The Municipal Art Society of New York

Today is another large Designation Day at the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The focus of today’s hearing is expanding some of the city’s existing historic districts to include worthy buildings that were excluded from the original designations. See our slide above and continue reading to learn more about the LPC’s activities today. Continue Reading>>

The Vander Ende-Onderdonk House, located in the Ridgewood section of Queens near the Brooklyn border, is the oldest Dutch Colonial stone house in New York City. It was nominated to the Census of Places that Matter for its connection to the 18th century history of Queens and for its story of neighborhood preservation advocacy.

The site of the Onderdonk house and farm was originally granted to Hendrick Barents Smidt by Dutch governor Peter Stuyvesant in the 1660s. However, the house that stands today was not built until after the Ende family acquired the land in 1709. According to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission’s designation report, the house was originally constructed in the mid- to late-18th century. It was built facing Flushing Avenue, the colonial road connecting the Dutch town of Bushwick with the English town of Newtown. The frame addition to the house was constructed in the 1820s by Adrian Onderdonk, who purchased the farm shortly after his marriage to Ann Wyckoff, a member of the prominent Dutch-American Brooklyn family. Continue Reading>>

MAS testified on Tuesday before the Landmarks Preservation Commission in support of the landmark designation of two buildings in Midtown built in 1909 for the B.F. Goodrich Company. The buildings, both designed by Chicago architect Howard Van Doren Shaw, occupy an L-shaped site fronting the east side of Broadway (pictured here) and the north side of 57th St (both pictured after the jump). Unfortunately, the buildings’ owner only supports the designation of the Broadway building and is opposing the designation of the 57th St. structure.  MAS joined our colleague NYC preservation groups, as well as several groups based in Shaw’s home state of Illinois, in urging the LPC to designate both buildings.

Founded in Akron, Ohio, in the 1870s, B.F. Goodrich rapidly grew in the early 20th c. with the rise of the automobile industry.   As a leading automobile tire and rubber manufacturer in the United States at the time, the company wanted a New York presence for its new corporate headquarters.  The company selected an L-shaped location on Broadway and 57th Street, at the heart of what was then considered “automobile row.”  Running along Broadway and its side streets, from north of Times Square to north of Columbus Circle, automobile row held a concentration of showrooms, repair shops, offices, and other uses all associated with automobile companies like B.F. Goodrich, General Motors, Ford, and Fisk Tires. Continue Reading>>

Today, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Prospect Heights Historic District. At 850 buildings, it is the largest historic district designated in two decades.

“MAS applauds the Landmarks Preservation Commission for moving to protect this very special neighborhood,” said Lisa Kersavage, senior director of advocacy and policy for the Municipal Art Society. “This is an important act that will protect one of Brooklyn’s finest and well-preserved historic neighborhoods. Designation will protect the neighborhood from pressure from the Atlantic Yards project and other developments.”

Prospect Heights is rich in historic architecture, with blocks of beautiful Italianate and neo-Grec rowhouses, interspersed with churches, small commercial and apartment buildings. 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>>

The LPC’s agenda today is full of projects MAS has been following.  This morning, the agency addressed the St. Vincent’s hospital and new residential development projects, and this afternoon the Commissioners are scheduled to vote to make Fillmore Place in Williamsburg a historic district. More designations are taking place this afternoon too – keep reading for details.

In another split vote, the LPC today voted to approve a “notice to proceed” with the demolition of St. Vincent’s 1960s O’Toole building and the construction of a new hospital on the site. This was the final step of the hardship process, which started about a year ago, allowing the project to move forward to seek other required land use and State Department of Health approvals. Despite its name, the “notice to proceed” does not allow for the immediate demolition of the Modernist icon. Continue Reading>>

Last Wednesday’s Preservation Lobby Day, which took place on the steps of City Hall, drew the largest crowd in the annual event’s three year history.  Over a hundred people from all five boroughs rallied to urge the City Council and the Mayor to support the Landmarks Preservation Commission and to endorse the Citywide Preservation Platform.  Joining preservationists and neighborhood advocates on the steps were several Council Members, including Jessica Lappin, Bill DeBlasio, and Tony Avella, as well as a representative from Alan Gerson’s office.

In the past, Preservation Lobby Days have helped to increase the budget of the Landmarks Preservation Commission and allow the agency to establish a survey department.  As a result, in recent years, the LPC has dramatically increased its survey and designation work.  Continue Reading>>

Preservation advocates received good news last week regarding the future of the Con Ed Powerhouse, located in the northern reaches of Hell’s Kitchen, on the block bounded by 11th Avenue and 59th Street, and 12th Avenue and 58th Street in Manhattan. The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) announced plans to hold a public hearing, to consider the individual landmark designation of the building, on July 14th, 2009.

The former Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) Powerhouse was designed by acclaimed architect Stanford White, of McKim, Mead & White, and was built in 1904 in the Renaissance Revival style. The splendidly detailed, industrial building has been considered by the LPC twice before — once in 1979 and again in 1990 — but was never granted landmark status. Earlier this year, in keeping with our commitment to the preservation of New York City’s industrial heritage, MAS sent a letter to the LPC supporting the proposed designation. Continue Reading>>

Although today one can get Nathan’s hot dogs in towns all across America, Nathan’s Famous is still synonymous with Coney Island. The Coney Island legend opened in 1916 and has been serving hot dogs on Surf Avenue ever since. While Coney Island has changed over the last 93 years, Nathan’s has remained a constant, remaining open all year round, rain or shine.

Nathan Handwerker, a Polish immigrant and founder of Nathan’s, did not in fact invent the hot dog, but he does deserve credit for making it one of America’s most popular foods. Moreover, it has been argued that Handwerker is the father of American fast food, providing cheap, quick, and easy food for the masses then as now. Continue Reading>>

The Landmarks Preservation Commission today designated two new landmarks in the Bronx and added two other items to the “calendar” – which is the first step in the designation process. The city’s newest landmarks, the Hunts Point and Woodstock branches of the New York Public Library, are both Carnegie libraries, located in the Bronx. The items that were calendared are a proposed Ridgewood South Historic District in Queens and a private residence in Staten Island.

The two landmarked libraries were created using the famous 1901 grant from Andrew Carnegie. The grant was intended for the design and construction of new library buildings, allowing the New York Public Library to create 39 neighborhood branches. Continue Reading>>

The former Childs restaurant building on Surf Avenue and 12th Street is today home to the organization, Coney Island USA, but the building’s role in Coney Island’s amusement area extends much further back. The building was originally constructed in 1917 in the Spanish Colonial Revival style for the Childs restaurant chain, a cafeteria-style restaurant founded in the 1880s in lower Manhattan which eventually grew to have over 100 locations in America and Canada. This building was the first of two Childs restaurants constructed in Coney Island; the other building on the Boardwalk was designated a landmark in 2003 and is currently home to Lola Staar’s Dreamland Roller Rink.

The Childs restaurant chain was the creation of Samuel and William Childs. They revolutionized the American restaurant chain by creating a uniform look to each of their branches in order to make their restaurants recognizable. Continue Reading>>

Despite its late 20^th-century alterations, the Grashorn Building on Jones Walk and Surf Avenue is the oldest building in Coney Island’s amusement area. Behind the synthetic siding is a wood-framed building dating from the late 1880s. If one looks carefully, the building’s Second Empire mansard roof and dormer windows can still be discerned.

As early as 1898 and continuing for at least a half-century, the building was the home of Henry Grashorn’s hardwood store, which served the amusement industry. Coney Island in the late-19^th and early 20^th centuries was so dense with mechanical amusements and attractions that easily accessible hardware stores like Grashorn’s were a necessity. Continue Reading>>

This past weekend, two of Coney Island’s historic and iconic rides, the Cyclone and the Wonder Wheel, opened for the 2009 season. The B & B Carousell, Coney Island’s third operating historic ride, however, is still undergoing a thorough restoration in Ohio. The restoration work includes its 50 hand-carved horses and two chariots, as well as its 66-key German-made Bruder Gebruder organ. When it is restored to its former glory and reinstalled in City’s new Steeplechase Plaza, its grand re-opening will be well worth the wait.

Although Coney Island was once filled with as many as 24 hand-carved carousels, only the B & B Carousell survived to the twenty-first century. Originally built in 1919 in Coney Island, it spent its first decade and a half in New Jersey, possibly in Asbury Park before being purchased in the 1930s by William Bishoff and Herman Brienstein. Continue Reading>>

The Shore Theater is one of the most striking buildings in Coney Island. Its height (the tallest in Coney Island’s amusement area) and its location (conveniently across from both the Stillwell Avenue Subway Station and Nathan’s on Surf Avenue) also make it one of the most recognizable.

Nevertheless, like many of its historic neighbors, the theater’s exterior and interior lack landmark protection, and there is no guarantee that this beloved building will be part of Coney Island’s future. MAS has asked the City to designate this building, among others, as landmarks so that they can be an integral part of a revitalized Coney Island.

Constructed in 1925 to the design of noted theater architects, Reilly & Hall, the theater was originally known as “Loew’s Coney Island” and served as both a live performance vaudeville venue and a movie house. At the time of its construction, the Shore Theater represented the optimism for the future of Coney Island at the dawn of the “Nickel Empire” (i.e. Coney Island in the 1920s and ‘30s, so-called because it cost 5 cents to ride the subway to Coney, and 5 cents was the cost of all of the items on Nathan’s menu). Continue Reading>>

The La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, located in the East Village of Manhattan, was nominated to the Census of Places that Matter for introducing new culture to an old setting.

In 1873, the Aschenbroedel Verein building was constructed to house the “Cinderella Society,” a German-American cultural association. When the group moved to Yorkville in 1892, another German organization, the Gesang Verein Schiller Bund, took over the space. As the large German population of Kleindeutschland began to migrate uptown, most of the East Village’s German institutions moved with them.

Though founded in 1961, it wasn’t until 1969 that the La Mama Experimental Theater Club converted the former Aschenbroedel Verein building into its off-off Broadway theatre. Led by Ellen Stewart, the world-renowned La MaMa has “passionately pursued its original mission to develop, nurture, support, produce and present new and original performance work by artists of all nations and cultures,” according to their website. Continue Reading>>