Photo by James Kelleher.

NY Press recently reported Developer Stephan Boivin filed for demolition permits for the home at 186 Spring Street, which formerly belonged to Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) has been fighting to have the property preserved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC).

The LPC recently declared the site not an individual landmark, the Village Voice reports. The property does not retain enough of its original material to be considered. According to the LPC’s statement, the general area is still under review, but not an immediate priority.

GVSHP Executive Director Andrew Berman told the Press this is not a vote, so the decision could change “at any time.” Berman said his group has sent the LPC further important information, hoping to influence their decision about the property.

This information includes a letter in which Berman and various advocates cite the area’s “powerful and unique connection to the early gay rights movement and New York’s earliest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) communities and their struggle.”

Declaring the area in which the house stands a landmark zone would still preserve the property, even if it’s not independently a landmark.

—Alissa Fleck

Beastie Boys Courtesy of Wiki Commons

Fight for your right…to get historic sites landmarked? Developer Stephan Boivin has filed for demolition permits for an “1824 federal style house” recently purchased from Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz, according to a statement from the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. The Beastie Boy’s former residence is at 186 Spring Street in the proposed South Village Historic District. GVSHP reports the developer previously made a public statement “promising to preserve the structure,” saying it would be kept for his personal use. The permit now requests full demolition.

According to GVSHP’s Executive Director Andrew Berman, his group has brought this to the attention of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Berman says the LPC agreed to consider this part of the district years ago, and his group urges them to do so now to save the “historic site.” The LPC has thus far refused to consider the remainder of the district a landmark site.

The house GVSHP hopes to preserve is part of a group of surviving federal style houses all built in the same year. According to the organization’s research, “though altered, the house still has the Flemish-bond brick and  two or three stories plus dormer form characteristic of federal-style (1790-1835) houses.” Horovitz sold the house in April of this year.

Not only does Boivin want the property demolished, he aims to combine it with another development site at 182 Spring Street. The GVSHP provides the facts about the South Village. In March it was designated one of the seven most important and threatened historic sites in NY State. In 2006 the GVSHP submitted a proposal for historic district designation of the South Village. Four years later a third of the proposed district was landmarked, but since the LPC has taken no action on the issue.

Since then several sites in the district have been demolished. Berman released a statement on the prospective demolition of this site: “This can either be yet another case of the city sitting on its hands while the character of one of New York’s great historic neighborhoods is destroyed, or the Landmarks Preservation Commission can finally keep its promise and fulfill its duty by protecting the remainder of the proposed South Village Historic District.”

—Alissa Fleck

Today’ Host Raises Funds for Breast Cancer

Last week, Today show co-host and breast cancer survivor Hoda Kotb delivered the keynote address at Beth Israel Medical Center and St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospital’s Breast Service Luncheon at the Pierre Hotel on the Upper East Side. Her speech was followed by an exclusive fashion show by designer Zang Toi. The event, now in its 21st year, raised $600,000 to benefit breast cancer programs.

Proceeds from the luncheon, which was chaired by Continuum trustee Betty Yarmon and hosted 500 socially prominent women and men, will benefit the Appel-Venet Comprehensive Breast Center at Beth Israel Medical Center and the Comprehensive Breast Center at St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospitals. These programs provide diagnosis and treatment, educational programs, screenings, genetic counseling, clinical research, support groups and wellness programs for thousands of women and their families.

UES Recycling Event

Upper Green Side is holding a recycling event Saturday, April 28, from 10 a.m.–3 p.m. at St. Catherine’s Park, 1st Avenue between 67th and 68th streets. They will be accepting electronics (including computers and related accessories and equipment, TVs, DVD players, video games, cell phones and other devices but not appliances, such as toasters, etc.) paper and clothes of all kinds.

Winners of East River Design Competition

CIVITAS NYC, an Upper East Side community urban planning group, recently chose the first, second and third place winners in a competition that challenged designers and planners to envision ways to revitalize the waterfront of the Upper East Side. They reviewed over 90 submissions from more than 25 different countries.

“The area we are looking at is the waterfront park esplanade on the East River from 60th to 120th Street,” said Hunter Armstrong, executive director of CIVITAS. “A lot of people want to see the waterfront on par with downtown and the Upper West Side.”

Although the neighborhood was recently outfitted with a new bridge at 78th Street and has a project in the works for the nearby 91st Street esplanade, Armstrong pointed out that most of the waterfront greenway of the Upper East Side in these areas is falling apart and slowly crumbling into the river.

The competition, which was co-sponsored by Community Board 8, was opened to designers from all over the world in the fall of 2010. While the contest is designed to open a forum for discussion on what can be done to improve the waterfront, there have been no plans thus far by the city or the Parks Department to take up the project.

The first place winner was Joseph Wood, a designer from Hopewell, N.J. His elaborate design called for an underground river of rainwater that would span the distance between 60th and 120th Street. The river would nourish a park on the esplanade above it and provide a way to send rainwater into the East River.

His design also calls for adding several new bridges to the waterfront spanning over the FDR Drive. For his visionary outlook on handling revitalization and water management, Wood was awarded $5,000 by CIVITAS and will have his work displayed at the Re-imagining the Waterfront exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York beginning June 6.

Armstrong hopes that when the exhibition is put on display at the museum, contractors will take notice of the designs and perhaps put a request in to bring one of the ideas to life.

Healthy Kids Day

The Vanderbilt YMCA is hosting its annual Healthy Kids Day this Saturday, April 28, from 10 a.m.–4 p.m. There will be activities for kids and adults, including a bounce house, carnival games, art projects and a family concert with Rolie Polie Guacamole at 11 a.m. The programs are designed to encourage kids to stay active and healthy as summer vacation approaches. The event will take place at the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, on East 47th Street between 1st and 2nd avenues. All events are free.

New UES Landmark

Last week, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) officially designated the former Barbizon Hotel for Women building, at 140 E. 63rd St., as the Upper East Side’s newest landmark. The 23-story hotel, constructed in 1927-1928 and designed by architects Murgatroyd & Ogden, became famous in its heyday as a respectable place for single women in the city to find lodging.

The LPC recognized and praised the building for its “masterful handling of its eclectic mixture of North Italian Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance ornament.” It was built with studio and rehearsal spaces specifically to attract women in artistic fields, and over the decades many talented and soon-to-be famous women—from comedian Elaine Stritch and actress Candice Bergen to writers Eudora Welty and Sylvia Plath, who fictionalized the place in her novel, The Bell Jar— stayed there. Many women who came to the city for modeling careers or as art students filled the hotel, which was strictly monitored for the presence of men and enforced dress codes and curfews on its young residents.

The Barbizon changed hands several times and was converted to condominiums in 2005, but the LPC determined that it retained enough of its architectural glory—and fascinating New York City history—to be worthy of designation as the 127th individual landmark on the Upper East Side.

Neighborhood Meeting

The East 79th Street Neighborhood Association will be holding its next monthly meeting on Thursday, May 10 at 6 p.m. Officers from the 19th Precinct will report on neighborhood safety concerns, and guest speakers from the group Residents for Sane Trash Solutions, which was formed in opposition to the East. 91st Street Marine Transfer Station, will present information. Representatives from local elected officials will also give updates. At the City University of New York, 535 E. 80th St.

The Yorkville Bank building is expected to be the Upper East Side’s newest landmarked building.

The Upper East Side can expect to soon claim another landmark. The Yorkville Bank Building, at 1511 Third Ave., is under consideration by the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) for landmark designation, and the application is strongly supported by community members, preservation advocates and the building’s owner.

Late last month, the LPC met to hear testimony about the historic building, which it described as “an elegant Italian renaissance revival-style structure.”

The Yorkville Bank, which was established in 1893 by German stockholders, first operated out of an office on Third Avenue and East 85th Street. In 1905, they commissioned Robert Maynicke, a German-born architect who had designed the Germania Bank Building, now a city landmark, to construct the current four-story building of granite, limestone, brick and terra cotta.

The LPC and those supporting the effort cite the building’s cultural history as an important factor in the designation decision.

“This building is significant not only for its architectural integrity but its representation of the German-American community that once populated this part of Manhattan,” said Tara Kelly, executive director of Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts, who testified in support of the designation at the recent hearing. “This area of Yorkville centered around the ‘German Broadway,’ which had all kinds of businesses that supported the community, and unfortunately there isn’t much left of that.”

While architecturally valuable buildings are sometimes marred by haphazard additions, proponents of landmarking the bank building point to the 1923 addition by architect P. Gregory Stadler, designed to replicate Maynicke’s original structure, as an enhancement and asset of the aesthetic. They also assert that while the facade has been slightly altered since it was constructed, the main features that make it stand out are still intact and are the most prominent aspects of the building.

“Although the ground-floor windows were elongated in the 1990s for use as show windows for the retail enterprise, the elegant arched openings, separated by full-height pilasters and flanked by delicate roundels, were left intact,” the LPC stated in their summary of the landmark merits. “The building’s massive sculpted bronze entrance doors, second-story triangular pediments supported by scroll brackets, classical window surrounds and two imposing cornices have all survived as well.”

Others pointed out that as the neighborhood continues to grow in popularity, it will be more urgent to protect worthy buildings with landmark status.

“Just as the opening of the Second and Third Avenue elevated railroads brought initial urbanization to Yorkville, work on the Second Avenue Subway has brought new construction to the area and development pressure will only increase with the line’s eventual opening,” said Nadezhda Williams of the Historic Districts Council.

The building has changed hands several times over the course of its history but continued to operate as a bank until 1991, when it was converted to retail space on the ground floor and a fitness center on the upper floors. It is currently owned by the Related Companies, which supports the designation, and houses the Gap and an Equinox gym.

“If the owner is for it, then typically, it goes right through,” Kelly said of the chances that the LPC will vote for the designation.

City Council Member Jessica Lappin has also expressed her support for the landmark, and Lo van der Valk, president of the Carnegie Hill Neighbors, praised the building, saying that its massive doors “remotely evoke a modern industrial counterpart to the Gates of Paradise of the Florence Baptistery.”

The LPC will likely agree, and is schedule to vote on the Yorkville Bank Building’s application on Tuesday, April 17.

The Yorkville Bank building is expected to be the Upper East Side’s newest landmarked building. Photo by Andrew Schwartz.

Late last month, the LPC met to hear testimony about the historic building, which it described as “an elegant Italian renaissance revival-style structure.”

The Yorkville Bank, which was established in 1893 by German stockholders, first operated out of an office on Third Avenue and East 85th Street. In 1905, they commissioned Robert Maynicke, a German-born architect who had designed the Germania Bank Building, now a city landmark, to construct the current four-story building of granite, limestone, brick and terra cotta.

The LPC and those supporting the effort cite the building’s cultural history as an important factor in the designation decision.

“This building is significant not only for it architectural integrity but its representation of the German-American community that once populated this part of Manhattan,” said Tara Kelly, executive director of Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts, who testified in support of the designation at the recent hearing. “This area of Yorkville centered around the ‘German Broadway,’ which had all kinds of businesses that supported the community, and unfortunately there isn’t much left of that.”

While architecturally valuable buildings are sometimes marred by haphazard additions, proponents of landmarking the bank building point to the 1923 addition by architect P. Gregory Stadler, designed to replicate Maynicke’s original structure, as an enhancement and asset of the aesthetic. They also assert that while the facade has been slightly altered since it was constructed, the main features that make it stand out are still intact and are the most prominent aspects of the building.

“Although the ground-floor windows were elongated in the 1990s for use as show windows for the retail enterprise, the elegant arched openings, separated by full-height pilasters and flanked by delicate roundels, were left intact,” the LPC stated in their summary of the landmark merits. “The building’s massive sculpted bronze entrance doors, second-story triangular pediments supported by scroll brackets, classical window surrounds and two imposing cornices have all survived as well.”

Others pointed out that as the neighborhood continues to grow in popularity, it will be more urgent to protect worthy buildings with landmark status.

“Just as the opening of the Second and Third Avenue elevated railroads brought initial urbanization to Yorkville, work on the Second Avenue Subway has brought new construction to the area and development pressure will only increase with the line’s eventual opening,” said Nadezhda Williams of the Historic Districts Council.

The building changed hands several times over the course of its history but continued to operate as a bank until 1991, when it was converted to retail space on the ground floor and a fitness center on the upper floors. It is currently owned by the Related Companies, which supports the designation, and houses the Gap and an Equinox gym.

“If the owner is for it, then typically, it goes right through,” Kelly said of the chances that the LPC will vote for the designation.

City Council Member Jessica Lappin has also expressed her support for the landmark, and Lo van der Valk, president of the Carnegie Hill Neighbors, praised the building, saying that its massive doors “remotely evoke a modern industrial counterpart to the Gates of Paradise of the Florence Baptistery.”

The LPC will likely agree, and is schedule to vote on the Yorkville Bank Building’s application on Tuesday, April 17.

Most Upper East Siders are familiar with landmarking, the process of certifying a building with historical designation. What many aren”t aware of are the ways an owner can fight to de-landmark a building, and that”s what is happening at 429 E. 64th St., and 430 E. 65th St., two buildings better known as part of the City and Suburban First Avenue Estates.

Last year, the Stahl York Avenue Company, which owns the buildings, sued the City of New York to overturn the landmark status for those two addresses. In June, an appellate court upheld a lower court”s decision to dismiss Stahl”s petition to have the landmark status rescinded. The court found LPC”s designation of the buildings was appropriate. But Stahl is still battling to work around the landmark status, now through the filing of a hardship application requesting permission to demolish the buildings, in a fight that goes back decades, over a history that stretches almost a century.

Bird's-eye view of the apartment building at 429 E. 64th St. that Stahl York Avenue Company is attempting to have de-landmarked so they can build a new high-rise. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

Stahl”s main contention is that they can”t make a reasonable return of at least 6 percent on the properties, citing the small size of the apartments and lack of amenities in the buildings. Through their attorney, Stahl declined to comment for this story.

“They’re saying we have wooden kitchen counter tops, that we have tiny little tubs that are 48 inches, that we don”t have microwaves,” said Monica McLaughlin, a lawyer who has lived in the building for 20 years. She said that she’s read Stahl’s application and documentation, and claims that much of it is untrue.

“He’s presenting these apartments as complete hovels that need millions of dollars of work before normal people will live in them. It’s a pretty insulting document,” said McLaughlin. “He’s saying that the apartments are inferior, that they can’t be expanded or made bigger, which is ridiculous.”

Janet Nonamaker has lived in one of the buildings for 33 years. She is one of three tenants occupying one of the sections of apartments, and the entire complex has a 50 percent vacancy rate. Walking around the perimeter of the buildings, one can peer into open windows and see empty apartments, cabinet doors askew, broken fixtures, dust and debris collecting everywhere. Nonamaker claims that the landlord is slow to repair the common areas and the occupied apartments; she feels that they are biding their time until they can demolish the buildings and start from scratch.

“When they build their 20-story glass tower, there’s not going to be anything affordable,” said Nonamaker. “I’m retired. I live on a pension and Social Security. What am I going to do?” While Stahl is legally required to offer rent-regulated tenants comparable apartments in a new building, they would no longer be regulated.

The battle over the building isn’t just about rents; it’s also about preserving city history. The First Avenue Estate was built between 1898 and 1915, during a time when city philanthropists began to address the appalling conditions of the tenement buildings in which many poor, working families lived. City and Suburban was a privately financed – Cornelius Vanderbilt was among the high-profile investors –  limited-dividend company that set out to provide the model for building low-cost, higher-quality living spaces for working class families. According to an LPC report from 1990, the company “voluntarily agreed to limit their profits in order to provide wage earners with comfortable, safe, hygienic, well-maintained housing at market rates… In its projects City and Suburban emphasized large-scale development likening itself to a chain store, able to offer quality goods at bargain prices because of large-scale organization.”

The architect for the project, Philip H. Ohm, based his design on the concept of the light court tenement, first proposed by architect Enest Flagg, which describes the use of windows in each room as well as the organization around a central open court and a wide entryway. These buildings stood in stark contrast to the squalid conditions offered by railroad-style flats, in which only the front and back rooms (each room would house an entire family) had access to air and light.

“These apartments are not fancy, but they’re livable,” said Elizabeth McCracken, who lived in one for 23 years and now lives across the street, working with Friends of First Avenue Estates to help preserve the buildings. “They have amenities that modern apartments don’t have. Every room had a window, allowing for light and air.”

Fast forward to 1990, when LPC designated the entire block as landmarks, and also bestowed landmark status on another City and Suburban Development, the York Avenue Estates at East 78th Street. But just weeks before it legally died on September 1 of that year, the Board of Estimates, the precursor to the City Council, voted in the middle of the night to overturn LPC’s decision on both the York Avenue and First Avenue Estates in what it called a compromise between preservationists and landowners. Critics called it a backroom deal motivated by politics. One of the landowners in question, Peter Kalikow, owned the York Avenue Estates; he also owned the New York Post at the time.

Advocacy groups sued the city, alleging that an improper decision had been made, and lost. But those representing the York Avenue Estates appealed and won, returning the protection of landmark status uptown; the First Avenue Estates remained un-landmarked, until four years ago.

Starting in 2004, Friends of First Avenue Estate and other landmark advocates, including City Council Member Jessica Lappin, began pushing for LPC to designate the First Avenue Estates, and Community Board 8 voted in support of it. In 2006, Stahl sent a memo to tenants of the buildings at First Avenue Estates, explaining that they were forced to begin performing facade work to the buildings in response to what they called a sudden attempt by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Stahl had obtained legal permits to change some architectural elements of the buildings, and, according to the memo, felt that by removing these external characteristics, they would avoid landmark status. But LPC considered more than just the visual aspects of the buildings.

“These buildings are significant for their architectural and cultural heritage. They were one of the first model tenement complexes built with private funds,” said Tara Kelly, executive director of Friends of the Upper East Historic Districts. “In 2006, the Landmarks Commission was really correcting a wrong that had been made in 1990.”

LPC restored landmark status to the First Avenue Estates, despite strong protests from Stahl and from the Real Estate Board of New York, in 2007. Stahl promptly sued, arguing that the Board of Estimates made a proper decision in 1990 and that LPC and the City Council should be bound by it. They also contended that the original architect”s work was inferior to that of James Ware, who designed the 13 other buildings on the block, and that the recent facade work rendered any architectural significance obsolete. After losing in state Supreme Court, Stahl appealed, and the appellate court dismissed the case, finding that “petitioner’s argument overlooks that in 1990 the LPC had determined that the entire First Avenue Estate, not just some of the buildings individually, was a landmark site, and that but for the modification by the BOE, the entire block would have had landmark status since 1990.”

The LPC will hold a public hearing on Stahl’s application, which has not yet been calendared. Until then, residents and advocates simply wait.

“It’s very nerve-wracking,” said McLaughlin. “Not knowing whether your building is going to be knocked down.”