LPC protects Trinity’s One Hudson Square amid rezoning fears

The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated Trinity Real Estate’s One Hudson Square, the hulk of a building at the corner of Canal and Varick streets, as a landmark today, Crain’s reported.

The commission was reportedly eager to protect One Hudson Square as the neighborhood has recently been rezoned. The move that could put pressure on the building’s owners.

“This building is truly a masterpiece and displays a dramatic style that makes it stand out among the other warehouses and commercial structures in the neighborhood,” LPC chairman Robert Tierney told Crain’s.

The building, completed in 1930 and spanning 1 million square feet, calls a triangular lot at the mouth of the Holland Tunnel home.

Developer Abe Adelson chose the location for its convenience, and the Holland Plaza building — as the project is known — was an anchor of the Hudson Square printing business for decades.

While One Hudson Square neighbors the heavily landmarked West Village, Soho and Tribeca, the spot has few landmarks of its own.

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation’s executive director Andrew Berman said the move to designate the building was a bit of a puzzle.

“It’s a nice building,” he told Crain’s via email. “But it’s always a bit of a head-scratcher when the Landmarks Preservation Commission says that its limited resources are too stretched to protect endangered historic sites currently facing the wrecking ball, yet it has the resources to designate buildings that are so large they are unlikely to ever be endangered or torn down, and for which landmarking would make little tangible difference.” [Crain’s] — Julie Strickland