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The city has proposed a Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District, covering 20 buildings in Downtown Brooklyn and in Brooklyn Heights reports the NY Post. The proposed district includes Borough Hall, the Municipal Building, and a group of early-1900s Romanesque Revival and Beaux-Arts buildings along Court Street. The city’s proposal pointed out that “The district contains many of the borough’s most architecturally distinguished business buildings. Designed in a range of styles, the structures in the study area represent the work of an impressive group of architects. This LPC agenda [PDF] from the October 26th hearing has the nitty gritty on boundaries and specific buildings. The time line for landmarking is unclear as of yet.
City Plans Skyscraper District in Downtown Brooklyn [NY Post]
Photo by AllWaysNY


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  1. No? The primary goal of most landmark advocates today is to save neighborhoods from unwanted and often costly development that usually chase out the mom and pops for generic high-rises. It’s Robert Moses planning at it’s worst. The whole point of a historic district is to curb out-of-context development within it and to prevent the demolition of structures that can still be viable.

    I’m not entirely anti-development although it’s rare to see new buildings that are affordable and pedestrian friendly, whereas the majority of older prewar buildings are. That and I’m not sure, but look at a few blocks in Williamsburg and it feels like a hybrid between Houston and East Berlin. It’s just ugly and overpriced.

  2. I’m all for protecting these buildings- they are some of the most beautiful old skyscrapers in the area. It isn’t as though there is no room for new development- there obviously is. Look at how much new development there is now in the downtown area. Why invent scenarios when there is no real problem? Seems to me, Brooklyn has room for old and new- now if only the new was constructed with the same level of taste and quality.

  3. Blayze: “And you’re all forgetting the main issue here which is basically the prevention of demolition as well as unwarranted development. ”

    Actually No – but thank you for proving my earlier point: Landmarking is not AT ALL about stopping “unwarranted” development – it is simply about preserving “important physical elements of the City’s history”.

    “47 years ago today, Penn Station was destroyed to make way for a hum-drum skyscraper and a cash strapped arena that can barely pay it’s dues today. What we got in turn was a basement train station.”

    So therefore everything in NYC should be frozen in amber??? Of course not. Landmarking in an of itself is not “good”; only proper landmarking is…and thats what the discussion is about.

  4. MM – “Most of these buildings, especially the skyscrapers, are owned by companies that can afford to comply with landmark regs”

    This sentiment, which probably has populist appeal, misses the point entirely. RE – especially commercial real estate – is a business/economic endeavor. The issue isnt whether an owner can “afford” something, the issue is whether it makes economic sense.

    So if the issue is whether or not a building will be rehabbed or replaced comes down to…return on investment – and so if the rehab or replacement costs more (due to landmarking in this case) than the return must be higher, otherwise the rehab/replacement wont make economic sense.

    So unless the HD designation causes rents/revenues to go up (not likely in commercial offices), increasing rehab/replacement costs makes such LESS likely to occur (or happen on a less frequent basis.)

    Or to put it in a more concrete example of a proposed replacement of one of the crappy buildings in the proposed district…If I am hypothetically the billionaire owner of the GNC building, financed by my own trillion dollar multi-national…and I can get a (guaranteed) 4% after-tax return on muni bonds (for example) or (potentially) get a 8% return by building a nice replacement building – I might choose to invest in my RE. BUT if the city passes laws (such as landmarking) that results in a lower (potential) return of say 6%, I’d probably be an idiot to take on all that risk for a maximum of 2% return – hence no building replacement.

    The fact that the owner is a billionaire is immaterial, just like the fact that if the owner is a mom&pop the analysis is the same.

  5. Historic Districts Council is one of the primary advocates for landmarking, although there are hundreds of smaller ones scattered throughout the entire city.

    The LPC isn’t against working with Mom and Pop stores, and will provide assistance on some improvements if deemed appropriate. Usually landmark districts are designated in economically stable neighborhoods that have happily preserved the architecture in their sections for decades. Of course, gentrification does push out some old time businesses which indeed is sad. However, you can’t blame landmarks for that. And you’re all forgetting the main issue here which is basically the prevention of demolition as well as unwarranted development.

    47 years ago today, Penn Station was destroyed to make way for a hum-drum skyscraper and a cash strapped arena that can barely pay it’s dues today. What we got in turn was a basement train station.

    Support landmarking and save NYC history.

  6. “I don’t think we’re hindering Mom and Pop from rehabbing their building. To me, that’s a red herring to divert attention away from the worthiness of landmarking these important buildings.”

    Take Peralandra – a mom and pop that I assume rents from the owner of a building inside the proposed HD. Assuming they’d like to spruce up the outside of the store to make it more attractive – to compete with the likes of corporate Trader Joes down the street – they can’t do that without incurring an additional expense. This is because the building from which they lease space – that is probably noncontributing – has been included in the HD. And, what if the owner wants to spruce up the façade, they will likely raise Peralandra’s rents – can this mom and pop afford a rent increase? Passing on the cost to the consumer isn’t such a good idea with TJs down the street….

    Is it possible to find out who proposes HDs?

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