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Deserving but not Designated: Sunset Park

Sunset Park contains one of the city’s earliest and most extensive concentrations of two-family masonry rowhouses, mostly built between 1885 and 1912. The proposed district encompasses representative blocks that best showcase Sunset Park’s architectural contributions to the city. This historic and elegant section of Brooklyn deserves the protection and honor that landmark designation brings.

In 1988, an area encompassing 3,237 buildings in Sunset Park – nearly the entire neighborhood – was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, making it one of the state’s largest National Register Historic Districts. However, without protection by the City, this area has witnessed inappropriate alterations and demolitions, which have inspired local residents to take action to protect their beautiful streetscapes.

The proposed study area outlined in the Request for Evaluation is the result of a careful research, survey and outreach effort on the part of the community. These blocks were chosen for their outstanding beauty, intact original fabric and resident support. Over roughly 15 months, the Sunset Park Landmarks Committee held and attended numerous meetings; hosted a dozen well-attended walking tours; recruited block captains to manage and help with the survey effort; rallied broad community support and input at several very successful tabling sessions; and engaged with other community organizations and local elected officials.

The proposal represents the desires of the Sunset Park community to safeguard and enhance the beauty of this historic neighborhood, not only for the well-being of the many individuals who live and work here and for the stability that a designation will bring, but to encourage citywide appreciation for the area’s significance. Landmark status will also help preserve the quality housing that draws people of many backgrounds to the neighborhood, making for a characteristically diverse New York City community.

You can view the full Request for Evaluation by clicking here

“Greeks on the Lower East Side: American Stories”

Presented by:

Marcia Haddad Ikonomopoulos

Director of the Museum at Kehila Kedosha Janina and LESPI Board Member

This program illuminates a little-known part of the American immigration story – that of the immigrants from Greece.

Step into the Balkan world of the Lower East Side, the kafenions and dance halls, the lilting bouzouki music and the aromas of Mediterranean cooking. Learn about the Sephardic and Romaniote synagogues and the local Greek Orthodox Church. They came during the massive wave of immigration (1881-1924) but their stories were very different.

Suggested donation: $15

Wednesday, October 1, 2014
6:30-8:30pm
Neighborhood Preservation Center
232 East 11th Street
(btw. 2nd and 3rd Avenues)

The lecture will be followed by a short reception. Light refreshments will be served.
For further information contact Richard at info@LESPI-nyc.org or 347-827-1846.

Space is limited RSVP are required – Make a reservation online HERE.

Historic tour of Atlantic Avenue! September 13

atlantic ave. logo

The Atlantic Avenue Business Improvement District invites you to join a tour of Atlantic Avenue, one of Brooklyn’s most dynamic commercial thoroughfares for over one hundred years. This diverse retail and dining destination connects the historic neighborhoods of Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill. Tour guide and Brooklyn native Joe Svehlak will guide us from 4th Avenue to Hicks Street, discussing Atlantic Avenue’s architecture, social and commercial history, as well as areas that have been more recently redeveloped. The variety of commercial, religious, civic, and residential architecture combining the new with the old are a testament to the vitality of Atlantic Avenue. In addition to the many shops and restaurants on our walk, we will view a former brewery, several religious sites, and, near the entrance to Brooklyn Bridge Park, a new mural depicting the avenue’s history and significance.

Saturday, September 13

11:00am – 1:00pm

Suggested donation: $10

To reserve your spot, please visit:

http://atlanticavebid.ticketleap.com/atlantic-avenue-historic-tour-july-12/

Park Avenue, Manhattan – Walking Tour

Monday, October 6, 6:00PM (Walking Tour)

The June 17 Six to Celebrate tour of the newly designated Park Avenue Historic District quickly sold out and was extremely well received. As such, Urban Historian Justin Ferate will conduct a second tour – beginning at Park Avenue at 91st Street and traveling south along the avenue.  The upper segment of the new district boasts of elegant apartment houses by such impressive architects as J.E.R. Carpenter, George & Edward Blum, Mott B. Schmidt, Emery Roth, Mills & Bottomley, and others. In addition, we’ll view religious structures by some of America’s noteworthy ecclesiastical design firms:  Patrick C. Keely, Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson, and Schickel & Ditmars.

Join us on this walking tour of New York City’s premier historic boulevard. Learn more about the histories of these remarkable architectural treasures and the effort to protect Park Avenue’s historical and architectural significance for future generations.

To Register For The Tour Click Here 

A Walking Tour of Historic Libraries in Chinatown- Pictures

Thursday, July 10, 2014

The tour went to two of the busiest Carnegie libraries in the New York Public Library system as well as other sites of interest between and near them, including one of the oldest graveyards in New York, Al Smith’s childhood home, and Knickerbocker Village, a forerunner of later urban renewal projects. The tour, was led by John Bacon, HDC board member and Director of Planned Giving at The New York Public Library, it started at the McKim, Mead and White-designed Chatham Square Library and concluded at the Seward Park Library, which became a New York City landmark in 2013.

Disparate factions unite to ‘take back’ Gowanus from overdevelopment

By Matthew Taub
Special to Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn Brief

What do a self-styled “provocateur,” a mohawked leather jacket punk rocker, a dredger, a cartographer, a cane-wielding rabble rouser, a public housing advocate and a sprinkling of neighborhood homeowners, preservationists, attorneys and industrial workers all have in common?

Council Member Brad Lander has somehow convinced them to band together–against him, and developers interested in the Gowanus canal.

“Lander’s whole process was rigged to create a forced consensus to give the developers a green light to go forward,” said Debbie Stoller, a resident of Gowanus for 11 years. “This meeting is meant to set that straight.”

She was referencing “Take Back Gowanus,” a meeting Wednesday night of local residents frustrated after their City Council member’s recent “Bridging Gowanus” three-part series failed to live up their democratic ideal, despite a claimed intention of fostering community engagement about the future of the neighborhood.

The event was hosted by local resident Joseph Alexiou, whose concerns about the one-sided, pro-development tone and direction of Lander’s meetings–concerns he claimed he addressed to the council member directly–went unanswered.

“I’m grateful to council member Lander,” Alexiou said, “but his process was not democratic, and not inclusive. It was downright misleading. We never had a chance to voice our concerns.”

The “take back” meeting–held at the upscale 501 Union Street venue at Alexiou’s expense–brought forth a range of ideas from local residents.

… To Read the Whole Article Click Here

Historic tours of Atlantic Avenue!

 Meet the neighborhood! 

atlantic ave. logo

The Atlantic Avenue Business Improvement District invites you to join a tour of Atlantic Avenue, one of Brooklyn’s most dynamic commercial thoroughfares for over one hundred years. This diverse retail and dining destination connects the historic neighborhoods of Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill. Tour guide and Brooklyn native Joe Svehlak will guide us from 4th Avenue to Hicks Street, discussing Atlantic Avenue’s architecture, social and commercial history, as well as areas that have been more recently redeveloped. The variety of commercial, religious, civic, and residential architecture combining the new with the old are a testament to the vitality of Atlantic Avenue. In addition to the many shops and restaurants on our walk, we will view a former brewery, several religious sites, and, near the entrance to Brooklyn Bridge Park, a new mural depicting the avenue’s history and significance.

THREE DATES:

Saturday, July 12

Saturday, August 9

Saturday, September 13

11:00am – 1:00pm

 

Suggested donation: $10

To reserve your spot, please visit:

atlanticavebid.org/tours