The Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously today to calendar a hearing for two buildings that are part of the City and Suburban Homes Company, First Avenue Estate and which were not designated as official city landmarks when the full-block housing complex between 64th and 65th Streets and 1st and York Avenues was designated an official city landmark by the city's Board of Estimate in 1990.
Commissioner Roberta Brandes Gratz remarked that "it was very important" for the commission "to correct what was a mistake," adding that "we had done the right thing" and the Board of Estimate "tampered with it for the wrong reasons" in removing the two buildings from the designation.
Chairman Robert Tierney said that it was "appropriate to revisit" the buildings, which are located at 429 East 64th Street and 430 East 65th Street and were built in 1914 and 1915 and designed by Philip Ohm and James Ware.
The Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts had urged the commission to revisit the buildings, noting that the complex "is the oldest extant project of the most successful of the privately financed, limited dividend companies that attempted to address the housing problems of the nation's poor at the turn of the century," adding that "the 15-builidng complex is one of only two full city block developments of light-court tenements in the country."
The other was the City and Suburban Homes Company, York Avenue Estate complex on the full block bounded by the FDR Drive, York Avenue and 78th and 79th Streets, the subject of a major preservation controversy when Peter Kalikow, then a developer who was then the publisher of The New York Post and is now the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, wanted to develop four residential towers on the site. The enclave was eventually landmarked and Mr. Kalikow abandoned his plans to developer new towers on the site.
The York Avenue Estate is architecturally very similar to the First Avenue Estate and both consist of bland, six-story walk-up, beige-brick buildings with courtyards.
"The LPC had voted to designate the First Avenue Estate in its entirety on April 24, 1990," the Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts noted, adding that "On August 16, 1990 the Board of Estimate, with a politically charged agenda the size of a phone book, held its final executive session. At the meeting the Board voted to delete from the designation two of the buildings that the LPC had included; 429 East 64th and 430 East 65th Street. They made a similar decision for four of the buildings at the York Avenue Estate, which were later reinstated. The decision was widely recognized as a political concession to a powerful developer and in no way based on the architectural or historical merits of the buildings."
No date was set today for a hearing.
Commissioner Roberta Brandes Gratz remarked that "it was very important" for the commission "to correct what was a mistake," adding that "we had done the right thing" and the Board of Estimate "tampered with it for the wrong reasons" in removing the two buildings from the designation.
Chairman Robert Tierney said that it was "appropriate to revisit" the buildings, which are located at 429 East 64th Street and 430 East 65th Street and were built in 1914 and 1915 and designed by Philip Ohm and James Ware.
The Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts had urged the commission to revisit the buildings, noting that the complex "is the oldest extant project of the most successful of the privately financed, limited dividend companies that attempted to address the housing problems of the nation's poor at the turn of the century," adding that "the 15-builidng complex is one of only two full city block developments of light-court tenements in the country."
The other was the City and Suburban Homes Company, York Avenue Estate complex on the full block bounded by the FDR Drive, York Avenue and 78th and 79th Streets, the subject of a major preservation controversy when Peter Kalikow, then a developer who was then the publisher of The New York Post and is now the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, wanted to develop four residential towers on the site. The enclave was eventually landmarked and Mr. Kalikow abandoned his plans to developer new towers on the site.
The York Avenue Estate is architecturally very similar to the First Avenue Estate and both consist of bland, six-story walk-up, beige-brick buildings with courtyards.
"The LPC had voted to designate the First Avenue Estate in its entirety on April 24, 1990," the Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts noted, adding that "On August 16, 1990 the Board of Estimate, with a politically charged agenda the size of a phone book, held its final executive session. At the meeting the Board voted to delete from the designation two of the buildings that the LPC had included; 429 East 64th and 430 East 65th Street. They made a similar decision for four of the buildings at the York Avenue Estate, which were later reinstated. The decision was widely recognized as a political concession to a powerful developer and in no way based on the architectural or historical merits of the buildings."
No date was set today for a hearing.
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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