Deadline for “Last Chance Landmarks” This Thursday

Earlier this month Village Preservation and many of our supporters testified to urge the Landmarks Preservation Commission to finally designate four “last chance” landmarks – historic buildings that have been under consideration for landmark designation for more than five years (three of the four have been under consideration for more than forty years).  These buildings were all proposed to be “de-calendared,” or dropped from the list of sites under consideration for landmark designation, by the Commission last year.  But after an outcry from Village Preservation and other preservationists, the LPC switched gears and is now consideringthese and ninety other sites which have lingered on the “potential landmarks” list for five years or more, with a  final decision expected early next year.  The deadline for comments on the four buildings in our area is this Thursday, November 19th.  

The four buildings in our neighborhood are 57 Sullivan Street (near Broome Street in the South Village), 138 Second Avenue (near St. Mark’s Place in the East Village), 2 Oliver Street (on the Lower East Side), and 801-807 Broadway/67 East 11th Street (formerly the McCreery & Co. Store, now ‘The Cast-Iron Building’ residences). The first three are all early 19th century federal-style houses, representing the first architectural style of the newly-independent American republic.  The former is a grand former department store which became an adaptive re-use pioneer by changing the rules to allow the legal conversion of cast-iron loft buildings to residences in the early 1970’s.  All but 138 Second Avenue were first considered for landmark designation in the 1960’s.  Read more about these incredible buildings and their histories here. 

HOW TO HELP:

Write the Landmarks Preservation Commission BY THIS THURSDAY urging them to landmark 57 Sullivan Street, 801-807 Broadway/67 East 11th Street, 138 Second Avenue, and 2 Oliver Street >>

Save our Neighborhood’s “Last Chance” Landmarks 11/5

Four buildings in our neighborhood which have been under consideration for landmark designation for more than five years will receive a public hearing before the Landmarks Preservation Commission on Thursday, November 5, as part of a plan to make final decisions upon ninety-five sites throughout the five boroughs which have been awaiting landmark designation since 2010 or earlier.

The sites in our neighborhood are 57 Sullivan Street (near Broome Street in the South Village), 138 Second Avenue (near St. Mark’s Place in the East Village), 2 Oliver Street (on the Lower East Side), and 801-807 Broadway/67 East 11th Street (formerly the McCreery & Co. Store, now ‘The Cast-Iron Building’ residences). The first three are all early 19th century federal-style houses, representing the first architectural style of the newly-independent American republic.  The former is a grand former department store which became an adaptive re-use pioneer by changing the rules to allow the legal conversion of cast-iron loft buildings to residences in the early 1970’s.  All but 138 Second Avenue were first considered for landmark designation in the 1960’s.  Read more about these incredible buildings and their histories 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 to reserve a spot. 

More information here.

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

DETAILS ON CITY’S VASTLY IMPROVED LANDMARKS BACKLOG PLAN

New details have emerged about the City’s recently-announced plan to deal with its backlog of 95 sites under consideration for landmark designation for more than five years.  After strong opposition from Village Preservation and the preservation community, the Landmarks Preservation Commission dropped its plan to remove the 95 sites from its list of potential landmarks without any public hearing or input.  The good news is the Commission has adopted a plan which closely follows the recommendations of Village Preservation and other preservation advocates working with the Manhattan Borough President, to allow and consider public input and testimony on each site, to provide full information on each site, and to consider each site for potential landmark designation, rather than removing it from the Commission’s list.

Full details of the plan can be found here.  The Commission will consider written public input on each of the 95 sites between now and September, hold public hearings allowing additional public input in October and November, decide whether to recommend designating, not designating, or removing from the calendar without prejudice (which would allow a site to come back for future consideration) in January and February of 2016, and hold designation hearings on those it does recommend for landmark designation between March and December of 2016.

There are four sites on the list in our area or of special concern to Village Preservation – 57 Sullivan Street(Broome/Spring Streets) in the South Village, and 1816 Federal-style house, 2 Oliver Street on the Lower East Side, an 1821 Federal-style house, 129 Second Avenue (St. Mark’s Place/9th Street) in the East Village, an 1832 Federal-style house, and the former James McCreery & Co. Store/Cast-Iron Lofts at 801-807 Broadway/67 East 11th Street, built in 1868.  Each of these will be heard by the Commission on November 5th.  Any member of the public can testify and/or submit written statements, but will be asked to register by October 29th to do so.  Village Preservation has advocated and will continue to advocate for landmark designation of all four.

Village Preservation will be providing the public with more detailed information about how they can support these designation efforts and be involved in the process.  But we are pleased to be able to share the news that a more transparent and equitable system which includes a path to potential landmark designation has been implemented for these sites.

LANDMARKS PRESERVATION COMMISSION TAKES BETTER ROUTE ON “DE-CALENDARING”

In an important victory for preservation efforts, the Landmarks Preservation Commission has announced that they will hear and consider for potential landmark designation approximately 95 sites previously considered for “de-calendaring,” rather than simply removing them all from the list of those under consideration for landmark designation as formerly planned.  This includes four buildings in our area of which Village Preservation had advocated for landmark designation:  801-807 Broadway/67 East 11th Street, 57 Sullivan Street, 138 Second Avenue, and 2 Oliver Street.  Hearings on each of these sites to determine if they will be granted or denied landmark status, or if they will be removed from the calendar for consideration “without prejudice,” will take place beginning in the fall. 

This is exactly what Village Preservation and a coalition of preservation organizations and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer had urged the Commission to do, rather than to move ahead with their previously plan to simply remove all 95 sites from their docket en masse, which we strenuously opposed.  Late last year after a huge backlash the Commission announced they would no longer move ahead with the mass de-calendaring plan, but had not agreed to an alternative route for consideration of these sites.  Village Preservation and other preservationists worked with the Manhattan Borough President to formulate an alternative plan, which the Commission has now announced they have adopted. 

We are grateful that the Commission will be taking a much more transparent approach, allowing the public the opportunity to comment on each of these sites and for each to be considered on its merits.  When more information is available about the scheduling of hearings, we will let you know.

FACING MASS OPPOSITION, CITY DROPS PLAN FOR MASS DECALENDARING OF POTENTIAL LANDMARKS

Dear friend,

I have some wonderful news to share — the Landmarks Preservation Commission has announced that they have dropped their plans to vote on the en masse de-calendaring of 94 individual sites and 2 historic districts which was scheduled for this Tuesday! 

GVSHP and our fellow preservationists all adamantly opposed this plan, and made clear to the Commission that we believed this would be an enormous detriment to preservation in New York and a blow to governmental transparency and inclusion (read letters here and here). Thank you to everyone who joined the call and wrote to the Mayor and LPC Chair and urged them to drop this wrong-headed plan! 

This does not necessarily mean this is the end of the story. While the plan has been withdrawn for next Tuesday, we do not know what the LPC plans to do from here about buildings and districts which were calendared years ago but about which they have taken no further action. We agree that sites and districts should not remain “calendared” (i.e. formally under consideration for landmark designation, with a 40 day delay period before demolition and alteration permits can be issued) for unending periods of time without a final decision about landmark status of the site.  But we believe that such decisions should be made individually and based upon the merits of the site in question, and we are willing to work with our fellow preservationists and the Commission to make that possible. 

We will keep you posted as this continues to develop, but thank you again to all who wrote expressing their opposition to this plan, including Councilmember Rosie Mendez, State Senator Brad Hoylman, Manhattan Community Board 2, and the Preservation League of New York State.

Sincerely,