The Landmarks Preservation Commission granted landmark status today to two buildings in Staten Island: the Staten Island Armory and the neo-Gothic Christ Church and its rectory and parish house, the New York Times reported. The Staten Island Armory on Manor Road in Castleton Corners is formally known as the Headquarters Troop, 51st Cavalry Brigade Armory, and resembles a medieval fortress guarded by tanks, featuring patterned brick work. The Christ Church complex, at 72-76 Franklin Avenue in New Brighton, in the northeast corner of the island, consists of the 1904 church, a two-story parish house and an 1879 rectory, joined by cloisters and covered walkways and arranged around a courtyard. The commission also agreed to formally consider a plan to enlarge the Park Slope Historic District in Brooklyn. The proposed extension comprises 582 buildings, most of them bounded by Seventh and Eighth avenues and 7th and 15th streets. [NYT]

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The red lines denote the current Park Slope Historic District boundaries, while the black lines show the boundaries under the proposed expansion plan

The Park Slope Historic District could broaden to include thousands more buildings, pending a preliminary hearing between the Landmarks Preservation Commission and neighborhood expansion advocates Feb. 23. The broadening of the district would be implemented incrementally, eventually encompassing structures in the area bounded by Flatbush Avenue, Prospect Park West, 15th Street and Fifth Avenue, according to the New York Post. Elizabeth de Bourbon, a spokesperson for the commission, said that the agency is suggesting an incremental approach because the proposed plan involves the inclusion of 4,000 new buildings, a vast undertaking that would otherwise tap all of the commission’s resources. “The reason we’re looking at an extension in phases… is that we’ll be able to move forward with districts elsewhere in the city,” de Bourbon said. “Otherwise, we’d have to devote almost all of our resources to this neighborhood. We have to weigh this extension against all of our other priorities.”