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>>

Last week, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the 850-building Prospect Heights Historic District, the largest district designated in two decades. MAS made a video about the process of creating the historic district, featuring Councilmember Letitia James, Chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission Robert B. Tierney, historian Francis Morrone, and Gib Veconi of Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council (PHNDC), and showing how we worked with PHNDC to survey the historic buildings and promote the area for designation. The result was not just the designation, the act of engaging residents in the process brought the community together and provided a new sense of neighborhood identity. 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>>

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>>

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>>

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 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>>

Yesterday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) voted in favor of designating 3 new individual landmarks: the Museum building and the Fountain of Life and Tulip Tree Allée at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx; Jamaica High School in Queens; and the Rutan-Journeay residence in Tottenville, Staten Island.

In a disappointing turn of events, the Greek Revival-style Dissosway-Cole House on Arthur Kill Road in Staten Island was deemed too altered for NYC landmark status after incurring fire damage and subsequent replacement of some of the building’s original fabric. MAS had testified in favor of all four designations, stating in particular that there was enough remaining material and documentation at the Dissosway-Cole House to allow for an authentic restoration.

The commission also held public hearings on 11 designation proposals, and MAS testified in favor of all of them. Continue Reading>>