July 2005, Volume 2 Number 7

Endangered Building of the Month - The Drake-Dehart House

HDC is becoming increasingly concerned about certain unprotected individual buildings in New York. Many of these buildings have been heard by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, but never designated, and many are currently under threat. Therefore, each month we will feature an endangered building in our e-newsletter. This month’s building is the Drake-Dehart House, at 134 Main Street, in Staten Island. The Drake-Dehart house is located in historic Tottenville on Staten Island’s North Shore, an area under extreme developmental pressure. The Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing on the house in 1991, but no action was taken and it remains unprotected. The house was built in the 1840’s and retains much of its original Greek Revival detailing, including railings with jigsawn trim. It is an extraordinarily intact survivor and a reminder of Tottenville’s history. Though the current owners have been good stewards of the building the site is currently up for sale and its future remains uncertain. A troubling advertisement for the site reads, “Land lovers - come see this property! Huge potential here. On Main street where there is a lot of commercial possibilities. Commercial overlay if needed.” All too often, we’ve seen older houses on large parcels of land get ripped down in order to build new buildings. According to our research, under the current zoning, the current building is under-built by over 13,000 square feet. That very fact puts the building under extreme risk for inappropriate additions or worse. We strongly urge everyone to write to the LPC and ask them to designate this wonderful Tottenville house before it is too late. Please send an e-mail to LPC Chair Robert Tierney at comments@lpc.nyc.gov
To learn more about historic Tottenville, visit the Tottenville Historical Society’s website at: www.tottenvillehistory.org

HDC’s Board Member Lecture Series

We are pleased to present a lecture series on showcasing the projects our board members are involved in. All lectures are free to the public and will be held at 6:00pm in the Neighborhood Preservation Center located at 232 East 11th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues in Manhattan. Space is limited so please rsvp to arich@hdc.org or call 212-614-9107 x 11.

Tuesday, July 19-Robert Kornfeld Jr. on the World Trade Center Site

The World Trade Center is one of the world's most important historic sites and is hallowed ground for Americans, and yet there is almost no public awareness of historic resources that remain and what could be lost in the redevelopment. Robert Kornfeld Jr. R.A will present a visual history of the ruin of the World Trade Center from September 2001 through the end of the emergency operation, showing how the ruin evolved during the recovery, significant remnants on the site, and major artifacts. There will be a briefing on the background and current status of the Section 106 process, the federally mandated historic review for which HDC has been a Consulting Party. An assessment of preservation commitments by the site's developers will explore ways to reduce adverse effects as the memorial, redevelopment and PATH terminal designs evolve. Mr. Kornfeld Jr. is an associate with Thornton-Tomasetti Group and prepared Life Safety Assessment Reports for seven of the structures surrounding the site as part of the World Trade Center emergency response.

Wednesday, July 27-Frank Prial on the Morgan Library Expansion

While the debate continues over his proposed addition to the Whitney Museum further north on Madison Avenue, construction of Renzo Piano's remarkable expansion and modernization of the Pierpont Morgan Library in Murray Hill is rapidly nearing completion. With all the attention given to the striking new glass and steel buildings taking shape, it is easy to overlook the substantial amount of restoration work being done to the three existing buildings on the Morgan campus, each a designated New York City Landmark: the 1850 Morgan Mansion, the 1906 Library building (McKim Mead and White), and the 1927 Library Annex (Benjamin Wistar Morris). Frank Prial of Beyer Blinder Belle Architects (Executive Architects for the project, in association with Renzo Piano Building Workshop) will present this ongoing work, and will discuss many of the factors involved in its design and execution, including building and site history, traditional materials and detailing, integration of mechanical systems, LPC approvals, and the careful attention paid to this unique merging of modern and historic architecture.

Tuesday, August 2-Mitchell Grubler and Andrew Berman on Community Facility Reform

Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation is also the co-founder and coordinator of the Citywide Coalition for Community Facility Reform, a consortium of over 125 groups from all five boroughs seeking changes in regulations governing the size, bulk, classification, and distribution of community facilities citywide. Of particular concern is the unequal bulk regulations for community facilities, which allow such uses to build significantly larger than all other types of developments in numerous zoning districts, and which allow them to encroach upon spaces such as rear yards which are otherwise protected. In 2002, Berman's group issued the report "After the Kimmel Center: How Can We Better Plan to Protect Our Neighborhoods, Parks, and View Corridors," (see www.gvshp.org/AfterKimmelCenter.pdf) which used the example of the 'as-of-right' NYU Kimmel Student Center, which permanently blocked the iconic view through Washington Square Arch, to issue recommendations for zoning reform to prevent institutional overdevelopment of neighborhoods, including the suggestion that the City work with institutions to facilitate the establishment of secondary campuses to prevent the over concentration of community facilities in one neighborhood.
Another example of community facility use is the Bowne Street Community Church in Flushing, Queens. Dedicated in 1892, the church was designed by G. E Potter of Long Island City in the Romanesque Revival style. The church is particularly noteworthy for its original stained glass Tiffany windows designed by Agnes Fairchild Northrup, a long time Tiffany artist and a life-long member of the congregation. In July of 2002, word leaked out that leaders of the congregation were considering the sale and demolition of the church building and 1925 social hall. Mitchell Grubler, executive director of the Queens Historical Society will recount how members of the congregation, community residents and preservationists rallied, petitioned and succeeded in getting LPC to calendar the building (but not the entire property) in September 2003.

Williamsburg’s Austin Nichols Warehouse to be Heard by LPC

On July 26th a public hearing will be held for the landmark designation of the Austin Nichols and Company warehouse, located at 184 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Please add your voice to the growing number of community members, architects and preservationists advocating for the protection of this striking piece of New York’s waterfront history by attending the hearing (the exact time of day will be announced soon). Click here for more information.

Fulton-Nassau District Added to the National Register of Historic Places!

HDC is thrilled to announce that our nomination of the Fulton-Nassau district to the National Register of Historic Places has been accepted. The State Historic Preservation Office voted in June to add it to the list. This district has a high concentration of both significant and attractive 19th and early 20th century commercial architecture. Many renowned architects contributed to fabric of this district, including Francis H. Kimball, C.P.H. Gilbert, Wilson Eyres and Clinton & Russell. The area contains numerous examples of early office skyscrapers, both elevator buildings and those with traditional load-bearing masonry walls, that illustrate the wide range of materials, styles and motifs that designers and architects were exploring in this new building type. Interestingly, most of these buildings were built before the 1916 Zoning Resolution, which made setbacks and minimal sky-plane exposure a requirement. The combination of the winding street grid, itself a remnant of colonial New York, with the towering building masses lend a unique and distinctive “turn of the century” sense of place. This area is slated for intense change over the next few years, and as this neighborhood transforms, we hope that its inclusion on the National Register will provide incentives and oversight that will help to preserve its unique character.

To learn more about this historic neighborhood and to download a walking tour of part of the district, visit www.hdc.org/JSML%20Walking%20Tour.pdf

2 Columbus Circle – Down to the Wire

As many people are aware, the fight to preserve Edward Durrell Stone’s 2 Columbus Circle has been a roller-coaster ride lately. No sooner than the building was placed on the World Monument Fund’s 2006 list of “100 Most Endangered Sites” and gained the endorsement of The New York Times for a public hearing at the Landmarks Commission, then the City of New York issued a permit to the building’s new owners, the Museum of Art & Design, to reclad the façade. Supporters of the building (which includes the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Preservation League of New York State, the Municipal Art Society, the New York Landmarks Conservancy, DOCOMOMO, etc., etc. and of course, HDC) are continuing to press for the preservation of this building and an open hearing to discuss this matter.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT: Regardless of one’s personal feelings about this building (and we would be remiss if we didn’t state that there are many people who don’t like it), the issues behind this preservation campaign affect every unprotected building in New York City. Dozens of community groups throughout the city have filed applications to the Landmarks Preservation Commission to be considered for designation. There needs to be a more open designation process. The Landmarks Commission has recently shown to be more and more responsive to community needs with the recent designations of a number of endangered buildings in Staten Island and the Summit Hotel. Why is 2 Columbus Circle being left out to hang? And what other buildings aren’t even being considered for similar murky reasons?

Construction at Landmarked Buildings in Murray Hill

Although the Murray Hill Historic District is among one of the most recently designated, this midtown Manhattan neighborhood has seen a great deal of activity in new construction recently. We thought it might be interesting and instructive to our readers to highlight one particularly prominent project as an example of how a community group must continue to monitor the developments in their area even after designation.

Recently, the Republic of Namibia, Permanent Mission to the United Nations, a long-time resident of Murray Hill, proposed to expand their building at 135 E. 36th Street to better suit their business and social needs. The handsome 1856 Italianate style row house on the corner of East 36th Street and Lexington Avenue unfortunately suffered a fire that caused the mission to temporarily relocate until the extensive repairs were completed.

The Namibian Mission hired architects David Smotrich & Partners, LLP to restore addition and rear additions. Although the plans called for high quality restoration of the existing building, they proposed to remove the stoop on the 36th Street side and add a two-story glass rooftop addition and a seven story glass rear addition that would destroy the historic character of the Mission’s home. See the architects’ website for an image (warning: this takes a long time to load): http://www.dsmotricharch.com/namibia.html.

During several meetings with the Preservation and Design Committee of the Murray Hill Neighborhood Association (which is comprised of several local architects and residents), suggestions were made to modify the design to enlarge the interior space, reduce the size of the rooftop addition and achieve a better blend of the seven-story rear addition with the existing building and surrounding streetscapes. The architects for the project were also urged to retain and restore the stoop. Murray Hill’s committee also discussed their concerns and suggestions with HDC’s Public Review Committee, who (after reviewing the plans) agreed with them.

Both Murray Hill and HDC suggested these changes at the LPC’s June 7th Public Hearing when the commissioners deliberated on the proposal. The Landmarks Commission approved the restoration of the main building but told the applicants to redesign the additions to make more appropriate to the building and the neighborhood. The record has been left open until the Smotrich firm presents an acceptable design. The Murray Hill Neighborhood Association has pledged to continue working with the architects and the mission to find a mutually agreeable design.

This process is a reminder that designation is not the end ~ shepherding appropriate development within a historic neighborhood requires a lot of time and energy and a willingness to work with your neighbors. Luckily the end result is a neighborhood that continues to grow and flourish without losing the special quality that brought you to begin with.

HDC’s Public Review Committee regularly reviews every proposal for work that is reviewed by the Landmarks Commission at public hearings. If you know of a project that’s happening in your historic district that you would like know more about or want HDC to become involved with, please contact Sybil Young at syoung@hdc.org.

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The Advocate for New York City’s Historic Neighborhoods
232 East 11th Street New York NY 10003
tel: 212-614-9107 fax: 212-614-9127 email: hdc@hdc.org