Landmarks to Consider Expansion of Boerum Hill Historic District by 288 Buildings

Composed of three distinct areas to the north, south and west of the existing historic district, proposed expansion shares a character and development history designated section of Boerum Hill. Landmarks voted to add an extension to the Boerum Hill Historic District to its calendar for consideration for designation on October 31, 2017. The extension, as calendared, would bring approximately 288 properties under Landmarks’ purview. The extension is not contiguous, but composed of three separate sections … <Read More>


Challenge to Landmarks’ Approval of Gansevoort Redevelopment Fails

Landmarks Commission approved redevelopment of five buildings in the Gansevoort Market Historic District. On June 7, 2016, the City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted, in a divided decision, to award Certificates of Appropriateness to redevelop a block face in the Gansevoort Market Historic District between Greenwich and Washington Streets in Manhattan. The work, spanning five buildings and three tax lots, entailed the construction of three additional stories onto a two-story building at 60-68 Gansevoort Street, … <Read More>


Landmarks Denies Plan to Reinstate Pre-Designation Building Permit for Rooftop Addition

Despite reductions in addition’s scale and visibility, and promises to install a diorama commemorating escape of abolitionists from Draft Riots mob, Commissioners determined that any rooftop interventions were inappropriate. At its meeting on May 23, 2017, the Landmarks Preservation Commission disposed of an application for facade alterations and rear and roof additions to 339 West 29th Street in the Lamartine Place Historic District. In the 19th century, the building was home to prominent abolitionists … <Read More>


Initiative to Clear Landmarks’ Backlog Concludes; Council Overturns One Designation

Due to objection to landmarking by local council member Steven Matteo, the designation of a Dutch Colonial farmhouse on Staten Island was overturned. On March 28, 2017, the Council Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Siting, and Maritime Uses convened to vote on the final batch of items designated as part of Landmarks’ Backlog Initiative. At the meeting the Subcommittee voted on three items it had held over from its hearing on February 7, 2017<Read More>


Two Adjoining Bank Buildings Designated as Individual Landmarks

“Bank Row” buildings represent two eras of 20th-century economic expansion. Landmarks voted to designate two bank buildings in Brooklyn as individual City landmarks at its meeting on January 24, 2017. The elder of the two landmarks, the People’s Trust Company Building, stands at 181 Montague Street, and the second item, the National Title Guaranty Building, adjoins it at 185 Montague Street. The buildings are the only unprotected historic structures on what is known … <Read More>


Landmarks Leaves Only One Backlog Item Remaining After Last Meeting of 2016

Ten of thirteen items brought to a final disposition were designated by Landmarks and will proceed to City Council for ratification. On December 13, 2016, the Landmarks Preservation Commission made its final dispositive votes on items prioritized for designation in the commission’s Backlog Initiative, with one exception. The initiative, began in 2015, sought to address the backlog of designation items that had been added to the commission’s calendar before 2001 but never brought to … <Read More>