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CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS TESTIMONY LPC-25-07290 207 West 151st Street – Harlem River Houses – Individual Landmark CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS A housing project consisting of three groups of buildings and surrounding sites designed by Archibald Manning Brown and built in 1936-1937. Application is to install artwork and interpretive signage. Applicant: Higgins, Quasebarth and Partners HDC is very happy to support this sensitive restoration, and looks forward to the interpretive signage and community-created artwork. We note that the LPC designation report for the Harlem River Houses offers some meaningful reminders for New York as we face the current housing crisis: The Report reminds us that the Harlem River Houses were financed by the Housing Division of the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works (PWA) and that “the Roosevelt Administration recognized that low income housing was a responsibility of the government — despite bitter complaints by the building and real estate interests that the government was encroaching on their domain. Government officials, such as PWA Administrator Harold L. Ickes, effectively argued that private industry could not afford to build housing at affordable rents for the low-income sector.” Indeed, the 1937 PWA brochure for the Harlem River Houses asserts that “with all the economies of large-scale construction, and the benefits of low-cost financing which PWA enjoys, Harlem River Houses is only further proof that even modest low-rent housing for low income families requires assistance in some form from the government.” “It should be noted” the Designation Report tells us, that when awarding construction bids to private contractors, “the Housing Division of the PWA chose those private contractors who employed workmen paid at the union scale in full, in keeping with the PWA goal of building housing projects in order to create employment and stimulate the building industry.” The Harlem River Houses are a testament to what public investment and union labor can achieve, namely housing that is both beautifully designed and truly affordable. We are grateful that this complex is landmarked so that it will receive the beautiful restoration it deserves, which the applicants are proposing today. We are also grateful that landmark designation means historical documentation, because the history of this complex helps remind us that the City and the Nation have offered meaningful and beautiful housing solutions in the past, and can do so in the present. Action: approved. |
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LPC-24-08751 167 West 72nd Street – Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS A store and apartment building, originally built as a rowhouse in 1883-84 and modified in 1909 by E. Wilbur. Application is to legalize the replacement of windows without HDC concurs with our colleagues at Landmark West that these 1-over-1 windows, which were installed without permits and replaced historic 9-over-1 windows, are inappropriate. The Certificate of Appropriateness process has historically helped West 72nd Street return historic detail to the streetscape, enlivening and enriching the public experience of being in New York City. This applicant should follow that tradition, and restore the windows to their 9-over-1 configuration. Action: applicant did not join the meeting. |
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