Both structures are eligible for the State and National Registers of Historic Places by the New York State Historic Preservation Office. However, the city plans to demolish them and replace them with new, more generic structures (seen in the rendering above) as part of the $1.45-billion East Side Coastal Resiliency (ESCR) project.
Sunday at 2, the LESPI is hosting a rally to protest the city's plan to demolish the structures.
Via the EVG inbox...
For two years LESPI, our neighbors and fellow preservationists have been advocating for the city to save these two National and State Register of Historic Places eligible buildings, which by law require that preservation must be seriously considered as a component of this federally-funded work.Instead, the City has stonewalled, offering only to photograph the buildings before demolition. People are fed up with the City Administration's lack of responsiveness and will rally Saturday to make themselves heard.LESPI's rally is co-sponsored by the following organizations: Art Deco Society of New York, Bowery Alliance of Neighbors, Friends of Corlears Hook Park, Friends of the Lower East Side, Friends of Terra Coca, Historic Districts Council, New York Landmarks Conservancy, and Village Preservation. There will be several speakers at the rally.
The rally takes place at the Brian Watkins Tennis Center Comfort Station, just north of the Williamsburg Bridge.
In November 2020, the full Community Board 3 passed a resolution calling to restore the two structures.
Don't stop at saving the historic buildings. Many of the 991 trees slated for death are 80 years old and keep our air breathable and blunt the pollution of the FDR. That park is necessary for our health and well being: it was built specifically to offset the FDR. Without those mature, historic, gorgeous, remarkable, wonderful trees, we won't have oxygen, shade, rain diversion, or carbon offset. They deserve landmarking too! (And no, the saplings planned as replacements will not offset pollution nearly as much as the adults--older is better, and rare in our city.) Our politicians don't care about the climate or our health--they only care about their continued fundraising from real estate and construction interests. Save East River Park!
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