Introducing Village Preservation

On Friday, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, founded in 1980 and headquartered in the East Village, introduced a new look.

Moving forward, they'll be known as Village Preservation.

Here's more via their Board President Art Levin:

To continue effectively serving our growing scope and mission, and to continue attracting new supporters to help protect the architectural and cultural character of our unique neighborhoods, we are empowering two vital words in our current name to carry our work forward.

Village Preservation is inclusive, forward-looking, and — importantly — much easier to pronounce and remember. This moniker has been designed as part of a new look which embraces our traditional name while at the same time allowing us to more effectively activate our mission.

Please join the Board and staff of GVSHP in embracing this dynamic evolution, built on the shoulders of what we have already established, with eyes looking toward preserving the wonders of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo, for all its inhabitants and visitors for years to come.

In case you haven't spent every waking hour on the site seen this yet ... earlier this year, Village Preservation (GVSHP at the time!) debuted a new online tool that allows you to explore the history of every building in the neighborhood. Find East Village Building Blocks at this link.

A demonstration tomorrow to keep the neighborhood from becoming Midtown South

The Greenwich Village Society For Historic Preservation is hosting a rally tomorrow (Saturday) at noon. Here are details via the EVG inbox...

Please join us on Saturday at 11th and Broadway, in front of the old St. Denis Hotel, for a demonstration to save our neighborhood. The historic former hotel, built in 1853, is to be demolished for a large glassy office tower.

This is part of a broader trend of demolitions and completely inappropriate new development in this area south of Union Square, fueled by a lack of zoning and landmark protections, the expanding tech industry in the area, and the commercial upzoning for the Tech Hub recently approved nearby on 14th Street. That deal, passed by the City Council and local Councilmember Rivera, failed to include any of the promised meaningful protections for the affected adjacent Greenwich Village and East Village neighborhoods.

Developers now increasingly see this area of our neighborhood as an extension of the ‘Midtown South’ office district and of the tech industry’s “Silicon Alley” ... we are continuing to push for landmark protections that will preserve this and other buildings in the area.

Find more info on the rally here.

Spend the day looking at more photos from East Village artist Carole Teller

[Undated photo outside Gem Spa on St. Mark's at 2nd Avenue]

The folks at the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) have uploaded another batch of photos from the personal collection of East Village artist Carole Teller.

In this archive, you'll discover photos like this from the early 1960s showing the north side of First Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue, including (L-R) 40-56 E. First St. (For a reference point, Prune is at 54 E. First St. today.)



You can find "Carole Teller’s Changing New York, 1960s-1990s" featuring shots of the East Village, Lower East Side and some other areas right here.

And here's one more photo from this series... a look at the northeast corner of Third Avenue and St. Mark's Place circa 1991...



This assemblage will be demolished in the months ahead for a boutique office building.

You can access the previous Teller sets here ... here... and here... and shots from when "The Godfather Part II" filmed on Sixth Street here.

All photos by Carole Teller via the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation

The conversation continues on the now-approved tech hub for 14th Street

[Rendering via NYCEDC]

The conversation/fallout continues from last week's City Council approval of the the mayor's plan for the Union Square Tech Training Center (aka tech hub) at the former P.C. Richard site on 14th Street at Irving Place.

The unanimous approval includes the rezoning required to build the the 21-story tech hub — which is larger than what current commercial zoning allows. For months, some residents, activists, small-business owners and community groups expressed concern that the rezoning necessary for the project would spur out-of-scale development on surrounding blocks.

The project is being developed jointly by the city’s Economic Development Corp. and developer RAL Development Service. The 240,000-square-foot building includes Civic Hall, which will offer tech training for low-income residents, as well as market-rate retail and office space.

The support of local District 2 City Council member Carlina Rivera was key to making the tech hub a go, as Crain's other other media outlets noted.

Rivera had reportedly promised to seek a separate rezoning for the surrounding area during her campaign last year to establish height limits and, in some cases, cap commercial square footage in exchange for her support of the hub.

In voting yes on the project, Rivera said the tech hub would bring "true community benefits, tech education, and workforce development services that will finally give women, people of color, and low-income New Yorkers access to an industry that has unfairly kept them out for far too long."

This link goes to the letter that Rivera shared following the vote.

Meanwhile, the Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation (GVSHP), which had lobbied for protections for the surrounding neighborhood as a component of the tech-hub plan, released this statement from executive director Andrew Berman critical of Rivera's yes vote without any substantial zoning limitations.

The GVSHP and other critics (the Met Council on Housing, the Historic Districts Council, the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative, the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors and the East Village Community Coalition were among the groups to express concern during the approval process) have said that the tech hub will provide important and valuable training services for low-income residents and small businesses starting out. However, Berman has pointed out that the training facilities could have fit in a smaller building on the site, which wouldn't require any commercial upzoning that only serves the mayor's real-estate interests.

On Monday, Rivera released a letter to Marisa Lago, the director of NYC's Department of Planning, calling on that agency to establish a special permit for hotel developments south of Union Square from Third Avenue to University Place. The permit would require an additional site-specific review process for extra time to evaluate a given project's impact on the local community, as Patch reported. (The Villager published a copy of Rivera's letter here.)

Berman quickly issued a rebuttal, stating, in part:

The requirement of a special permit for hotels will have little to no effect on the development problems the Tech Hub will exacerbate. First, any hotel can still be built with the approval of the City Council. Second, this really only applies to a portion of the affected area, since the zoning for about half the area already prohibits or restricts hotels. Third, hotels are only one of many forms of bad development this area is experiencing which this measure will not address, such as office buildings and high-rise condos, as well as doing nothing about affordable housing which the community rezoning plan Rivera promised to hold out for would have.

The GVSHP also created a table, comparing the neighborhood protections that were promised to accompany the tech hub, and those that were actually delivered. (For more detailed analysis, follow this link.)

[Updated] Proposed addition for 827-831 Broadway is back in front of the LPC today

A revised proposal to add a (slightly smaller) four-story glass addition to the landmarked buildings at 827-831 Broadway between 12th Street and 13th Street returns to the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) this morning.

Back in January, LPC commissioners told the design team to return with a revised proposal, as Curbed reported. (Find a PDF of the new proposal here.)

Last November, the LPC voted to landmark the circa-1866 cast-iron buildings where artists Willem and Elaine de Kooning and Paul Jenkins, among others, lived and worked. That decision spared the address from demolition. As previously reported, Quality Capital and Caerus Group bought the parcel in 2015 for $60 million.

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) campaigned for more than 18 months to help preserve these buildings. Read more about their efforts here.

Updated 2 p.m.

The LPC rejected the plans, per the GVSHP...

Great news! @nyclandmarks again rejects plan for out of context glass topper for 827-831 Broadway, 1866 former de Kooning studios we fought to get landmarked and save from wrecking ball!@CarlinaRivera @DeborahJGlick @bradhoylman @LizKrueger pic.twitter.com/JnYEV78kUc

— GVSHP (@GVSHP) April 24, 2018

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: 14-story building planned for 827 Broadway

An appeal to landmark these buildings on Broadway

There's a proposed addition for the recently landmarked 827-831 Broadway

Report: LPC rejects glassy addition for landmarked 827-831 Broadway

Report: LPC rejects glassy addition for landmarked 827-831 Broadway

[DXA Studio]

On Tuesday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) nixed the reflective, four-story addition proposed for 827-831 Broadway between 12th Street and 13th Street.

Curbed has coverage here. A few excerpts:

The Commission’s verdict followed hours of public testimony, where most people spoke in opposition to the project describing it as “overwhelming,” “grotesque,” and “atrocious,” among other descriptors.

But not everyone hated the proposal.

There were many who came out in support of the four-story rooftop addition too, most notably a number of art gallery owners, who praised the design and the aesthetic.

“This is a great homage to the existing building,” said Arnie Zimmerman, an art gallery owner.

“This impresses me in that the scale is exciting,” said Sally Wasserman, who lives in a building that neighbors the project.

Commissioner Michael Devonshire reportedly praised architect Jordan Rogove, though thought that this particular addition "may have been more appropriate as a de Kooning museum out in a field in East Hampton."

The LPC ultimately told the design team to return with a revised proposal, as Curbed reported.

This past November, the LPC voted to landmark the circa-1866 cast-iron buildings where artists Willem and Elaine de Kooning and Paul Jenkins, among others, lived and worked.

That decision spared the address from demolition. As previously reported, Quality Capital and Caerus Group bought the parcel in 2015 for $60 million. The deal reportedly included 30,000 square feet of air rights, which would be put to use for a 14-floor office building.

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) had campaigned for more than 18 months to help preserve these buildings.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: 14-story building planned for 827 Broadway

An appeal to landmark these buildings on Broadway

There's a proposed addition for the recently landmarked 827-831 Broadway

There's a proposed addition for the recently landmarked 827-831 Broadway

[EVG photo from August]

Last week, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) approved a proposal to landmark the circa-1866 cast-iron buildings at 827-831 Broadway between 12th Street and 13th Street.

This decision spared the buildings from demolition. As previously reported, Quality Capital and Caerus Group bought the parcel between 12th Street and 13th Street last summer for $60 million. The deal reportedly included 30,000 square feet of air rights, which would be put to use for a 14-floor office building.

Back to the developer's plans in a minute.

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) campaigned the past 18 months to help preserve these buildings where artists Willem and Elaine de Kooning and Paul Jenkins, among others, lived and worked.

Per Curbed:

The [LPC] vote represents an unusual kind of designation for the commission that takes into special account the cultural history of the site. (Similar designations include the Stonewall Inn and Tammany Hall.) "The building itself, regardless of the destination, is worthy of designation," said Commissioner Frederick Bland. "What happened in it, regardless of the building, is worthy of designation."

According to the GVSHP, the developers said that if the buildings were landmarked, they would return with a claim of "hardship" to get out of landmarking or a proposal for an addition.

On Monday night, Community Board 2's Landmarks Committee will hear the developer's new proposal (find it here) "to construct a multiple story setback addition on the roof."

And the rendering:



The addition, at first glance, looks as if it blew in from the set of "Geostorm." However, the reflective façade is meant to represent Willem de Kooning's rural and pastoral landscape phase as well as his urban landscapes.

In an email, the GVSHP stated: "[T]his proposed 4-story addition is overwhelming in comparison to the building, and would nearly double its height."

The CB2 meeting is Monday at 6:30 p.m., NYU Silver Building, 32 Waverly Place, Room 207. The meeting is open to the public, who can ask questions and provide feedback on the proposal. CB2 will issue an advisory opinion and then the proposal will be scheduled for a hearing and vote with the LPC at a later date. Find more info here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: 14-story building planned for 827 Broadway

An appeal to landmark these buildings on Broadway

Broadway buildings draw support for landmark designation

The proposal to landmark 827-831 Broadway received unanimous support during a public hearing with the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) back on Tuesday.

As previously reported, Quality Capital and Caerus Group bought the parcel between 12th Street and 13th Street last summer for $60 million. The deal reportedly included 30,000 square feet of air rights.

So those plans for a 14-floor office building on this property may be permanently on hold.

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) has campaigned the past 18-plus months to preserve these buidlings.

Here's part of a report they sent out yesterday:

GVSHP was joined by Councilmember Rosie Mendez, neighbors, and scores of supporters on for the public hearing on our proposal to landmark 827-831 Broadway. The 1866 lofts, formerly home to Willem de Kooning and other art world luminaries, had faced the wrecking ball. Read GVSHP’s testimony here.

Members of the LPC, who will decide the building’s fate, also expressed strong support for designation, and stated that a vote would take place on Oct. 31 (time TBD). Once the LPC votes to designate, the building is landmarked and protected, though temporary protections are in place now.

An attorney for the developer ... stated that the owner opposed landmark designation, and asserted that he would have a hardship case if the building were designated and he were not allowed to develop the site (the law enables owners of private property to be relieved of landmarks requirements if they can demonstrate, through a public hearing process, that they cannot make a “reasonable return” on the property while abiding by landmarks requirements).

The owner’s lawyer also said that, if the building is landmarked, they would seek approval from the LPC to build some sort of addition to the building in order to make a reasonable return (this too would require a public hearing and review process).

GVSHP Executive Director Andrew Berman co-authored an op-ed at the Times in early August, providing more history of the addresses and making the case for why they should be landmarked.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: 14-story building planned for 827 Broadway

An appeal to landmark these buildings on Broadway

City moves to potentially landmark 827-831 Broadway

City moves to potentially landmark 827-831 Broadway

[EVG photo from August]

Plans to demolish 827-831 Broadway for a 14-floor office building are on hold for now as the City has decided to begin the formal process of considering them for landmark designation.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission moved yesterday to calendar the pair of cast-iron buildings built in 1866 here between 12th Street and 13th Street. "That means the commission will ultimately hold a public hearing on the buildings’ designation and subsequently vote on it (one way or the other) within one year from now," as Curbed reported.

As previously reported, Quality Capital and Caerus Group bought the parcel between 12th Street and 13th Street last summer for $60 million. The deal reportedly included 30,000 square feet of air rights.

In the late 1950s, Willem de Kooning had a studio in No. 827, one piece of the history of these buildings uncovered by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP), who has campaigned the past 18 months to preserve these buidlings.

GVSHP Executive Director Andrew Berman co-authored an op-ed at the Times in early August, providing more history of the addresses and making the case for why they should be landmarked.

The buildings were designed by Griffith Thomas, called “the most fashionable architect of his generation” by the American Institute of Architects.

You can read more about the buildings and the next steps in the landmarking process at the GVSHP website here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: 14-story building planned for 827 Broadway

An appeal to landmark these buildings on Broadway

Hear about the rezoning of 3rd and 4th Avenues to limit large-scale commercial development

On Wednesday night, CB3's Land Use, Zoning, Public & Private Housing Committee will hear an informational presentation by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) on rezoning Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue.

Here's more info via GVSHP:

GVSHP will be presenting its proposal (PDF here) for rezoning the 3rd and 4th Avenue corridors to prevent oversized commercial development in this area, such as the 300 room, 13-story hotel under construction at 112-120 E. 11th St.

GVSHP is proposing and seeking zoning protections for the area between 5th and 3rd Avenues, Union Square and Astor Place, which is unique within the Village and East Village for its lack of adequate zoning and landmark protections. Community Board 3 ONLY covers the area east of 4th Avenue, so Wednesday's meeting is solely focused on 3rd and 4th Avenues (Community Board 2 covers west of 4th Avenue, and is already on record in support of our proposed zoning protections for Broadway and University Place).

If you oppose overdevelopment in this area, it is vital that you attend. We must get these zoning protections to prevent further oversized development in the area, especially hotels and office buildings. Such development is proliferating in the area in part due to the expanding tech industry, and the Mayor’s planned 14th Street “Tech Hub.”

Find more info here.

The meeting is at the Rutgers Community Center, 200 Madison St. between Rutgers and Pike. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m.; this is item No. 4.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Look at the former Bowlmor Lanes now

Behold Civic Hall, the high-tech future of Union Square — and NYC