While the City’s Economic Development Corporation is working to create a great summer season in Coney Island by opening a new amusement area and bringing in 23 new rides, one developer announced plans to demolish the oldest historic buildings in the heart of the amusement area this summer. The developer, Thor Equities, plans to replace these historic buildings with temporary shacks for fast food.

On the chopping block are the Grashorn building, built in the 1880s; Henderson’s Music Hall, built c. 1899, where Al Jolson and the Marx Brothers performed; the Shore Hotel, dating from 1903 and Coney Island’s only remaining small-scale hotel; and the Bank of Coney Island, constructed in 1923 in the Classical Revival style and intended to show the strength of the Coney Island business community. Continue Reading>>

This fall, the Municipal Art Society, supported by funding from the New York Community Trust, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, will launch a major campaign to promote the positive environmental benefits of preserving and improving the efficiency of New York’s historic buildings.

Yesterday, MAS staff was interviewed on NPR about the sensitive greening of the Empire State Building, currently underway, that aims to dramatically reduce the icon’s energy consumption. Improving the efficiency of the city’s buildings is a key step in tackling the climate change crisis, and Lisa Kersavage, Senior Director of Advocacy and Policy, stated that the intention of MAS’s new campaign is to change the popular misconception that the best way to do this is to demolish old buildings and erect new green ones, saying “construction-related debris accounts for 60 percent of New York City’s waste stream.” Continue Reading>>

The Landmarks Preservation Commission agenda is packed today with numerous worthy designation items. Check out our slide show of the items being calendared, heard, and designated today. MAS is particularly pleased with the proposed designation of the Prospect Heights Historic District in Brooklyn. For nearly three years, the MAS has worked closely with community members, elected officials and the LPC towards protecting the unique character of this largely intact neighborhood with landmark designation for over 800 buildings. Click here to read more about its history. Continue Reading>>

There has been news coverage today on a reported compromise between the Navy Yard and the National Guard regarding the Admiral’s Row buildings in Brooklyn. Purportedly, only two of the eleven buildings will be retained.

Lisa Kersavage, MAS Director of Advocacy and Policy said in a public release, “If the reported compromise on the future of the Admiral’s Row buildings is true we are deeply disappointed because the majority of these buildings could and should be saved. We will continue fighting to save these important structures.”

It is not necessary to demolish the buildings in order to build on the site. MAS developed 11 alternative plans that that meet the Navy Yard’s program for a grocery store and retail (see rendering above left) and industrial space while allowing for the restoration and reuse of the historic buildings. Kersavage added, “If there is to be a compromise, it should be with the size of the 356-car parking lot, and not come at the expense of preserving these significant American treasures.” 

The buildings are in the midst of a federally-mandated Section 106 process, which provides the public with the opportunity to comment on the buildings’ demolition and to suggest alternatives that could prevent or mitigate the demolition of the historic structures. 

St. Vincent’s can now check another item off the long list of approvals it needs to construct a new hospital. Today, the LPC, in another split vote, approved the design of the new hospital building and the design of the triangular accessory site across 12th Street.

The new hospital building will replace the 1960s O’Toole building, which the LPC determined last year could be demolished because of hardship. The design features an elliptical tower sitting on top of a rectangular base; overall the height of the building will be 286 feet, reduced from previous reiterations (shown here) of 330 feet and 299 feet. Eight of the eleven LPC Commissioners felt that this new height and the design are appropriate to the Greenwich Village Historic District.

Although a group of Greenwich Village neighbors filed a lawsuit recently to block the demolition of the O’Toole building, St. Vincent’s intends to more forward in seeking its zoning and other required approvals. The Municipal Art Society will continue to follow this project.

Joining founder of the Waterfront Preservation Alliance of Greenpoint and Williamsburg Ward Dennis were: moderator and president of the Society for Industrial Archaeology Mary Habstritt; MAS director of advocacy and policy Lisa Kersavage; president & chief operating officer of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Andrew Kimball; and preservation consultant to the Austin, Nichols, warehouse rehabilitation Robert Powers. Continue Reading>>

980 Madison Avenue was back at the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) yesterday, but it did not yet get the go-ahead from the Commissioners. The project had been significantly redesigned after the LPC rejected the original proposal by Norman Foster to build a 30-story glass addition on top of the 1949 Parke-Bernet Galleries last year.

The re-conceptualized proposal for a four-story addition was originally presented to the LPC in June. Today, the architects presented additional modifications to this design, primarily a lightening of the color of the addition’s bronze cladding. Since several Commissioners were unable to make the hearing, the LPC decided to delay the vote on the project.

To learn more about 980 Madison Avenue, click here.

MAS convened experts and community members in an August brainstorming session to develop alternatives to the proposed demolition of Admiral’s Row. The principles for developing the site established during the session and the alternative plans that came out of it are displayed in the slide-show above.

Visit www.mas.org/preservation/admirals-row for more MAS advocacy on Admiral’s Row.

The imminent end of the Bloomberg administration and the prospect of an unknown political climate will prompt several major development projects to rush to enter the city’s approvals process; among them, the West Side Yards, St. Vincent’s hospital, and the Domino Sugar Refinery – not to mention the Coney Island and Willets Point rezonings (New York Observer). MAS has testified numerous times on all these projects and will continue to monitor their progress in the upcoming year.

New York Magazine focuses on the New York City skyline this month, in particular the September 11, 2001 memorial Tribute in Light, produced by MAS.

In other news, the final public hearing before the state economic development corporation on the proposed Columbia University expansion in West Harlem is tomorrow Continue Reading>>

MAS Convenes Experts and Community in Visioning Session to Explore How to Incorporate Historic Buildings in Revitalization of Brooklyn Neighborhood.

In mid-August, MAS brought together community representatives, architects, preservationists, and other experts in a brainstorming session to develop alternatives to the proposed demolition of Admiral’s Row. Located on the edge of the Brooklyn Navy Yard at Flushing Avenue and Navy Street, Admiral’s Row is a collection of 11 National Register-eligible historic buildings currently owned by the U.S. Army National Guard Bureau.

The Admiral’s Row site includes ten houses, formerly home to high-ranking naval officers, constructed between the mid-nineteenth century and 1901, and a timber shed used primarily to store ship masts while they cured dating from 1838. The latter is the oldest building on-site, and is believed to be the only surviving mid-nineteenth century example of this building type in Navy yards in the United States. Although these historic buildings have been abandoned and allowed to deteriorate since the early 1970s, they retain a great deal of both exterior and interior architectural detail, and most are structurally sound. Together they form a remarkable collection of residential and accessory military buildings that are of great significance to the history of the Navy Yard, the borough of Brooklyn, and the U.S. Navy. Continue Reading>>