Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Troubling developments

59 East 2nd Street
The Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection and Chapel of St. Innocent of Irkutsk, an impressive stone structure just across the street from the Marble Cemetery and down the street from Anthology Film Archives, is planning to add 8 residential stories to its current 60 foot height, 141 feet altogether. How will they add eight stories on top of an 1867 church without compromising the structure? It's a historic church on a historic block. DoB has approved their plan.

75 1st Avenue
Developer plans to build a 171-foot tall tower on a tiny 24-foot wide lot. It's illegal to build higher than 100 feet on such a narrow lot, but they are digging their foundation anyway.

226-228 Bowery
8-story hotel in the midst of the Bowery section of the Special Little Italy District, not far from the New Museum. Is this the future of the city's oldest road?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Speechless.

Anonymous said...

this is out of date. church is no longer building and may have to sell because they cannot afford to maintain

rob said...

Apparently work has already been done in the basement -- without permits posted. If the church is hiding its work, how would anyone know what's going on there?

Anonymous said...

Ahhh, i knew they were up to no good in that lot next to Rite Aid. They've been diggin deep. That lot is so tiny! Insane.

rob said...

Stranger still is the silence surrounding 75 1st Ave.

When arguing over the merits of the rezoning, I pointed out that there have been no tall towers planned for the East Village over the last six years. Several Zoning Task Force members responded with a litany of sites that could (but didn't) have tall towers, yet failed to mention the one and only site that actually filed a plan and dug a foundation for a tall tower.

Makes you wonder.

The plan violates the Sliver Law, but still, even at 100 feet allowed under that law on the avenue, and with appropriate setbacks, it would be taller than anything around it. You'd think they'd have made this building the posterchild for the rezoning.

So far as I can tell, no one is doing anything to prevent this structure even though its plan is illegal.