Preservationists have filed suit to stop Elad Properties and the Peebles Corporation to save a 19th Century mechanical clock.
The developers are converting 346 Broadway in Tribeca into luxury condos. The conversion would make the suite that houses the historic clock off limits to everyday New Yorkers, according to the New York Daily News.
“The loss of the New York Life Tower Clock would be devastating,” said Christopher DeSantis, author of “Clocks of New York” and a plaintiff in the suit. “It’s a living architectural fossil, a last vestige of a by-gone era to be treasured and preserved.”
The Landmarks Preservation Commission has already approved the plan to close the clock suite. However, back in 1987, the commission designated the clock tower suite an interior landmark.
The developers bought the landmarked building from the city for $160 million in 2013. [NYDN] – Christopher Cameron