Fed Agency: Admirals Row Situation 'Inexplicable'
In a letter dated yesterday, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, a federal agency that’s acted as a consultant to the Army National Guard with reference to Admirals Row, said the agency is “troubled by the recent turn of events” at the row, particularly the National Guard’s recent assertion that Building B cannot be stabilized….
In a letter dated yesterday, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, a federal agency that’s acted as a consultant to the Army National Guard with reference to Admirals Row, said the agency is “troubled by the recent turn of events” at the row, particularly the National Guard’s recent assertion that Building B cannot be stabilized. The letter has some strong words about how “it is inexplicable that the NY District did not complete the stabilization of Building B” before this winter and notes that the National Guard transferred $2 million to the guard’s NY District two years ago “for the express purpose of stabilizing Building B and the Timber Shed.” (The district has also said that the Timber Shed, the Admirals Row structure aside from Building B that was supposed to be preserved, has deteriorated beyond repair.) Click through to read the letter in its entirety.
Letter via HDC’s Facebook.
Ny Ngb Admirals Row Disposal-buildling b Con 11may11
er…..huh? Uh, no but Mackenzie was calling you q man. I thought if he looked at your sham of a name he might figure you know something he doesn’t. 🙂
bxgrl, have we met? Is the anonymity of my nom de plume a sham? Everyone likes to have their opinions validated and I am no exception, but I feel like I am missing something here.
MacKenzie- take note. That’s a “g” in “g man”, not a “q”
Hi g man! 🙂
Obviously these agencies want the buildings razed to the ground.
I wasn’t bloviating on a blog mickey; I was making two statements of fact.
Hey, if my name is forever associated with preservation causes like this, I consider my comments and actions a battle well fought.
This has nothing to do with levees or any other necessary project that the National Guard, or the Army Corp of Engineers, or any government agency is doing. Those are all good and necessary works, but are you trying to imply that they can’t walk and chew gum at the same time? That fixing the levees so ties up their expertise and attention that they can’t focus on a small project like this?
IF they had just signed in over years ago, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. Preservationists have been advocating for Admiral’s Row longer than Brownstoner’s been around, longer than I’ve lived in NYC, to way back when many of you were still in Pampers. They didn’t just discover these houses in the jungle like Ankor Wat. They were in use by the Navy in the 1970’s, and then abandoned. They’ve been on the preservation radar ever since, because they are an important piece of the history of the Navy Yard, New York and the United States’ military history and heritage, and therefore important to all of us.
This was a totally preventable situation. And since they won’t let anyone near the site to see if the two buildings are actually unsalvageable,as they claim, then what has been pronounced will become fact. Which was the idea all along.
q man
so you say, but the negotiations have not yet started on the money deal and all’s fair in real estate and war.
Since the plan was to turn the buildings over, in any case, choosing between saving these buildings and rebuilding levees was not a choice the Guard had to make. FWIW, randi, neither DIBS nor Montrose are nimbys, just because they love old buildings and advocate for responsible preservation. But then, I don’t expect you to be able to understand complex thinking or attitudes.
In a way, my point exactly WBer. It is one thing for the Guard to have been irresponsible for decades when no one was looking, but to continue while elected officials and others are participating in the Section 106 process and watching the Guard in (in)action is stunning.
mcKenzie, the environmental review will not be completed until the fall and the feds are going to leave the cost of demolition (or rehabilitation, if anyone still has any optimism left) to the next owner.