4th Ave. Buildings Have a Date With the Wrecking Ball
A row of Fourth Avenue buildings is about to bite the dust, clearing the way for a fairly massive development site. The properties, between Butler and Douglass, have been boarded up for awhile now, but the DOB just issued demolition permits for all of ’em. We got word of their coming demise via a tipster…
A row of Fourth Avenue buildings is about to bite the dust, clearing the way for a fairly massive development site. The properties, between Butler and Douglass, have been boarded up for awhile now, but the DOB just issued demolition permits for all of ’em. We got word of their coming demise via a tipster who noticed they were sporting tell-tale big boxed X’s and who opined I wonder what crappy 20 story eyesore will go up in its place. All that nice brick…all gone… Last we heard, a developer was planning to put a 12-story condo in their place. We’ll reserve judgment about the shape of things to come until we see some renderings, but like our tipster we’ve always had a soft spot for the old school tenement look of these buildings, and it’s gonna be sad to see them go. GMAP DOB
Funny! This is the same block of Fourth Avenue that Berenice Abbott shot in 1936 for “Changing New York”. It was boarded up and decrepit back then, with posters covering the ground floor. Nothing changes. Did it ever get renovated after the 1930s? It must have. How long has it been fallow this time around?
NYPL link to image:
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=547026&imageID=1219144&parent_id=100160&word=&snum=&s=¬word=&d=&c=&f=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&total=344&num=168&imgs=12&pNum=&pos=169#
or
http://tinyurl.com/3xdfhe
If you think those old building are worth saving? Buy them, renovate them, put up your money. Better than that, those of you sitting on 2-3 family homes should chime in on how you are renting your extra apartments to low income families at less than half the market rate. I never see a listing in the real estate window that say “Owner occupied building Renting 1 Bedroom apartment for $500. Low income families need only apply”. I am guessing those of you in that position are all benefitting from this. Since most of this neighborhood is 2-3 family homes, the rest of you are buying into these condos. Let me supply you the cheese for your “Whine”.
To the hard line “any limits are bad” crowd. I understand your advocacy for more density and housing, but do you think that truly should be achieved no matter what you are tearing down? In this case, you are right that preserving rundown, unexceptional tenements is not justifiable. (But to say you might have a soft spot for such building or will miss them is simply stating a sentiment and not a crime!) Isn’t there some social good in preserving the more historic districts? In the entire five boroughs, aren’t there some unique areas like Brooklyn Heights, the West Village, parts of Fort Greene, etc. that if treated as special cases, are simply being balanced against other interests? Zoning is changing all the time–there will never be “no zoning” in NYC. Just as some areas are downzoned, other are upzoned. It happens that at this moment, there are large towers going up in Williamsburg, Atlantic Yards, etc. The West Side of Manhattan is looking at big time development, as is WTC area. And the way West Village along the water has totally changed in the last decade.
building marked with the X mean demolition? I have a building on my block marked with an X….hmmm
Affordable’s relative, no? Guaranteed you try to preserve every sad tenement building and allow no development to take place and even more people will get priced out of the city than are already. The preservationist crowd has really strained its credibilty by sticking up for buildings like these.
Umm – in reality people dont build ‘affordable housing’ they build housing – only 2 factors can make it ‘affordable’ – either the Govt mandates/subsidizes or otherwise incentivies affordability OR the laws of supply and demand reach equilibrium at a affordable level – no matter what the actual cost of new housing, every unit of market-rate housing pushes that equilibrium lower or at least slows the rise in the equilibrium at least by some amount.
This is economics 101 – and the level of ignorance of this says alot about the failure of our educational system.
11:59 is right. The “affordable housing” argument for unrestricted development is ridiculous. Nobody is building “affordable” housing right now in this city.
maybe you sould move to Dallas
True new does not equal better but these are dilapidated tenement housing with virtually zero architectural features (save a cornice and arched 4th floor windows.
Criticizing the replacement of these buildings based on their ‘historical’ value is like criticizing the replacement of shea stadium on the same grounds.
Its one thing to say – I hope the replacement building isnt ugly (or plain, or boring) but to suggest that these buildings are anything more then cookie cutter tenements (albeit old ones) is just silly. Not to mention the living conditions within buildings like this are horrendous and their loss is only