Rezoning for Culver El housing project modified

Council modified plan in order to retain manufacturing zoning and to prevent residential use on block occupied by department store. On October 13, 2010, the City Council modified the Department of City Planning and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s Culver El Proposal in Borough Park, Brooklyn. The proposal rezoned seven blocks historically used for manufacturing and will permit the Southern Brooklyn Community Organization (SBCO) to build a 68-unit affordable housing development on … <Read More>


Mark Silberman Brings Legislative and Litigation Experience to Landmarks

Hobbled by a bad back and recently returned from vacation, the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s General Counsel Mark Silberman sat down with CityLand to talk about his role at the Commission and Landmarks’ role in the City. He brings a perspective on the broader role of historic preservation nationally and in our culture.

A young environmentalist. Raised in Illinois and a graduate of the University of California at Santa Cruz, Silberman began his career in government … <Read More>


Site of proposed mosque near WTC decalendared

45 Park Place, two blocks north of the World Trade Center site. Image: CityLand

Owner of 1850s-era building, calendared by Landmarks in 1989, intends to redevelop site into thirteen- story mosque and community center. On August 3, 2010, Landmarks declined to designate as an individual landmark an 1850s-era building at 45 Park Place, two blocks north of the World Trade Center site. The five-story store-and-loft building reflects Italian Renaissance palazzo-style architecture and includes a ground-floor … <Read More>


Two Federal-style homes on the Bowery considered

One building owner intended to demolish house in order to build seven-story office. On July 13, 2010, Landmarks heard testimony on the possible designation of two separately owned Federal-style rowhouses located at 135 and 206 Bowery in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. When the houses were built in the early 1800s, the Bowery was considered a fashionable upper-class residential and commercial district. While both buildings have undergone extensive alterations, they retain their essential forms and characteristics. … <Read More>


African-American enclave in Queens considered

Addisleigh Park was home to many famous African Americans,including Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, and W.E.B. DuBois. On March 23, 2010, Landmarks heard extensive testimony on the potential designation of a historic district in the Addisleigh Park section of St. Albans, Queens. Addisleigh Park is characterized by detached homes on large, landscaped lots, giving the neighborhood a suburban feel. Primarily developed between 1910 and the early 1930s, the area features homes in the English Tudor, Colonial, … <Read More>


NoHo hotel design approved

Image courtesy of readnewyork.com

Despite residents’ and preservationists’ objections, exterior redesigns for partially-built Great Jones Street hotel approved. On March 16, 2009, Landmarks approved Louis Greco and SDS Great Jones LLC’s application to alter the proposed exterior of a planned thirteen-story hotel at 25 Great Jones Street in the NoHo Historic District. In January 2008, Buildings granted permits for the hotel prior to the historic district’s designation in May 2008. The partially-built structure currently occupies … <Read More>