Landmark
July 24, 2008
Checking In On The Purchase Building Demolition
We'll always be a little surprised that the LPC left the Purchase Building, built in 1936 underneath the Brooklyn Bridge, out to dry, but it did, and the demolition is now in full swing. The cleared space will become part of Brooklyn Bridge Park.
LPC Puts Another Nail in Purchase Bldg's Coffin [Brownstoner]
July 23, 2008
109 Gates Avenue Revealed: Man, That's Ugly
You couldn't have screwed this one up worse if you'd tried. As we discussed last Fall, the current owner of 109 Gates Avenue paid $2 million for the five-story house about a year and a half ago, and then proceeded to do about the most Home Depot-esque renovation imaginable. He then slapped a wacky $2,800,000 price tag on it and let it sit with a big plywood fence around it for many months. That fence just came down yesterday and, Oh Lordy, the result was a schocker. Although the owner did file plans with Landmarks, a neighbor told us, evidently he didn't stick to them. He's now dropped the price by a million bucks to $1,800,000. Given the interior finishes and the landmarks headaches that lie ahead, we're not so sure that'll get the job done. One thing's for sure, though, once that storefront gets fixed it should make a nice home for a new restaurant. Vini & Olii could use the company, and it would make this neck of the woods safer by providing some more foot traffic and light. Update: LPC informs us that a violation has already been issued.
Another Update: We got our hands on the permit granted by LPC way back in 2003. Click through for the full text, but here's a taste: "The design of the proposed storefront and the second floor bay, based on the 1908 drawing, will help to unify the first and second floors of the building, and return the facades closer to their historic appearance; that recreating the Gates Avenue and St. James Place entrances to the store will also bring the building closer to its 1908 appearance."
109 Gates Avenue [Brooklyn Properties] GMAP P*Shark
House of the Day: 109 Gates Avenue [Brownstoner]
Mural, And Then a Restaurant, at 109 Gates Avenue [Brownstoner]
Continue reading "109 Gates Avenue Revealed: Man, That's Ugly"
July 18, 2008
AMNY Spotlights a Couple Fading Brooklyn Beauts
It's a good week for crumbling historic buildings, or at least a good week in terms of media spotlighting some old gems that are going to seed. AMNY has a list today of 10 historic buildings in the five boroughs that seem to be dying of neglect. Brooklyn's two entries are the Empire Stores ("Workers are stabilizing the vacant Civil War-era warehouses' arched windows and repairing a large crack on the building's northwest corner. There are currently no plans for the state-owned buildings") on Dumbo's Water Street and 100 Clark Street ("Fearing the apartment complex, in the Brooklyn Heights historic district, could collapse, the city in May evacuated tenants and removed the top two floors from the five-story building. The owner has submitted a plan to the Landmarks Preservation Commission to stabilize the 1850s building."). What other Brooklyn buildings should be on the list?
10 Historic New York Buildings Now Eyesores [AMNY]
Photos from AMNY.
June 24, 2008
New Domino: The Renderings
We're back from the LPC meeting that we reported from earlier today and have got some of the renderings hot off the press.
Inside the LPC Meeting About Domino: New Plan OK'd [Brownstoner]
Inside the LPC Meeting About Domino: New Plan OK'd
Brownstoner is on scene at the Landmarks Preservation Commission Meeting about redeveloping the Domino Sugar Refinery. Last we heard of the plan, in March, the LPC was still unhappy over the developers' plans to add a glassy rooftop addition and not preserve the refinery's iconic sign. And now:
10:41 a.m.: One of the developers, CPC Resources' Michael Lapin, says preserving the refinery adds $40 mil to the project's cost. The rooftop addition has been scaled back to 4 stories. The Domino sign will be moved to roof of the addition.
10:42: Groundbreaking is expected to occur next fall. (Fall 2009)
10:46: An architect on the project says "the sign will live." The rooftop addition is being reduced from 5 stories to 4 in some parts and 3 in others. "Bulkheads have retreated," he says. The addition is now "robust and industrial" as result of LPC's comments last time.
10:50: Facing building from water, addition is 4 stories on left of smokestack and 3 on right; sign goes on top of 3-story addition on right, or southern, side. The developers are proposing a 20,000-square-foot reduction in floor area for the refinery's addition. There'll be "aysmmetrical massing" on the street side of the addition.
10:52: Last time around, the LPC said the storefronts planned for Kent Avenue were too minimal, so their presence has been beefed up.
11:01: The chutes have been redesigned, and the new plan creates 2-story open balconies made of steel and glass that protrude from the southern side of the building. Mr. B's take: "Quite wild looking."
11:05: CPC rep says none of the new towers that are planned have been made bigger to make up for the loss of square footage in the rooftop addition.
11:06: OK, it's getting hairy. The LPC asks the Domino team why they didn't listen to their suggestion that the rooftop addition be reduced by 2 stories. One of the architects says the reasons are twofold: 1) financial realities; and 2) a larger addition fits better. Mr. B: "Aw smack!"
11:10: A few politicians, including Councilmember David Yassky, submitted letters saying they support the overhauled submission.
11:12: They like it! LPC chairman Robert Tierney says he's really digging the new submission. Tierney calls it a "brilliant" adaptive plan, says the addition is now "appropriate", particularly since the Domino sign is being preserved. Calls the chutes "dramatic and evocative." Another commissioner says the design will "rival the Tate"!
11:19: Three more commissioners say they're very pleased with the design.
11:23: First dissenting opinion comes from Commissioner Margery Perlmutter, who says the proposal isn't "different enough from the towers...the direction you're going in is moving towards robust manufacturing but it's still too polite, genteel." And: The "storefronts are too shopping mallish, not robust enough."
11:34: The Commissioners just approved the plan.
12:13: New renderings posted here.
LPC Still Not Buying Domino Plan [Brownstoner]
New Domino Plans Falter at LPC Hearing [Brownstoner]
More Domino Plans [Brownstoner]
Domino Sugar Factory Proposed Addition Revealed [Brownstoner]
BREAKING! LPC Approves Historic Designation for Domino [Brownstoner]
CPC Shows and Tells Its Plans for Domino [Brownstoner] GMAP
Plans for 'New Domino' Released by City Planning [Brownstoner]
Photo by PhotoJeff.
June 10, 2008
110 Amity: LPC Says Yes to Lamm, No to Townhouses
The LPC is putting Time Equities through its paces when it comes to the developer's plans to redevelop Cobble Hill's Lamm Building and construct townhouses on adjacent land. Less than two weeks ago, Community Board 6's landmarks/land-use committee unanimously approved Time Equities' rejiggered proposal for the development at a meeting that took place with almost no public notice. This morning, however, the LPC told the firm that while it has made big strides with its design, the five proposed townhouses "still need some rethinking." The LPC disapproved an earlier iteration of the plans in January. A spokesperson for the LPC tells us the following: the commissioners "felt that a harmonious balance between contemporary and historic design elements had not quite been achieved with respect to the townhouse facades. For example, one commissioner noted that the townhouse doorways were the same, whereas the doorways to the historic buildings elsewhere in the district were all different. Another commissioner said the modern cornice ought to be a strong, steel sculptural form, and another said that the use of two different railings on the exterior staircases was confusing. Another said the lintels and cornice were too flat, making the facades seem stark." The commissioners did, however, approve Time Equities' proposed changes to the Lamm building, which mainly involve placing a penthouse addition on its roof. The firm is being urged to work with LPC staff before submitting a new proposal.
110 Amity Proposal Takes a Drubbing at LPC Hearing [Brownstoner]
Cobble Hill Association: 110 Amity Plan ‘Unacceptable’ [Brownstoner] GMAP
Opposition to 110 Amity Plans Grows [Brownstoner]
CB6 Tries to Avoid Amity Street Horror [Brownstoner]
Photos of renderings from Gowanus Lounge.
May 30, 2008
3rd St. Landmark Crumbling; Is Whole Foods to Blame?
The single building that escaped demolition on the land occupied by Whole Foods' massive (and massively fallow) site on 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue is going to seed. The structure, which is owned by the entity that sold off adjacent plots to Whole Foods, was landmarked a couple years ago for being "a pioneering example of concrete construction in the United States." When it was designated a landmark, LPC Commission Chair Robert Tierney had this to say about it: “This mysterious, elegant, small building commands the attention of everyone who passes by it. By designating it as a landmark, we are preserving the last remaining structure of a complex that was one of the first industrial producers of concrete in the nation." Nowadays, the building's steps are coming apart, with pieces spilling onto 3rd Avenue, and graffiti's been painted on it in a few spots. According to a spokesperson for the LPC, the commission has contacted the landmark's owner on several occasions and gotten it sealed, hence the boarded-up windows. In 2005, when the landmark's owner hammered out an agreement (as per public records here) to give Whole Foods control of adjacent parcels for the development of its supermarket, it appears the grocer agreed to make structural repairs to the landmark so its owner could obtain a C of O that would allow him to have an intriguing assortment of buildings in the property: offices, an art gallery, and an auto-body supply store. (Paragraph in question from the deal is on the jump.) It's possible that subsequent agreements between Whole Foods and the building's owner superseded this, or that Whole Foods has no reason to make improvements to the building until it starts on its own project. Either way, between the barren Whole Foods site and the dilapidated landmark, the corner of 3rd and 3rd currently tells a sorry story about both the past and future of Gowanus.
360 3rd Avenue Landmark Designation [nyc.gov]
Gowanus Whole Foods Site Looks Anonymous & Abandoned [GL]
Continue reading "3rd St. Landmark Crumbling; Is Whole Foods to Blame?"
May 23, 2008
Landmarks Preservation Commission Woefully Underfunded
Perhaps a little dry for a sunny Friday afternoon, but important stuff!
Preserve Your City: Support Funding the LPC from MAS on Vimeo.
May 21, 2008
New Bed-Stuy Historic District in the Offing
Last week the Landmarks Preservation Commission calendered a proposal to designate two half-block cul-de-sacs in Bedford Stuyvesant a historic district. The Alice and Agate Courts Historic District would consist of 36 Queen Anne rowhouses built in the late 19th century. The houses were designed by Walter M. Coots, whose work still stands in Cobble Hill, Bushwick, East New York, Crown Heights North and Park Slope. All the residences were built at the behest of industrialist Florian Grosjean. The LPC has this to say about the proposed district: "To a large extent, the rows retain their original appearance and much of their original material. Situated just north of the busy thoroughfare of Atlantic Avenue, these Queen Anne style houses form a quiet enclave on two cul-de-sacs and represent small-scale residential development of late-nineteenth century Bedford-Stuyvesant." Click through for a map. GMAP
All images provided by the LPC.
Continue reading "New Bed-Stuy Historic District in the Offing"
April 28, 2008
DOT Plans Brooklyn Bridge Overhaul
Downtown Express reports that the Department of Transportation will spearhead a $300 million renovation of the Brooklyn Bridge. The work, which is scheduled to occur mostly on nights and weekends between 2009 and 2014, will involve widening ramps on both the Manhattan and Brooklyn sides of the landmark; restoring its arches, which have been badly weathered; and adding steel safety barriers to the bridge's roadways. The DOT also plans to paint the structure beige, its original color.
Brooklyn Bridge to Get a Little Coffee Color [Downtown Express]
Brooklyn Bridge to Get Structural, Cosmetic Makeover [Gothamist]
Photo by FocusBrooklyn.