LPC to hold hearing on aluminum house

From Brownstoner Queens:

The proposal to construct a residential development around a historic aluminum house at 39th Avenue and 50th Street, in the Sunnyside Gardens Historic District, is heading to the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The LPC schedule for September 24th features this item: “39th Avenue and 50th Street-Sunnyside Gardens Historic District… A playground with a one story building and pavilion. Application is to relocate an existing building to the site and construct new buildings.”

Sunnyside Gardens residents think the museum business is just a smokescreen for the residential development. Residents want a community garden at the site instead. The final word on the matter is up to the LPC — we’re curious to see how they’ll vote when it comes to an existing historic building, not necessarily contextual, moving to an underutilized lot.

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LPC rejects Avella's landmarking request for Flushing Meadows

From Save FMCP:

Senator Tony Avella was joined last Friday by preservationists and several area civic groups at a press conference protesting the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s (LPC) decision to reject landmark designation for Flushing Meadows Corona Park (FMCP).

The 1,255 acre Flushing Meadows-Corona Park is the Borough of Queens’ most prominent park and provides open space and recreational benefits to thousands of borough residents and low and middle income families. The Park is a valuable asset for the City and the residents of Queens not only because of its green space and natural areas, but also due to its embodiment of historical structures and leading cultural and educational institutions. The Park also has a unique history, serving as host to two World Fairs in 1939 and 1964, plus hosting the General Assembly of the United Nations from 1946 to 1950.

That is why, earlier this year, Avella asked LPC to review landmark status for Queens’ most prominent and historic park, which is under the threat of devastating development interests. Currently, the Mets organization is floating the idea of building a Mall in the park, the United States Tennis Association is proposing to expand and Major League Soccer is still interested in building a stadium that would further eliminate parkland.

Unfortunately, LPC recently denied this request and indicated that the park did not meet the criteria for designation.

Avella stated, “I am very disappointed in the Landmark Preservation Commission’s decision to not designate Flushing Meadows Corona Park as a landmark. It is clear to me that with its rich history and importance as Queens’ most significant and treasured park, Flushing Meadows Corona Park deserves landmark recognition, especially now. With three separate development proposals threatening to take away valuable parkland, Flushing Meadows Corona Park needs to be preserved now more than ever.”

“Parkland is sacred,” continued Avella. “The City should not be entertaining these proposals which would radically reduce open and recreational space for the hundreds of thousands of Queens residents who use this park on a yearly basis. Instead, the City should landmark this vital borough park to ensure its continued usage for generations to come and send a clear message that parkland is not for sale!”

“That is why I am calling on the Landmarks Preservation Commission to immediately reconsider their decision and demand that they hold a public hearing on this important issue. At the very least, the residents of Queens deserve to have their voices heard,” concluded Avella.

I guess the only surprise here is that the Parks Department turned the Unisphere fountains on a full month before the US Open.

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How do you get to Tammany Hall? Tweeding, tweeding, tweeding.

From Capital:

Few buildings can claim to serve as global metaphors, but New York’s Tammany Hall surely is one of them. Mention Tammany Hall to reasonably educated Americans—or even British journalists—and the image that comes to mind is not of an old colonial revival building just off Manhattan’s Union Square, but a certain method of ethically slippery, brass-knuckle politics far removed from the ideals of the nation’s founders.

That image, desperately in need of revision, might explain why Tammany Hall—the building, not the metaphor—is one of the city’s best-known landmarks that is not, in fact, a landmark, at least not in the formal sense. But a decades-long campaign to recognize the Tammany building’s history may be on the verge of victory. On June 25, the city Landmarks Preservation Commission heard from a handful of speakers united in support of designating Tammany Hall as a city landmark. The proposed designation has the backing of the local community board as well as other preservation organizations.

If the commission approves, Tammany Hall, the onetime home of the New York County Democratic Party, will achieve a level of respectability it was denied even in its prime, when political legends like Alfred E. Smith, Robert F. Wagner, and Herbert Lehman were members of the Tammany political organization. Many of those who support the landmark designation have cited the Tammany building’s impressive architecture as well as its role as the onetime home of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, a historically significant trade union. They have tip-toed around Tammany Hall’s role in American political history, perhaps fearful of the organization’s much-chronicled scandals.

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Jamaica High School landmarked

From DNA Info:

The building that once housed Jamaica High School, designed by prominent Brooklyn architect William Tubby in the Dutch Revival style, was granted New York City landmark status, the Landmarks Preservation Commission announced Tuesday.

The three-story building on Hillside Avenue, constructed in 1896, housed Jamaica High School until 1927.

Tubby, known for his historical revival style projects, also designed the Pratt Institute Library in Brooklyn.

He chose the Dutch Revival style for Jamaica to acknowledge the area’s earliest European settlers, according to information provided by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Contrasting decorative details, stepped gables, arched windows and a tall roof with high chimneys are typical elements of the style, according to the commission.

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Forest Park Carousel landmarked

From CBS New York:

A 1910 carousel featuring 46 hand-carved horses, a lion, tiger and deer has been declared a New York City landmark.

The Forest Park Carousel in Woodhaven, Queens, is the city’s first carousel to get the designation.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously approved it Tuesday.

The two-tiered, three-row carousel was manufactured by the celebrated Philadelphia carousel maker D.C. Muller & Brother.

It was originally made for Lakeview Park in Dracut, Mass.

The carousel began operating in the 500-acre Forest Park in 1973. It also has an ornate band organ manufactured by the A. Ruth & Sohn Organ Company in Waldkirch, Germany.

It doesn't stand in the way of development and will add to the LPC's Queens tally, so it was designated.

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CB2 not too keen on aluminum house

From Sunnyside Post:

The plans to develop a site within the Sunnyside Gardens Historic District were greeted with skepticism by Community Board 2’s Land Use Committee last night.

The architects provided details on the developer’s proposal to construct an aluminaire house – made of metal – and eight accompanying residential units for the first time.

The development would take place on the corner of 39th Avenue and 50th Street, at the site of the historic Phipps playground. The Phipps sold the property in July 2007 to DBH Associates for $1.43 million.

The proposed residential units—which would be contained within one building– would be clad with terracotta-colored panels, with a brick pattern.

About 50 residents turned out for the committee meeting—many holding leaflets that read: “Say ‘No’ to unwanted development in our Community!” Meanwhile, a letter was circulating that had been written by Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer to the Landmarks Preservation Committee voicing his opposition to it.

Many residents questioned whether any type of development could take place on the property. Dorothy Morehead, who is a member of community board 2 and owns a real estate firm in the Gardens, said that the former playground is deemed “open space.” She said that she has never heard of a case where the Landmarks committee has permitted development on “open space”.

The house would essentially be a showpiece or a museum where people could visit. The Aluminaire Foundation, he said, would be leasing space on the site from the developer to keep it there.

The housing units—which would bring income to the developer through rent or condo sales—would act as a buffer between the aluminaire house and the historic brick homes in Sunnyside Gardens.

But Stephen Cooper, Co-Chair of the Land Use Committee, suggested that the aluminaire house – and accompanying units—were not a good fit for the Historic District. “The buildings [in the Gardens] are all essentially the same. They are brick, all two stories tall—essentially all the same look,” he said. “There is not a single aluminum house in the area.”

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Proposal to plop aluminum house into Sunnyside Gardens

Now
Coming soon?
Dear Residents of Sunnyside, Woodside & beyond,

There is an alarming proposal in the works that seeks to turn the historic corner lot at 39th Avenue and 50th Street into an out-of-place, post-modern housing development. This corner lot falls within the Sunnyside Gardens historic district and therefore all development proposals must be approved by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). As a smokescreen, the developers are also proposing to move a 1931 aluminum house onto the lot.

We are a group of concerned residents opposing this development. The manner in which this proposal is being rushed through without sufficient public notice is indicative of the developers' not having our community's best interest at heart. This development proposal runs contrary to the community's aim of preserving the corner lot from succumbing to over-development.

Our group has other ideas for this historic open space -- namely the transformation of it into a truly public community garden and green common, while preserving its existing structures and trees. Most of the parks in Sunnyside now are either concrete playgrounds serving primarily school children, exclusive gardens or private parks charging membership dues. We want to change this.

The development proposal is completely wrong for the historic district, and it's completely wrong for our community. But the Landmarks Law gives every one of us the right to voice our choice for our future, and we need everyone to exercise that right.

Right now there are 3 things you can do to help:

1. Please “Reply” to this e-mail to say you oppose this development.

2. There will be an unveiling of this development proposal this week at Community Board 2's Land Use committee meeting. If a lot of us show up and demonstrate our disapproval of the proposal, the harder it will be for the development to win the support it needs. This is not a public hearing and we may not get to speak, but a lot of disappointed faces in the audience will help convey our message.

The meeting is Wednesday, June 19 at 7 pm at the address below:

Community Board 2 office
43-22 50th St. off Roosevelt Ave., 2nd floor.
(Note - this is NOT at Sunnyside Community Services)

Worse still the LPC public hearing, may be scheduled for July 9. This gives us little time to organize our opposition so we want the hearing delayed.

3. Call and e-mail Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer’s staff to ask them to do everything in their power to delay the LPC's public hearing. Please leave a voicemail if there is no pick up.

Nick Gulotta, staff preservationist:
NGulotta@council.nyc.gov
718-383-9566, ext.5

Yours,
Cautley Garden
cautleygarden@gmail.com
https://sites.google.com/site/cautleygarden/

Jimmy Van Bramer has a "staff preservationist?" Well, excuse me!

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Sell it or fix it!

From the Daily News:

A top official at the embattled Board of Elections has let a landmark brownstone she owns on the upper West Side become a neighborhood nightmare.

Community leaders have spent years pleading with Diane Haslett-Rudiano, the Board of Election’s chief clerk in Brooklyn, to unload the vacant and decrepit townhouse on W. 76th St.

The 123-year-old building, which city records show she bought for just $5,000 in 1976, could fetch as much as $5.5 million today, according to real estate brokers — yet Haslett-Rudiano refuses to sell.

And so the building slips into further disrepair by the day.

More than $12,000 in back taxes and 20 Buildings Department violations have piled up, records show. Last month, the Landmarks Preservation Commission slapped Haslett-Rudiano with a violation for failing to maintain the cornice, threatening a fine of $5,000 a day.

“It’s a tragedy,” says Judy Samuels, a teacher who has lived in an adjacent townhouse since 1984.

Another neighbor, Kristine Reynal, a banker, calls the dilapidated building a “health concern and a safety concern.”

“I am horrified that this public figure is so negligent and disrespectful,” she said.

The brownstone is in such disrepair, it was named one of the five ugliest buildings on the upper West Side last year by the West Side Spirit.

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Brooklyn neighborhood wants landmark protection

From the Daily News:

A whopping 1,150 Victorian-style homes around Ditmas Park would be landmarked to maintain their historic character under a proposal being pushed by local pols and community leaders.

City Councilman Jumaane Williams (D-Flatbush) and other elected officials are urging the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission to bestow that status on the homes, built 100 years ago by a small group of architects who converted the neighborhood from farmland into a tree-lined community.

“We are big believers in preserving and celebrating the history of what we have in this community,” said Williams’ spokesman Stefan Ringel.

The Bloomberg administration is reviewing the 437-page application, submitted in March by a group of neighborhood associations and the Flatbush Development Corp.

Swaths of homes in the Ditmas Park area have already been landmarked, but that process has been done piecemeal since 1978.

So there's a City Council member out there who hasn't been bought by developers? How nice that must be.

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