Landmarks Preservation Commission rejects hearing for 316 E. Third St., paving way for 7-floor condo

Preservation groups had been working to try to protect 316 E. Third St., a circa-1835 house bound for the condo after life. Unfortunately, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) has rejected a hearing on the matter, according to a post yesterday at the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation website (GVSHP). As GVSHP noted, "in 2008, as part of their own evaluation of the structure for the Environmental Review for the East Village/Lower East Side Rezoning, the LPC called it 'eligible for landmark status.'"

Last week, though, the LPC "again responded by refusing to consider holding a hearing on potential landmark designation of the endangered structure." (Read the LPC letter here, PDF)

So, this will be the fourth pre-Civil War building in the East Village to be demolished of late. The others: 326 and 328 E. Fourth St. and 35 Cooper Square ...

And so, the historic townhouse between Avenue C and Avenue D will become a Karl Fischer-designed, 33-unit condo that will destroy the home and the bucolic adjacent garden space.

135 Bowery designated an NYC landmark today

From the EV Grieve inbox...

The Bowery Alliance of Neighbors is delighted by today’s vote of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission to designate the circa 1818 Federal style house at 135 Bowery a New York City individual Landmark.

According to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, “The 135 Bowery House is ... among the relatively rare surviving and intact Manhattan town houses of the Federal style and period, and is one of only a handful still extant on the Lower East Side and along the Bowery.” The 2 ½-story wood-frame, brick-faced Federal style row house was constructed circa 1818 as the primary residence of John A Hardenbrook, a soap and candle manufacturer who maintained a shop in the still-extant building next door. The design of the 135 Bowery House is characteristic of the Federal style.

Curbed has more on a busy for the Landmarks Preservation Commission here.

Maybe Robert Tierney doesn't hate the East Village after all

A few people were beginning to wonder anyway in the aftermath of the failed attempts to get the the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission to protect 35 Cooper Square or 326-328 E. Fourth St.

As the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) noted yesterday, the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) has agreed to expand the boundaries of their proposed East Village/Lower East Side Historic District study area to include additional streets and buildings called for by GVSHP, the Historic Districts Council, the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative, and the East Village Community Coalition.

The additions to the study areas include buildings along Avenue A, East Sixth Street, Second Avenue and East Second Street. Among the items of interest per the GVSHP: "101 Avenue A, an 1876 tenement of striking architecture which has housed everything from a German Social hall in the 19th century to a drag performance art space (the Pyramid) in the 1980s."

Read more from the GVSHP here.

Here is a letter from Tierney, chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, on the matter.

Previously.

A call to expand the proposed East Village historic districts

The City's Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is considering proposing two historic districts in the East Village. (See that here.)

Here's a letter on the matter from Andrew Berman, executive director, Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP):

[T]he scope of the LPC's current study areas is limited, and only covers a fraction of the neighborhood's important historic resources. The LPC has said that they are willing to consider other areas of the neighborhood for possible historic district designation in the future, and it is important that we make clear that such additional consideration is essential. However, we also believe that, given the areas the LPC is looking at right now, they can and should expand the boundaries of their study areas to include other important nearby historic resources.

Therefore GVSHP, the Historic Districts Council and the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative have asked the LPC to expand their study area to include several adjacent areas. We are hopeful that the LPC will study these additional areas as well as part of their current effort.

The LPC is only studying these areas for possible consideration for historic district designation, and has not taken any formal action towards designation yet. It is therefore critical that we let them know that we want them to move forward with historic district designations in the East Village, that we want them to expand their study area boundaries, and that we want them to consider additional areas soon.

The LPC will be presenting their proposal to Community Board 3's Landmarks Subcommittee this Thursday. This is an important opportunity to let the LPC and Community Board 3 know that we want to see landmark protections expanded in the East Village.

HOW TO HELP:

• Send a letter to the Landmarks Preservation Commission and Community Board 3 supporting the expansion of historic district designations in the East Village, expanding the study area, and ensuring that other critical areas of the neighborhood are considered soon. (Here is a sample letter to use.)
• Come to the Community Board 3 Landmarks Committee public hearing on the proposal this Thursday, May 12 at 6 pm at BRC Senior Services Center in Sara Delano Roosevelt Park, 30 Delancey Street between Chrystie and Forsyth Streets.

Here are your proposed East Village Historic Districts

On Tuesday night, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) revealed maps of their two proposed historic districts in the East Village. Off the Grid, the blog at the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, has more details here.

Anyway, too bad the district doesn't included the soon-to-be-demolished Mars Bar on Second Avenue and First Street... the proposal stops just short...

The next step: A public presentation and hearing before CB's Landmarks Subcommittee on May 12 at 6 p.m. at BRC, 30 Delancey St.

Previously on EV Grieve:
About time

About time

Here is news from The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation:

Next week the Landmarks Preservation Commission will be holding a property owner’s meeting to discuss two potential historic district designations in the East Village which they are beginning the process of considering. According to the LPC, the districts being studied right now run along Tompkins Square North and are bounded roughly by East 2nd and East 7th, between the Bowery and 1st Avenue. In May, the Commission will come before Community Board #3 to discuss their plans and thinking about landmark designations in the East Village.

Here is the building-by-building survey that the GVSHP conducted in the East Village. DNAinfo has more on the news here.

Cathedral preservation meeting ends in deadlock; mediator next

Jill at Blah Blog Blah attended last night's CB3 meeting regarding the preservation of the Historic Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Martyr on East Second Street. In a comment, she reported:

[T]he two sides are really at odds, which is so strange because ultimately they want the same thing — to preserve the church they love.

The meeting ended with both sides agreeing to go to a mediator to try to work it out.

Apparently there is a group that helps with financing and all the red tape that the church is worried about. But the anger seemed to go beyond that. What I got from the speeches was that the church members feel like they felt like they are being invaded by strangers who want to proclaim landmark status on the building without engaging the occupants of the building. Like their opinion on the matter was an afterthought.

However, if this fight has been going on since before the rezoning (which is why they say they can't add an addition even if they want to), then the 8-story addition was probably a real threat, and the landmark status was meant to stop them, so engaging them wouldn't have made much sense then, as it was a strategy to stop them from proceeding with their plan.

I wonder if it is possible to could get landmark status in spite of what the church members want. It seems to me that if the EVCC et al are worried that the church, or their future congregants will try to change the building in any way (8 story addition not withstanding) then they are exactly who landmark status is meant to protect the building from.

Patrick Hedlund has more on the story at DNAinfo.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Looking for support of the proposed landmarking of the Historic Russian Orthodox Cathedral

[Cathedral image courtesy of Barry Munger]

Looking for support of the proposed landmarking of the Historic Russian Orthodox Cathedral

From the inbox...



Please come speak in support of the proposed landmarking of the Historic Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Martyr on East Second Street.

Thursday, July 15 at 6 pm at the Community Board 3 Landmarks Subcommittee meeting at BRC, 30 Delancey St. (between Chrystie and Forsyth Streets).

In 2008 GVSHP and the East Village Community Coalition urged the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to consider landmark designation of the Cathedral, where an 8-story condo-tower was being considered to be added to the building. Earlier this year, the LPC held a hearing on potential landmark designation of the historic building, but has not yet voted on the proposal. Now Community Board 3, which has not yet taken a position on the landmarking proposal, is considering it. While the leadership of the Cathedral is opposing landmark designation, some congregants have spoken out in favor of landmarking and many in the neighborhood also support designation.

For more information, go to the GVSHP site.
http://www.gvshp.org/_gvshp/preservation/cathedral-hvp/cathedral-main.htm

To sign an online petition, go here.

By the way, per the EVCC, the Cathedral was built in 1867, designed by the renowned architect Josiah Cleveland Cady, who later designed the Metropolitan Opera House and the auditorium of the American Museum of Natural History

[Cathedral image courtesy of Barry Munger]

One corner that won't be a condo (anytime soon)

The City Room reports that the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated two new landmarks yesterday, including St. Nicholas of Myra Orthodox Church at 288 E. 10th St. at Avenue A. According to C'ty Room, the church was "built in 1882 and 1883 as the Memorial Chapel of St. Mark’s in the Bowery, one of the city’s oldest Episcopal parishes, as the gift of Rutherford Stuyvesant, a descendant of the Dutch governor Peter Stuyvesant, in memory of his wife." This will be on the midterm.

EV Grieve Etc.

With less than 18 months left in Mayor Bloomberg's final term, the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission is in a race against the clock to approve historic designations for more than 1,000 buildings. (NY Post)