Historic District For Downtown Brooklyn
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…
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
Every historic district larger than a single block has a couple of buildings that no one would argue are masterpieces. They are often included to make a contiguous boundary, or their inclusion makes sure nothing worse than what is already there goes up. Sometimes there are also factors we don’t know about, such as the building having famous occupants, organizations, or events that took place there. That’s what the investigative part of the process is for. (And to produce info-laden public documents for architecture geeks like me.) At the end of the process, buildings can be added, and/or excluded. Then the public hearings take place where interested parties can ask for an examption or inclusion. The LPC has been known to exclude buildings for reasons they feel are valid, as per public testimony. Or they won’t.
Point being, it’s a long process, which is just starting. Most of these buildings, especially the skyscrapers, are owned by companies that can afford to comply with landmark regs. 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.
Wow, this is a great discussion…kudos to fsrg (and a few other contributors) for elevating the level of discourse. Its really heartening to see some intelligent points being made without it devolving.
“Benson, you’re pro-development and work in real estate. I have to hate you by default.”
While benson may be pro-development (as am I, generally) he does not work in real estate.
Map helps..and shows it is a small area with mostly worthy buildings BUT still…does that Horrific (seemingly unfinished) residential building on Court with the GNC and O’Keefes really need “preserving”? or 175 Remsen (Perelandra) – landmark the building dont make a “district”
“I feel the LPC is trying to prevent that.”
Not in their mandate. Remember, the landmarks law was challenged as a taking (aren’t you folks supposed to be all sensitive to that stuff?) and *as written* was held not to be unconstitutional. Overstepping the grant of power, which is already quite subjective, could make a court go in the other direction.
Indeed, this district should probably include parts of the Fulton Mall. And yeah, the LPC only controls facades and exterior alterations.
In reality, there’s probably other neighborhoods that could use the landmarking designation over DoBro… but then again, look at West Street in the financial district and you’ll see it’s a Moses-styled glassy condo dystopia that isn’t pedestrian oriented but rather for the Boca Raton set.
I feel the LPC is trying to prevent that.
WB’er;
Yes, Apple may have the resources to work with the LPC on an appropriate storefront design, but what about mom-and-pop places?
It has been my observation that retail in preserved downtown buildings inevitably evolves into one of the two categories that have enough resources to deal with the bureauacracy: national retailers, or high-end boutiques. The former leads to a mall/historic theme-park ambiance, the latter to too much chi-chi. SOHO is a good case in point (mall on Broadway, chi-chi for the rest).
Is this what we want for downtown Brooklyn?
fsrg – I get your point, and no doubt people will use any tool at hand to further their NIMBY crusades. To its credit, LPC has been very good about approving new buildings based on their review criteria, not public outcry. Which isn’t to say that they aren’t swayed, just that they are very capable of separating issues of appropriateness from ancillary issues that are outside their jurisdiction.
be_rude – LPC’s rules for commercial buildings within districts are pretty liberal. They generally allow for aluminum windows without public review, for instance.
And Apple has stores in historic districts – both Soho (which has very little exterior design) and 14th Street (which is a significant intervention).
Map:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/maps/borough_hall_cal_map.pdf