More Oversight for New Windows on Landmarks?
The Brooklyn Paper has a story about how the city is looking to beef up restrictions on homeowners who want to put in new windows on the sides of buildings in historic districts, a move that comes after the stir caused by Norah Jones putting in windows on the side of her Cobble Hill house…
The Brooklyn Paper has a story about how the city is looking to beef up restrictions on homeowners who want to put in new windows on the sides of buildings in historic districts, a move that comes after the stir caused by Norah Jones putting in windows on the side of her Cobble Hill house and, perhaps, the controversy over 227 Clinton’s owner wanting to do the same. According to the article, the current law governing such alterations is “ambiguous,” and an LPC spokeswoman says there’s “a need for the Commission to set a limit on the number, size, pattern and placement of visible window openings on secondary facades.” Meanwhile, Roy Sloane, the president of the Cobble Hill Association, had this to say about the matter: “How can we preserve our landmarks when windows can be put in places where windows were never intended to go?”
City to Close ‘Norah’ Loophole [BK Paper]
Photo from Lost City.
I agree that the issue is not about privacy. The LPC cannot be dragged into every lot-line dispute. However, there are people who believe that the LPC should have unlimited power to control everything, while others like benson, believe that the Commission’s land use powers are a communistic attempt to rob people of their property rights.
I wish there were a little more balance in the conversations about the Landmarks Commission’s role in preserving and improving the quality of life in Brooklyn.
bfarwell- I can well understand how you muct feel but there is hope. I found a website wheer they sell historically correct reproduction period air. You can get Medieval Trench, Renaissance (Venetian) Canal, and Olde English Asylum air. They are hoping to expand the line in the near future.
Bye-bye privacy.
This is Brooklyn, with row houses, and tenements all over.
There is no privacy. There never was privacy, and there will never be privacy.
Want privacy, move to the ozarks.
I think you’re all missing the point. Every window in a brownstone is yet another opening where the historic air, an often-overlooked and yet extremely important aspect of a properly maintained historic home, might leak out. I went by Nora’s building last year, and there were huge streams of it pouring down those exterior walls and simply slipping into the dirt.
Once the precious atmosphere is lost, it’s gone FOREVER. I’ve had to bring in literally tons of old air in canisters (not cheap, mind you) salvaged from the basements of period homes in New Jersey, desperately trying to keep my home authentic after our nanny carelessly left a window ajar.
This long-overdue action by Roy is welcomed. I would breath a sigh of relief, but I’m afraid I inhaled it outside, and I don’t want to screw things up.
bxgirl, I don’t have to worry about such things because I don’t have a lovely rear yard. But there are many instances when one house is deeper than the neighbor and the sidewall of the deeper houses is right on the lot line. I could see how someone who is used to the privacy afforded by a blank sidewall would be upset if windows that peer right into their garden are punched into the wall.
This is when some neighbors resort to “spite walls” on their side. It can get ugly.
Minard – the agrument is not about privacy, it is about contextual appropriateness.
Minard- somethings you can’t control. Everyone is entitled to light and air- outdoors there is no privacy. If someone is that upset, they can put up an awning.
Some of you may be singing a different tune if there was a blank sidewall on the side of your garden and suddenly the owner punches through eight windows looking right in to your garden. Bye-bye privacy.
there are usually two sides of every story.
“I am in favor of a change in rules regarding side wall windows….the new rule should be that unless it is a party wall or otherwise dangerous – all homes should be forced to put in side wall windows.”
THERE IS NO RULE AGAINST SIDE WALL WINDOW. The new rule added guidelines for adding window to the secondary facade.