Landmarks Hearing 11/5 on Sites Proposed for ‘De-Calendaring’

On November 5, the Landmarks Preservation Commission will hold a public hearing on twenty-one sites in Lower Manhattan which have been under consideration for landmark designation for more than five years.  Four of these sites – 57 Sullivan Street, 801-807 Broadway/67 East 11th Street, 138 Second Avenue, and 2 Oliver Street — are in the Village or East Village or of special concern to Village Preservation.  We are urging the Landmarks Preservation Commission to finally move ahead with landmark designation of these sites, and ask the public to do the same.  You can do so by testifying at the hearing on November 5th, or by submitting written testimony. Background:  These sites are among ninety-five under consideration for landmark designation for more than five years without a final decision by the Commission. Late last year the Commission decided to deal with this backlog by proposing to ‘de-calendar’, or remove from the list of sites under consideration for designation, all ninety-five sites, with no opportunity for public comment or for consideration of the individual merits of each site.  Village Preservation, fellow preservation groups, and elected officials pushed back strongly against this plan, calling instead for a transparent process allowing public comment and consideration of each individual site.  The Commission listened, and adopted a plan very much in line with what we called for, which includes these upcoming hearings.. About the buildings:  57 Sullivan Street (Broome Street), 138 Second Avenue (St. Mark’s Place) and 2 Oliver Street on the Lower East Side are all ‘federal-style’ houses dating to the early 19th century, in the earliest architectural style of the newly-independent United States. Each have borne witness to nearly two centuries of change and development, typically transforming from single-family houses to multi-unit housing for immigrants, in some cases adding commercial uses and additional floors.  But each miraculous survivor also bears a clear connection to the earliest days of New York and our nation’s development.  801-807 Broadway/67 East 11th Street (formerly the McCreery & Co. Store) is one of New York’s grandest cast-iron buildings, formerly one of New York’s great 19th century department stores.  After a fire in 1971 it was saved from demolition and was a pioneering residential conversion of a cast iron building, paving the way with building and fire code regulations that have allowed countless similar conversions in its wake.  More info on each of these buildings can be found here.  HOW TO HELP:Write the Landmarks Preservation Commission in support of designation for 57 Sullivan Street, 801-807 Broadway/67 East 11th Street, 138 Second Avenue, and 2 Oliver Street >> Testify at the hearing on Thursday, November 5 beginning at 9 am at the Commission’s hearing room, The Municipal Bldg., One Centre Street, 9th fl.  To sign up to testify, email backlog95@lpc.nyc.gov by October 29th to reserve a spot