[EVG photo from September]
Last week, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) announced that they will not consider a row of pastel-colored residences on Seventh Street between Avenue C and Avenue D for landmarking.
Preservationists hoped to have the buildings, which date to the 1840s, landmarked ... in part to spare the demolition of 264 E. Seventh St. for some unspecified new development. (In early September, a permit was filed with the DOB to demolish the 3-level house.)
Tomorrow at noon, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation is organizing a rally outside the buildings on Seventh Street. Via the EVG inbox...
In September, GVSHP and allied groups reached out to the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission to urge them to landmark 264 East 7th Street, and the adjacent houses at 258, 260, 262, and 266 East 7th Street. Once part of what was known as “Political Row”, these five ca. 1842 houses, located between Avenues C and D, have rare and beautiful intact Greek Revival ornament, and are linked to the history of the early development of New York’s waterfront and to critical political figures of the 19th and early 20th century in New York.
In spite of this fact the Landmarks Preservation Commission recently responded saying they did not consider the buildings worthy of landmark designation.
Sound familiar? Earlier this year the City also refused to landmark five 19th-century Beaux Arts tenements at 112-120 East 11th Street, between 3rd and 4th Avenues.
One small positive note: due to the 2008 East Village rezoning which GVSHP and other groups fought for, the height of any new development on this block of East 7th Street is limited to 75 feet in height after setbacks. Previously there were NO height limits for new development on this block.
Visit here to send a letter to the Mayor online.
The rally starts at noon tomorrow (Friday)...
Previously on EV Grieve:
City says no to landmarking row of 7th Street homes, clearing way for demolition of No. 264
12 comments:
How is this possible,and with his donor friend trying to demolish 5 buildings on 11th street. We must pressure the Mayor to stop this on 7th street too. Such unique aspects of our neighborhood and City to just be smashed seems terribly short sighted. Will take my lunch break and come back here for the rally.
Can we stop hyper gentrification and the erasure of everything old and with history from our city? Not with the present crop of corrupt politicians and their spineless agencies. Anyone interested in leaving something behind for future generations that is not "perfectly sterile" and has a history of about 10 years please show for this rally.
Letter submitted, although the link above isn't working. This one seems ok - http://salsa4.salsalabs.com/o/51405/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=19939
Also, what time is the rally?
Thanks Goggla!
I fixed the link... the rally is at noon ...
As someone who lives on 7th, between C and D, I understand the plight of my fellow neighbors. However, what good will a rally or protest do? Honestly, who is going to care? The only person who can illicit such change is the Mayor. And he won't be there. So why bother?
@9:08 PM: That's the spirit! I wonder if LBJ showed up at a lot of Vietnam War protests...
It is one thing to protest matters of public policy. But this feeble attempt to interfere with what a private owner wants to do with his or her property within the building codes and regulations of the city is just one for the booby hatch for the malcontents. You believe because you like the ambiance of the Old World and with great chutzpah and not any ownership (not even the front door knob)you should decide a property owners disposition of property. When all property is nationalized your dream can come about in the meantime even the socialist Mayor will not waste time on this.
8:19 AM: It's called zoning my friend, and it limits what landlords can do throughout the country. Without zoning we would have wall-to-wall 10- or 20- or 30-story buildings and no skyline...
One more fruitless exercise by a handful to disgruntled East Village residents who think all change / all progress is designed to destroy their dream of what life in the East Village should be (according to them).
I totally support this rally. East 7th st. between C and D is a unique block, one I often walk through to meditate and reconnect to the city's deep history. This is a beautiful building that with just a little TLC could be a gorgeous example of how to cherish our city's roots and grow from what we have been into something even better. It certainly does not deserve to be demolished, nor will a new building add anything to the existing fabric of this street. Instead, a new building will just serve as yet another foothold toward a bland, generic and overdeveloped cityscape that could exist anywhere. I have found that the Landmarks Preservation Commission tends to ignore buildings and neighborhoods that represent working-class and immigration histories (for example, the overdevelopment of the LES), but I always hold out hope that they might see their way toward protecting a truly essential yet embattled area. While there are many midtowns, there is nowhere else like the East Village.
9:40 AM The East Village was rezoned in Nov 2008 and as 8:19 AM points out developer is limited within city regulations. There is no possibility of your imaginary 10,20 or 30 story building going up on this site it will have to be in scale with the six to seven stories of the block. 10:03 AM is spot on with the observation of "a handful to disgruntled East Village residents who think all change / all progress is designed to destroy their dream of what life in the East Village should be (according to them)". To quote the Nobel Prize winner "The times they are a changing"
The issue is historic preservation, which has always been contentious... but rich people who love shiny glass towers are winning. Meh.
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