A community group is seeking to limit the height of new buildings on the east side of the Bowery between Canal and East 9th Streets to 85 feet.
The plan was presented to a public forum June 16 by the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors and Anna Sawaryn, its president, said it will be presented to Community Board 3 and to the City Planning Commission.
According to a fine article by Albert Amateau in this week's edition of The Villager, the plan was developed by Doris Diether, the long-time, highly respected head of the landmarks committee of Community Board 2.
The low rise character of the Bowery is being threatened by new hotel and residential towers, according to the proposal, which includes lot-coverage rules and a ban on demolition of 15 "of special significance" and it also includes restrictions on residential conversions to protect commercial uses.
Mr. Amateau quoted Ms. Sawaryn as saying that "The east side of Bowery should be rezoned or it will become a wall of out-of-scale luxury development that would undermine the protective zoning in the surrounding communities."
A rezoning last year of 111 blocks in the East Village and Lower East Side to the east of Bowery left out the east side of the street, as indicated in the map, illustrated, that accompanied the article, and Mr. Amateau wrote that "the city has previously recognized the historic significance of the Bowery by protecting the west side of the boulevard in the Special Little Italy District and the Noho Historic District."
Michell Grubler, a member of civic group, was quoted in the article as stating that "we felt it was important to preserve the wholesale lighting, restaurant-supply and jewelry businesses that remain on the Bowery."
Among the buildings that the civic group would like to see preserve is 101 Bowery that was built in 1870 as "Worth's Museum of Living Curiosities," 135 Bowery that is a Federal style building from about 1809 that was once a gambling den known as Red, White and Blue, and the Alabama at 219-221 Bowery, a flophouse since 1967 that had been designed in the 19th Century by James Ware as a hotel, the building at 313-5 Bowery that until recently housed the famous CBGB music club, and the building at 319 Bowery that was "built in 1899 by Julius Blackwell as a cigar factory and converted in 1926 as the Holy Name Mission, in 1962 became the Amato Opera, which closed earlier this month," according to Mr. Amateau.
The plan was presented to a public forum June 16 by the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors and Anna Sawaryn, its president, said it will be presented to Community Board 3 and to the City Planning Commission.
According to a fine article by Albert Amateau in this week's edition of The Villager, the plan was developed by Doris Diether, the long-time, highly respected head of the landmarks committee of Community Board 2.
The low rise character of the Bowery is being threatened by new hotel and residential towers, according to the proposal, which includes lot-coverage rules and a ban on demolition of 15 "of special significance" and it also includes restrictions on residential conversions to protect commercial uses.
Mr. Amateau quoted Ms. Sawaryn as saying that "The east side of Bowery should be rezoned or it will become a wall of out-of-scale luxury development that would undermine the protective zoning in the surrounding communities."
A rezoning last year of 111 blocks in the East Village and Lower East Side to the east of Bowery left out the east side of the street, as indicated in the map, illustrated, that accompanied the article, and Mr. Amateau wrote that "the city has previously recognized the historic significance of the Bowery by protecting the west side of the boulevard in the Special Little Italy District and the Noho Historic District."
Michell Grubler, a member of civic group, was quoted in the article as stating that "we felt it was important to preserve the wholesale lighting, restaurant-supply and jewelry businesses that remain on the Bowery."
Among the buildings that the civic group would like to see preserve is 101 Bowery that was built in 1870 as "Worth's Museum of Living Curiosities," 135 Bowery that is a Federal style building from about 1809 that was once a gambling den known as Red, White and Blue, and the Alabama at 219-221 Bowery, a flophouse since 1967 that had been designed in the 19th Century by James Ware as a hotel, the building at 313-5 Bowery that until recently housed the famous CBGB music club, and the building at 319 Bowery that was "built in 1899 by Julius Blackwell as a cigar factory and converted in 1926 as the Holy Name Mission, in 1962 became the Amato Opera, which closed earlier this month," according to Mr. Amateau.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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