for … <Read More>
Gansevoort Market building to be demolished
Five-story through-block building goes up in Gansevoort Market Historic District. Landmarks issued a permit to 410-413 West, LLC to demolish an existing building at 13- 15 Little West 12th Street, and construct a new five-story building on the site. The building to be demolished was built in 1933 and altered in the 1960s. Landmarks found that the existing building did not contribute to the historic district’s character, a finding contested by the Historic Districts Council, … <Read More>
Sunnyside Gardens designated a historic district
Landmarks unanimously designated despite community controversy. On June 26, 2007, Landmarks voted to designate Sunnyside Gardens, Sunnyside, Queens, as a historic district. A planned community designed by Clarence Stein and Henry Wright in the 1920s to house working class families, Sunnyside Gardens’ distinctive characteristics include its large landscaped courtyards and its mixture of single- and multi-family buildings. It was one of the first planned communities built by a private limited-dividend corporation, and, as a non-car … <Read More>