The Municipal Art Society of New York

The ULURP clock for the Coney Island rezoning proposal is ticking. The City certified the zoning proposal in January, and from May until later this month, the City Planning Commission is conducting its review of the proposal. The Commission is likely to vote on the project very soon, after which the proposal will go to the City Council who must vote on the plan by mid-August.

MAS testified last month at the City Planning Commission’s public hearing, and shortly after we submitted detailed recommendations for the future of Coney Island. MAS strongly supports the city’s goal of revitalizing Coney Island. We also strongly support the city’s efforts to acquire land to create a publicly-owned open-air amusement park, based on an extensive economic study by real estate advisory firm RCLCo commissioned by MAS that concluded that this was the best way to ensure amusements in perpetuity. Continue Reading>>

Yesterday MAS testified before the City Planning Commission, voicing strong support for city’s goals for Coney Island and suggesting improvements to the rezoning plan in the areas of urban design, zoning and preservation. During the past several months MAS has worked with the staff of the Brooklyn Office of City Planning, amusement experts, and with Coney Island  community and cultural groups to identify the best ways to restore Coney Island to its position as a world-class amusement destination. Read our testimony in full here or our press release here. Continue Reading>>

MAS testified yesterday to the City Council’s Economic Development and Land Use Committees, who held an oversight hearing on the development of Coney Island. We raised concern about recent recommended changes to the rezoning that we fear would harm the district, particularly expanding the size of retail units to 10,000 square feet, transforming the amusement area into a large-scale shopping district rather than one with local businesses and world-class amusements. MAS urged the City Council to reject this recommended change.  Click here to read the entire statement.

Similar concerns about those troubling changes were echoed in a press release issued by a coalition of community, arts and planning groups, including MAS. The group affirmed that the City of New York is the only entity that can create a great amusement destination at Coney Island. It also highlighted the critical issue of land ownership. MAS President Vin Cipolla said, “We believe that the economics do not currently allow for the creation of an amusement park on privately-owned land, and we strongly support the city’s efforts to acquire private property in the amusement area.” Click here to read the entire statement.

On Tuesday, the City’s Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, Robert Lieber, announced the formation of the Coney Island Amusement Advisory Panel. The panel will also assist the City in continued planning efforts for a permanent amusement operation and development of a 27-acre amusement and entertainment district at Coney Island. MAS will be on the panel along with a group of leading amusement industry experts that will help structure and expedite the City’s plans for interim amusements at Coney Island in Summer 2010. Click here to read entire statement.

The Department of City Planning is holding a hearing today about its proposal to rezone 25 blocks along the Gowanus Canal to allow for a mix of uses, including residential, commercial, retail, light industrial, community facility and artist spaces.

MAS believes that existing businesses in this thriving manufacturing district should be nurtured and safeguarded, and that the rezoning presents a tremendous opportunity to create space for new industries and jobs. We are concerned that, given the area’s industrial past and present, and the lack of adequate sewage and storm-water infrastructure, new residential development may not be the best solution for the Gowanus neighborhood. Read our full statement here.

The video above is also available as a podcast below, and through iTunes.

Meet Gowanus Business Owners Potentially Threatened by Rezoning Play Now | Play in Popup

For more information about MAS advocacy on Gowanus, click here.

Update via MAS Twitter: DOB Rule Breaking News: as MAS asked, DOB delays start-date until mid-April (instead of 3/9) for more public input twitter.com/MASNYC.

At a public hearing this afternoon, MAS will urge the Department of Buildings to further evaluate two new rules on the public challenge process for building approvals. The rules are scheduled to be implemented on Monday, March 9. 

“While DOB’s new rules are a commendable effort to advance public discourse on building approvals, MAS believes that further evaluation of the public challenge process and careful consideration of today’s testimony should take place before the rule is put into effect,” said David Schnakenberg, Menapace Legal Fellow for the Municipal Art Society. 

MAS suggested that DOB convene a working group to consider the testimony and the input it has received today. MAS offered to participate in any way that might be helpful to improving the rule and realizing the Mayor Bloomberg’s goal of meaningful public review of DOB approvals. Continue Reading>>

The Municipal Art Society testified Wednesday evening at the public hearing held by Brooklyn Community Board 13 on the City’s proposed rezoning of Coney Island.

Citing our concerns that the proposed rezoning would threaten the potential of Coney Island to succeed as a major, world-class entertainment destination, MAS recommended key modifications to the City’s plan and other critical steps the City must take to revitalize Coney Island. Continue Reading>>

The proposed city-wide bike parking text amendment, which mandates bike parking spaces in new residential, office and commercial development, including public parking garages, as well as community facilities, represents a positive and crucial step to making our city more sustainable. The Department of City Planning’s amendment is a welcome initiative as it addresses one of the major impediments to commuting: the lack of safe and secure places to park bikes.

Apparently, 70,000 bike are stolen annually from city streets. So, as part of an overall strategy to increase adequate bike infrastructure in the city, increasing bike parking opportunities in new development projects city-wide is a welcome reform. We hope it will help persuade New Yorkers to ride their bikes not just recreationally, but as they go about their daily activities in the city. Continue Reading>>

MAS will tonight present the results of the ImagineConey project, offering ideas for a visionary new 21st century amusement district and the steps necessary to achieve it.

At a public meeting at Our Lady of Solace Chuch at 6.30PM (MAP), MAS will present ideas generated by a team of international design, planning and amusement experts, as well as concepts generated through an innovative online “call for ideas” and from public workshops convened in Brooklyn.

Building on the City’s recent actions to revitalize the area, MAS will also set forth the steps it believes are necessary to successfully return Coney Island to its former place as a dynamic and robust entertainment and amusement destination.

Join us tonight!

The proposed Ridgewood North Historic District is comprised of the earliest examples of “Mathews Model Flats,” built by speculative developer Gustave X. Mathews and designed by architect Louis Allmendinger between 1908 and 1911. Considered to be some of the most innovative housing in New York City, these “new law” tenements were designed with more space and better sanitation than their overcrowded 19th Century counterparts. By making use of generous lot sizes, introducing wide air shafts to provide improved air and light quality, including bathrooms in each unit, and controlling occupancy, Mathews established a new housing paradigm that was a welcome departure from the congested, polluted slums of the Lower East Side. The three story apartment buildings were simple, sturdy, and relatively cheap to construct, and therefore became the standard for subsequent tenement house construction. Exhibited at the 1915 Panama Pacific Fair in San Francisco, the Mathews Model Flats were heralded as an exceptional achievement in affordable housing. Continue Reading>>

In its letter to the New York City Council Zoning and Franchises Subcommittee earlier this week, MAS described Hunter’s Point South Queens as an exciting opportunity to put the sustainable neighborhood planning principles laid out by the Mayor in his  PlaNYC2030 into practice.

Representing a precious waterfront area and unique development opportunity for Queens and the city as a whole, MAS believes that any project plans for this area must adhere to transit oriented and sustainable development principles and must preserve significant parts of this waterfront area as park space for active uses that provides access to the water.

The letter is pasted in full after the “continue reading” jump, but to download it as a PDF, click here. Continue Reading>>

The Municipal Art Society’s Preservation Committee yesterday urged the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to reconsider the proposal by General Growth Properties to redevelop the South Street Seaport properties. The project involves the construction of a 495-foot-high hotel/condo tower in the Seaport just outside of the historic district; the demolition of the Pier 17 building built in the 1980s; the construction of 120′ high boutique hotels on Pier 17; the relocation the 1903 “Tin Building,” part of the Fulton Fish Market; and the demolition of the 1939 Fulton Fish Market (or “New Market”) building.

Although the MAS Committee recognizes that some sort of revitalization is needed in the district, they do not think this project is the right solution. In its testimony yesterday, the Committee described concerns about the scale and height of the new development, the impact it will have on the Brooklyn Bridge and its views, and the historic integrity of the two Fulton Fish Market buildings. No decision was made on the project, but the LPC will consider it again at a future hearing. Continue Reading>>

The City Council’s Waterfront and Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Committees held an oversight hearing today regarding the present and future of the South Street Seaport. Coming down the pipeline in the Seaport is a new development proposed by General Growth Properties. Much of the development falls within the South Street Seaport Historic District, designated in 1977. The proposal involves the reconfiguration of Pier 17, the construction of a new 495-foot-high hotel and residential building, additional 120-foot-high structures, the relocation of the 1907 Tin Building (within the historic district and formerly part of the Fulton Fish Market), and the demolition of the 1930s Fulton Fish Market Building (which is not protected with landmark status).

MAS will be reviewing General Growth’s proposal later this month, and will be testifying at the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s hearing on the project later this fall. Continue Reading>>

MAS testified at the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) yesterday in opposition to a proposal to construct an underground parking garage in the courtyard of an 1890s model housing complex.

Located within the Brooklyn Heights Historic District, the Riverside Houses complex is one of the most important buildings in the history of 19th-century housing in the city. Like many reform housing designs, the landscaping features and open spaces of Riverside are equally as important as the architecture itself. The parking garage would truncate the courtyard’s open space, require the removal of 12 mature trees, and potentially damage archeological resources. MAS testified that this is not acceptable given the original design intent to provide access to light, air, and a healthy living environment for the building’s residents. Due to the number of speakers opposing the project, yesterday’s hearing ran late, and so LPC did not make a decision on whether or not to approve the project. Continue Reading>>

It’s not the nomination getting the most press today, but it is important to those who care about New York City’s historic buildings nonetheless. With MAS support, the City Council today approved the nomination of Frederick Bland as the newest member of the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC).

Commissioner Bland is the managing partner of Beyer Blinder Belle Architects, one of New York’s most highly regarded preservation architecture firms, and a resident of Brooklyn Heights, New York City’s first historic district. He will fill the seat of long-time Commissioner Jan Hird Pokorny, a pioneering preservation architect who passed away in May at the age of 93. The Council also approved the re-appointments of two veteran LPC Commissioners, Joan Gerner of Queens and Christopher Moore of Brooklyn.

Read MAS testimony in support of Commissioner Bland’s appointment and the re-appointment of Commissioners Gerner and Moore in full after the jump. Continue Reading>>

The MAS presentation of six alternative plans to retain Admiral’s Row in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, currently slated for demolition to make way for a supermarket garnered plenty of attention in the press, including: New York Times; Brooklyn Daily Eagle; Gothamist; Curbed; and commentary on Brownstoner and Gowanus Lounge).

In other news, architects say windmills would not be the best source of alternative energy for New York City (New York Times). Governor Paterson has appointed Fred Hochberg, former Dean of Milano (the New School) the new Port Authority board Commissioner (New York Observer). Continue Reading>>