From left: 315 East 10th Street and Ben Shaoul

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission approved a block-long historic district on East 10th Street at an emergency public hearing and vote today. The creation of the historic district follows developer Benjamin Shaoul’s Magnum Real Estate Group’s application in December to add a rooftop addition to a townhouse at 315 East 10th Street, which Magnum purchased late last year. The newly designated area extends from avenues A to B along the south side of 10th Street. [more]

Jared Kushner, principal of the Kushner Companies, and the Puck Building

After various delays and discussions, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted this morning to approve a highly scaled-back version of Kushner Companies’ proposed penthouse additions to the landmarked Puck Building at 295 Lafayette Street, it was announced today.

The approved additions are now 20 feet shorter, according to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, which fought against the original proposal, and the size has been reduced by about 1,500 square feet. While the original proposal was prominently visible for many blocks to the north, east, and west of the building, much of the new version is practically invisible from the west, the society said.

News of the proposed rooftop extension broke in August and has been rejected several times by Landmarks since, largely on the basis of its original scale. – Katherine Clarke [more]

An eight-story, 33-unit, rental building slated to replace an antebellum row house at 316 East 3rd Street is expected to receive its new building permit within the next six weeks, the New York Times reported. The building will be designed by architect Karl Fischer.

“We plan to develop this underutilized asset into its highest use: a rental building. The acquisition price was below market, and with rising rents in the area, it was a great opportunity,” said developer Brody/Amirian.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission’s refusal to recognize the row house as a landmark has frustrated some community activists who say it held historical significance. [more]

From left: William Rudin, CEO of Rudin Management, a rendering of Rudin’s conversion of the St. Vincent’s hospital canvas, and Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden

Developer William Rudin said the “economics” of his company’s $1 billion conversion of the St. Vincent’s hospital campus into a 450-unit luxury residential development could not support affordable housing, as he came under fire from community officials for not doing enough to justify a requested rezoning of the Greenwich Village site.

Rudin, the CEO of Rudin Management, appeared today at the first public hearing in the uniform land use review procedure, or ULURP, to decide whether the developer can proceed with the controversial project, already four years in the making. [more]

In its bid to gain community favor for its 300,000-square-foot addition to the Chelsea Market, Jamestown Properties plans to attend a community board meeting tonight where locals are slated to sound off on the proposal, GlobeSt.com reported.

Jamestown bought out its partners, Angelo, Gordon & Co., Belvedere Capital and Irwin Cohen, in the mixed-use building for $225 million in February, and immediately embarked on a campaign to expand the market. The glass addition to the brick structure, at 75 Ninth Avenue, would have hotel and office space.

The addition is not expected to be approved without at least some resistance. [more]

Jared Kushner, a principal of the Kushner Companies, and the Puck BuildingThe city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission rejected developer Jared Kushner’s application to build atop the landmarked Puck Building in Soho yesterday, Crain’s reported, saying he will need to rethink his plans for rooftop additions to the 203,000-square-foot, mixed-use building at 295 Lafayette Street. They commented on a variety of concerns, a spokesperson said, including the bulk, scale and design of the proposal.

Kushner’s plan had involved redoing the top floors of the 10-story Romanesque Revival-style building and creating energy efficient penthouse units, Crain’s said. Kushner said he would continue to refine the design in accordance with the commission’s advice.
“We look forward to continue working together to achieve the right outcome for the building,” he said. [more]

Protesters against New York University’s expansion plans hope to
demonstrate their anger at the famed annual Greenwich Village
Halloween parade, DNAinfo reported. The Greenwich Village Society for
Historic Preservation plans to submit designs to the 2011 NYU
Halloween design contest that illustrate NYU’s expansion plans as
scary threat. Members of the public participate in the contest to find
designs for trick-or-treat bags. “To so many people in this community,
there’s nothing scarier than NYU’s massive 20-year expansion plan and
the impact it would have on the Village,” said Andrew Berman, executive director at GVSHP. [more]

From left: Andrew Berman, Alicia Hurley and NYU

The Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the New York University Silver Towers landscaping plan yesterday in a unanimous vote, the school announced last night. The plan, which includes a dog run, toddler park and increased vegetation in the area, was seen as an olive branch to community activists who have opposed the school’s 2031 expansion program. But Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, said that many in the community are further angered by the landscaping plan. “In their new location, the playground and dog run will interfere with what is now the pristine view of Picasso’s Sylvette sculpture,” Berman said. TRD [more]

Following community backlash to its initial Greenwich Village expansion plan, New York University today unveiled new scaled down renderings for a few buildings that are part of the school’s citywide growth scheme.

The university will present the revised plan for three buildings, rather than the four as initially proposed, to the public next week, and said it expects to begin the public approval process in May.

The plan, initiated in 2006 and known as “NYU 2031,” calls for 6 million square feet of growth, about half of which spans West 3rd to Houston streets, and LaGuardia Place to Mercer Street, within the heart of the Greenwich Village campus, said Lynne Brown, NYU’s senior vice president of public affairs at a press briefing this afternoon. [more]

Community activists are set to protest outside the Provincetown Playhouse theater at 133 MacDougal Street between West 3rd and West 4th streets Saturday at noon, according to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, which is organizing the event. The protest centers on what the non-profit group calls a “misrepresentation regarding the supposed preservation” of the historic site by New York University. The structure, which protesters say is now “entombed within a newly built NYU Law School” facility, was recently repurposed for university use. The Provincetown Playhouse, considered a seminal part of theater history, is being feted by NYU on Saturday in a so-called re-opening open house. TRD [more]