Tribeca Historic Districts and Proposed extensions

TriBeCa, the Triangle Below Canal Street that was originally known as the Lower West Side, became New York’s first residential neighborhood in the beginning of the nineteenth century when the two large landowners in the area, Trinity Church and the Lispenard family, sold off and developed their lands. Only a handful of houses from this era remain, as by the mid-nineteenth century, TriBeCa was being transformed into a commercial and industrial center. Today, TriBeCa is a showcase of commercial and industrial buildings from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries. Italian Renaissance-style lofts from the 1850s and 1860s faced in Tuckahoe marble, cast iron structures form the 1860s and 1870s, and Romanesque Revival-style buildings from the 1880s and 1890s in brick and case stone all are typical in the TriBeCa neighborhood.

In the 1980s, The Committee for the Washington Market Historic District formed to protect the TriBeCa neighborhood. The Committee, in conjunction with the Historic Districts Council, proposed one large TriBeCa Historic District that extended roughly from Murray Street to Canal Street, west of Broadway to Greenwich Street. However, rather than designating one district, the Landmarks Preservation Commission divided the neighborhood into four districts and designated the areas separately. The TriBeCa West Historic District was designated in 1991, and the TriBeCa East Historic District, the TriBeCa North Historic District and the TriBeCa South Historic District were all designated in 1992. The four TriBeCa historic districts, however, excluded many blocks that were initially proposed. In particular, the designations left out all the buildings south of Chambers Street.

During the next ten years, HDC and the TriBeCa Community Association continued to advocate for an extension to the TriBeCa historic districts, particularly the TriBeCa South Historic District. In 2002, the LPC did designate a TriBeCa South Historic District extension. However, this incredibly small district only consisted of 28 mid-block buildings between West Broadway and Church Street, from Murray Street to Chambers Street. The extension represents less than one-third of the area requested by the community, leaving two-thirds still unprotected.

The HDC and the TriBeCa Community Association are still pushing for extensions to the designated districts in TriBeCa. To the south, the undesignated buildings between Broadway and Greenwich Street, from Murray Street to Reade Street, must be protected. These blocks, formerly zoned M1-5, have been upzoned. This unfortunate development has led to bizarre roof-top additions, some as large as the buildings they straddle, desecrating the area’s historic character and sense of place, both within and outside of the historic districts. In addition, there are several other blocks throughout TriBeCa that are in need of historic district protection. These include pockets north of the TriBeCa North Historic District and around the TriBeCa East Historic District.

Other Case Studies