Most of the big news about landmarked sites comes from Brooklyn and Manhattan. There isn’t much in Queens that makes headlines; for example, only two of the 26 sites designated from the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s 95-item backlog were in Queens County. Today, however, we have news about a landmarked park in Jamaica.
A lovely old house on the Upper West Side is headed for a conversion from eight-unit apartment building to single-family residence. However, that can’t happen until the plan get the stamp of approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission, and that did not happen at Tuesday’s public hearing on the matter.
Among all New York City’s glorious sites, large and small, there are some to which time has not been kind. One of them, the house at 7 Irvington Place in Flatbush, Brooklyn, has a new owner who has proposed renovations to the dilapidated structure. On Tuesday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission heard that proposal, but found that it did not meet its standard of appropriateness.
Nearly eight months ago, an apartment building was proposed as a replacement for a garage building at 11-19 Jane Street, in the West Village. On Tuesday, at its fourth session on the matter and after intense opposition from the public, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the structure.
Effective today, a multi-block stretch of the East River Esplanade is closed temporarily as work is undertaken for the expansion of Rockefeller University’s Upper East Side campus. All pedestrians and cyclists will be unable to access the stretch between East 63rd and 68th streets, from Monday, February 13 to Friday, March 31.
