St. Vincent’s public affairs office gave us a call about our post on the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s meeting Tuesday on the hospital’s hardship application to demolish the O’Toole building and construct a new, “state-of-the-art” medical facility in its place.

Dr. George Neuman, the interim chief medical officer at St. Vincent Catholic Medical Center, said that “support for the new hospital among the doctors and nurses, maintenance and ancillary staff is universal.”

“The people here want to see a new hospital built,” he said. “When you think about it, who wouldn’t want to work in a new building?"

Dr.  read more »

The Landmarks Preservation Commission approved revised plans for a massive development at the Domino Sugar Refinery in Williamsburg, Brownstoner reported just before noon after blogging live from the hearing all morning. Most importantly "the sign will live," said an architect for the project.

The LPC has sent the developers back to the drawing board twice since February, after the first set of plans that would have added a five-floor glass addition to the recently landmarked factory without preserving the iconic Domino Sugar sign drew the ire of preservationists.

This time around, the LPC's reaction was verging on jubilant.

"LPC chairman Robert Tierney says he's really digging the new submission," Brownstoner's Gabby Warshawer wrote. "Tierny calls it a 'brilliant' adaptive plan, says the addition is now 'appropriate,' particularly since the Domino sign is being preserved. Calls the chutes 'dramatic and evocative.' Another commissioner says the design will 'rival the Tate'."

St. Vincent’s Hospital in the West Village presented its application for hardship status to the Landmarks Preservation Commission today to get permission to demolish the O’Toole building on Seventh Avenue and construct a new facility in its place.

The hospital set out to convince the LPC to reverse its decision to forbid the demolition of the 1964 building, on the grounds that the physical limitations of the current facility between 11th and 12th streets is preventing it from carrying out its charitable mission to area residents. A trio of health care professionals testified at the hearing, painting a bleak picture of the current conditions at the hospital.

In May, the LPC pushed back against a $1.6 billion development proposal submitted by St. Vincent’s and its development partner Rudin Management that would have demolished nine buildings owned by the hospital and replaced them with a 329-foot-tall hospital and 265-foot luxury condo tower.

In keeping with the LPC’s recommendations, Rudin’s revised proposal would preserve and renovate four of the buildings it wanted to demolish on the east side of Seventh Avenue and reduce the scale of the condo tower by 60 feet in height and 30 feet in width.  read more »

Lost in the dust-cloud hovering above today's Upper East Side crane collapse was yesterday's protest on the steps of City Hall, during which preservationists asked the city to restore $300,000 in funding to the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

That commission is responsible for designating, and thereby protecting from alteration, city landmarks and landmarked districts.

“During the last two years, increased funding has enabled the LPC to hire more employees, and as a result, the commission designated 26 landmarks and four historic districts,” said Lisa Kersavage, director of advocacy for the Municipal Art Society, in a statement.

The jobs of five such employees are now at risk, thanks to proposed funding cutbacks, according to the Society.  read more »

Assemblyman Richard Gottfried has come out against Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel’s tower planned to rise next to the Museum of Modern Art, joining neighbors and State Senator Liz Krueger in their opposition to the project.  read more »

The Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously voted to hold hearings on a pair of New York Public Library branches in Harlem, putting them on track toward landmark designation. The move is presumably aimed at placating critics who have faulted the LPC for neglecting Harlem ahead of the anticipated rezoning of 125th Street.  read more »

The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated Webster Hall a landmark today at its meeting along with four other buildings and a Midtown hotel, bringing the total number of individual protected sites in the five boroughs to 1,189.

The LPC originally recommended the 1886 Webster Hall concert venue and its annex, constructed in 1895, for protective status, following a 2006 survey of 1,300 buildings betwen East Houston and 14th Street, the Bowery/Fourth Avenue and the East River.  read more »

The Landmarks Preservation Commission is in the midst of a typically marathon meeting today, which includes the possible landmarking of music venue Webster Hall. We'll have more on the newest designations soon. Here's the meeting's agenda (PDF).

Ever wonder why something is a landmark (and something else is not)? I sat down with Commission Chairman Robert Tierney last winter.

Hotel Pennsylvania preservationist Gregory Jones recently received a Valentine's Day greeting from the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission--er, more of a Dear John letter, really.

The message, dated Feb. 14, reads: "At this time, the property does not appear to meet the criteria for designation and will not be recommended to the full commission for further consideration as a New York City landmark."

Yet, Mr. Jones, who has spearheaded efforts to save the old hotel from possible demolition, remains undaunted: "We won't take no for an answer," he told The Observer via e-mail. "We will continue to find a new way of saving this hotel with or without the [commission's] help."

At least one preservation group is speaking up on behalf of the endangered Hotel Pennsylvania.

The Historic Districts Council (HDC) has formally asked the Landmarks Preservation Commission to hold a hearing on proposals to protect the old McKim, Mead & White-designed hotel, which owner Vornado Realty Trust has threatened to demolish.

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