E-BULLETIN OF THE HISTORIC DISTRICTS COUNCIL
February 2013, Volume 10, Number 1
Proposed East Midtown Rezoning
In fall 2012, the Historic Districts Council surveyed the entire area proposed for rezoning to identify East Midtown’s architecturally and historically significant buildings worthy of consideration for landmark status. The survey tours were led by members of the Board of Directors of the Historic Districts Council, architects and architectural historians and attended by representatives of Manhattan’s Community Board 5, who contributed invaluable knowledge about buildings at risk. The result was a list of almost 80 significant buildings for City Planning to consider as part of its environmental review of the project. Historic Districts Council has further refined the list to 33 buildings worthy of New York City Individual Landmark designation, and submitted official Requests for Evaluation to the Landmarks Preservation Commission for each of these 33 buildings on February 1, 2013. You can read more about the rezoning on our website, as well as viewing the fully detailed map of the area, and a gallery of each building along with its RFE. HDC chose these buildings because they represent the area’s rich range of architecture including 19th and early 20th century structures that recall the residential, pre-Grand Central days of the area, hotels and office buildings that rose around Grand Central soon after its completion in 1913, and post-World War II modernist office buildings that helped solidify the district’s status as one of the world’s premier business addresses.
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This rezoning will affect all New Yorkers and therefore has received major media attention. The rezoning is so prevalent that 24 hours after we released our list the Associated Press had picked it up. Below are links and quotes to several articles HDC has been featured in.
33 threatened buildings named in midtown east: Crain’s New York, January 29, 2013
“In arriving at the final 33 properties, the organization prioritized those that it deemed the most architecturally significant, as well as the most threatened by the proposed rezoning, meaning the ones that would be considered “underbuilt,” or significantly smaller than what would be allowed under the proposed new regulations.
“In that instance there is a much higher level of threat to the continued existence of the building,” said Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council.”
Preservationists name 33 NYC buildings to save– Beaumont Enterprise, Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Preservationists name 33 Manhattan buildings they hope will survive rezoning– AP The Republic January 29, 2013
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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 at hdc.org