Big Demolitions Coming to 14th Street, Sixth Avenue, and Broadway #SouthOfUnionSquare

Brown four-story buildings: 523-27 Sixth Avenue is at the corner; 519 is to the left; 102 and 104-106 West 14th Street are the two buildings to the right
523-27 Sixth Avenue is at the corner; 519 is to the left; 102 and 104-106 West 14th Street are the two buildings to the right.

Our daily monitoring of demolition and new building permits for every one of 6,500 building lots in our neighborhoods has revealed demolition plans for two significant sites in our neighborhood: the southwest corner of 14th Street and Sixth Avenue, and the west side of Broadway between 11th and 12th Streets.

Plans have been filed to demolish the four buildings at 519 and 523-27 Sixth Avenue/100 West 14th Street, as well as 102 and 104-06 West 14th Street. All four buildings recently came under joint ownership and have been largely emptied, and all lie outside of the Greenwich Village Historic District and therefore do not have landmark protections. Several years ago, both 523-27 Sixth Avenue and 104-06 West 14th Streets were stripped of historic architectural details (the distinctive “witch’s hat” from 523-27, and the cornice from 104-106), making landmark designation virtually impossible. No. 519 Sixth Avenue is a non-historic one-story taxpayer, and 102 West 14th Street long ago had historic material removed from the building. 

Brown four-story building at 14th Street, 6th Avenue in 2014, before architectural detail was removed
The buildings in 2014, before architectural detail was removed from 523-527 Sixth Avenue and 104-06 West 14th Street.

Development will likely follow here, though no plans have yet been filed. Zoning for the site encourages residential development with ground-floor retail, and would allow a building with a 60–125-ft-high base reaching up to about 170 ft (not including mechanical space) after setbacks along Sixth Avenue, and a base height of 60–105-ft reaching up to about 140 ft (not including mechanical space) after setbacks on the western portion of the site along 14th Street. This is the the same zoning which shaped the two new buildings on the north side of 14th Street at Sixth Avenue (the zoning does not require the jarring designs employed on those two new buildings). 

Two buildings on Broadway NYC: 813, gray and four stories tall and 815 Broadway, two stories tall.
813 (left) and 815 Broadway.

Demolition plans have also been filed for 813 and 815 Broadway south of 12th Street, two 19th-century buildings that do retain a significant degree of their history integrity. No. 813 Broadway (ca. 1850) has a rich history connected to the Civil War and the fight to end slavery and the Roosevelt family, among others; 815 Broadway (1897) was also connected to the Roosevelt family, Child’s Restaurant, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Both buildings are located in our proposed South of Union Square Historic District, which we are fighting to have landmarked. No plans have yet been filed for new development there, but the zoning would encourage large hotels or office buildings, like those built nearby in the same zoning district at 799 and 809 Broadway.

Councilmember Carlina Rivera who represents the area is yet to support the proposed landmark designation, nor has Mayor Adams.

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August 23, 2022