A major part of a historic Greenwich Village area known as the South Village is one step closer to preservation. On Tuesday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing on the designation of the Sullivan-Thompson Historic District.
A huge parking lot in the middle of Bed-Stuy is about to become housing. New building applications have been filed to put up a seven-story residential development at 539 Gates Avenue, between Throop Avenue and Marcus Garvey Boulevard.
New York City’s development booms result in buildings of all shapes and types. And while each round of additions brings lots of positive changes to the city’s skyline, the city’s denizens must, unfortunately, accept the bad with the good. While new projects in surrounding blocks will eventually block much of the building from most perspectives, the misproportioned parapets of 5 Beekman are, in the intermediary, an affront to New Yorkers and the skyline.
A vacant lot in the far-flung southeastern Bronx neighborhood of Soundview is set to be redeveloped. The non-profit Institute for Children, Poverty and Homelessness plans to develop a six-story supportive housing project at 1600 Randall Avenue, at the edge of NYCHA’s Soundview Houses and Soundview Park.
This morning, the City Council’s Land Use Committee is slated to vote on a bill called Intro. 775-A. The legislation was introduced last year by Council Members David Greenfield and Peter Koo and it would impose a set of restrictions and deadlines on the Landmarks Preservation Commission. To say preservationists and the public are unhappy with it would be an understatement and, on Monday morning, a rally against it was held on the City Hall steps.