ANNUAL REPORT 2008 - The New York Landmarks Conservancy

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Supporting Landmark Designations The Landmarks Conservancy’s testimony – before the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the City Council – helped achieve designations of historic districts and individual buildings across the City in 2008. We supported the creation of five new districts: The West Chelsea Historic District and NoHo Historic District Extension recognize the significance of the industrial building. West Chelsea is composed of late 19th and early 20th century buildings originally used for manufacturing. The third phase of the NoHo designation adds a gritty mix of 56 buildings exemplifying the range of New York’s architectural styles, from Federal to Italianate to contemporary design. Brooklyn districts ranged from the very small to very large. Alice and Agate Courts in central Brooklyn are two block-long cul-de-sacs of picturesque Queen Anne row houses. The Prospect Heights Historic District contains more than 800 row houses, and apartment and institutional buildings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with many intact blocks of beautiful Italianate, neo-Grec, and Second Empire brownstones. The Ridgewood North Historic District, located in southwest Queens, contains 96 buildings from 1908 — 11 known for their distinguished brick façades, and for the progressive innovations in the residential tenement form that they feature. We also supported fifteen individual landmark designations, including: Religious properties. Congregation Tifereth Israel in Corona, Queens, and two churches in the East Village: James Renwick Jr.’s Gothic-style masterpiece, St. Nicholas of Myra Orthodox Church, and the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection. Three very different structures within Manhattan. The Consolidated Edison Building, with its clock tower that is visible for miles; McKim Mead and White’s Hotel Pennsylvania, facing development pressures; and the Rainbow Room, in Rockefeller Center. A number of buildings outside Manhattan. The Hubbard House at 2138 McDonald Avenue, in Gravesend, Brooklyn, one of the few remaining Dutch-style houses in the City; the George Cunningham Store in Tottenville, Staten Island, distinguished by Queen Anne details such as wooden clapboards and fish-scale shingles; and the Museum Building at the New York Botanical Garden, which won the Conservancy’s Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award when it was restored in 2004. Three buildings used by institutions of higher learning. I.M. Pei’s Silver Towers complex at NYU, which Robert A.M Stern called “one of the 35 most important Modernist buildings in the City”; 144 West 14th Street, a seven-story Renaissance-Revival building from 1895-96, now the home of the Pratt Institute’s Historic Preservation program; and the Baumann Bros. Building on East 14th Street, best known for its elaborate cast-iron façade, and now owned by the New School. The Conservancy continued to advocate for school buildings designed by C.B.J. Snyder by speaking out for designation of Grammar School No. 9 on West End Avenue. left Grammar School No. 9, Manhattan right Alice Court, Brooklyn 5
Speaking Out on Issues The Conservancy’s Public Policy Committee reviewed design proposals throughout 2008 and approved statements of its views for public hearings before various agencies. A proposal by St. Vincent’s Hospital engaged the preservation community and the Conservancy in 2008. St. Vincent’s presented plans to demolish all of its historic and contemporary buildings, put up a new hospital where the O’Toole Building now stands on Seventh Avenue, and sell land that would become the site of a large residential development. The Committee supported demolition of O’Toole, but did not agree with the loss of other historic buildings, and suggested that the new hospital’s size be reduced. The Committee supported aspects of a plan to revitalize the South Street Seaport, but objected to new buildings that would overwhelm the lowrise structures that comprise the Seaport Historic District. A transfer of development rights from the General Society for Mechanics and Tradesmen on West 44th Street to a site at Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street was found to result in a valid “preservation purpose.” The proceeds of the transfer will finance necessary restoration on the Society’s landmark building. Upon reviewing a proposal to transfer development rights from St. Thomas Church and the University Club to a nearby site west of the Museum Tower on West 53rd Street, the Conservancy requested that restricted endowments be created for both landmarks, with at least part of the proceeds from the sale of the air rights specifically targeted for the up keep of the historic buildings. The developers agreed to the request. The Conservancy also pointed out that the proposed new building would encroach on a preservation district. top Prospect Heights, Brooklyn bottom 144 West 14th Street, Manhattan Endangered Buildings Initiative Conservancy staff visited the buildings on its EBI “red list” to update their status. Thanks to either landmark designation or owner intervention, approximately a quarter of the “red” buildings will be removed from the list, as they no longer appear to be threatened. One of EBI’s successes is the 2005 designation of the Windermere Apartments as an individual landmark. Designed by Theophilius Smith in 1880- 81, the Windermere is a complex of three red brick tenement buildings with decorative features in the Gothic, Queen Anne, and Romanesque styles. Originally it was used as housing for single women, an innovation in the late 19th century. By 2000 the deteriorated building was nearly empty, but still retained much of its magnificent historic fabric. The Conservancy led the push to get it designated. In 2008, with the assistance of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the Windermere’s tenants brought the building owners to court to demand that they address various violations the building had earned. HPD filed two other motions: one to seek access to inspect the property and another to secure it. That motion was granted, and the owner was ordered to secure and seal the building. The New York City Law Department filed an injunction and civil penalties action under the Landmarks Law. We hope that this legal pressure will force the owner to either sell the property or make repairs. 6
Page 1 and 2: ANNUAL REPORT 2008
Page 3 and 4: From the President Even as the Cons
Page 5: The New York Landmarks Conservancy
Page 9 and 10: Government agencies, nonprofits, an
Page 11 and 12: Preserving Sacred Sites Ocean Parkw
Page 13 and 14: A Tale of Two Catholic Churches St.
Page 15 and 16: Sacred Sites and Consulting Grants
Page 17 and 18: The New York City Historic Properti
Page 19 and 20: Assisting Nonprofits Van Cortlandt
Page 21 and 22: Emergency Preservation Grant Progra
Page 23 and 24: The Lucy G. Moses Preservation Awar
Page 25 and 26: Celebrating Living Landmarks Living
Page 27 and 28: top Richard and Gloria Moylan Laure
Page 29 and 30: Our Supporters The New York Landmar
Page 31 and 32: Erik R. Oken Mary Ellen & Richard O
Page 33 and 34: The Kibel Companies, LLC Mitchell K
Page 35 and 36: Board of Directors Frank J. Sciame,

ANNUAL REPORT 2008 - The New York Landmarks Conservancy

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