In Surprise Move, Landmarks to Consider Designating Five Gowanus Industrial Buildings

In an unexpected development Monday afternoon, the Landmarks Preservation Commission added five Gowanus industrial buildings to the schedule for Tuesday’s hearings. They will consider whether to calendar the buildings for hearings on their landmarking.

Locals and preservationists have been advocating for landmarking for the buildings for years. One of the buildings is the Gowanus Pumping Station and Gate House at 196 Butler Street. Although similar in appearance, this is not the nearby pumping station at 234 Butler Street preservationists have been trying to save and which the city intends to acquire via eminent domain and raze to make way for an underground sewage overflow tank related to the canal Superfund cleanup.

Another building that could be calendared is the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company Central Power Station Engine House at 153 2nd Street, better known as the Batcave, which its owner intends to turn into an art gallery and studio space.

Others include the Montauk Paint Manufacturing Company Building at 170 2nd Avenue and the ASPCA Rogers Memorial Building at 233 Butler Street — and presumably its horse trough out front.

The five are among the buildings the Gowanus Landmarking Coalition has been pushing to landmark ahead of a proposed rezoning of the area.

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