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The Landmarks Preservation Commission still doesn’t like the Pinnacle Group’s proposal to turn Riverside Apartment’s courtyard ino a 134-car, two-level parking garage (for rendering of the proposal, click here). Landmarks spokeswoman Lisi de Bourbon wrote us, “The [Tuesday] hearing took about 2 hours, and the vast majority of people who testified opposed the propject. The Commission said the proposal needed to be substantially reworked, but took no vote. The Commissioners said that the apartment complex represents a significant improvement in affordable housing during the last decade of the 19th century. They said allowing the garage to be built in its proposed form would dishonor the spirit and socially conscious intent of the complex. What sets the complex apart from earlier tenements is that it occupies only half of the lot its built on to maximize light and air into the apartments. The garage would derogate from the purpose of the building, depriving residents of open space. No date was set for a return.” Riverside tenants have accused the landlord of planning to turn the building condo (which Pinnacle denied) and of planning to profit by sharing the garage with Brooklyn Bridge Park-goers. For Landmark’s decision on the BAM Cultural District streetscape improvements, click on the jump…
Preservationists Scuttle Brooklyn Heights Garage [NY Sun]
Garage Plan for Heights Building Rears Its Head Again [Brownstoner]

Of BAM, de Bourbon wrote us, “This proposal was unanimously approved by the Commission. It found that the circular dark gray paving set within a metal ring was evocative of manhole covers, which are found all over the city’s steet, and would distinguish the area as a historic district and draw pedestrians to the cultural institutions within it. The Commission also said the streetlights would work to demark the limits of the district without calling attention to themselves and that the sidewalk and distinctive paving represent a minimal intrusion.”