We are living in a bit of a renaissance for New York City-area bridges. New spans are under construction for the Goethals, Kosciuszko, and Tappan Zee bridges, and the deck of the Bayonne Bridge is being raised. The world’s busiest bridge, the George Washington, is also having work done.
2015 marked the 50th anniversary of the New York City landmarks law. There were occasions to celebrate, and the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated six individual landmarks and four historic districts. 2016 was considerably busier for the commission. It designated 40 individual landmarks and two historic districts, including 12 new Midtown East landmarks and 26 sites from its backlog. Here are all of them, for you to take in as the year comes to a close.
Two years ago, the Landmarks Preservation Commission floated the idea of clearing its backlog of items from before 2010 by simply de-calendaring all of them. That was not well-received, to put it lightly. So, they devised a series of steps to actually address those 95 items. That process nearly came to an end today, with the designation of 10 new city landmarks.
Floral Park, N.Y.-based M&K Enterprises Group has filed applications for a four-story, two-unit residential building at 510 West 159th Street, located on the southern end of Washington Heights. The townhouse will measure 4,998 square feet and will rise on the 17-foot-wide, 1,666-square-foot vacant lot. One apartment will be located on the ground and cellar floors, while the second unit will span the second through fourth floors. Sion Hourizadeh’s Floral Park, N.Y.-based Sion Consulting Engineering is the applicant of record. The site was most recently occupied by a four-story, three-unit structure that was demolished back in 2011.
After two weeks of haphazard fits and starts and a confrontational protest with tenant activists, City Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez and the City Council Land Use Committee unanimously disapproved a plan to rezone the corner of Broadway and Sherman avenues, which would have paved the way for the construction of a 15-story apartment building known as Sherman Plaza.