The Landmarks Preservation Commission voted today to "calendar" an extension of the Park Slope Historic District in Brooklyn.
The extension would add 564 buildings to the existing district, which contains 1,975 buildings.
The proposed extension would include both sides of Seventh Avenue from Seventh to 16th streets and numerous sidestreets and some properties that remain unprotected on Prospect Park West.
A March 6, 2010 update at the website of the Park Slope Civic Council maintained that
the commission is "committed to studying additional blocks of Park Slope for the second expansion phase."
The update said also said that a public meeting in the community will be held by the commission on the first expansion plans and that "assuming the public meeting goes well, there will be a public hearing next spring before the LPC Commissioners, followed by a vote to designate the expansion."
In 1973 the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Park Slope Historic District in Brooklyn. The designation report for the district notes that the district's "tree-lined streets and wide avenues, with houses of relatively uniform height, punctuated by church spires, provide a living illustration of the 19th century characterization of Brooklyn as 'a city of homes and churches."
The area, which borders Prospect Park, contains a mix of mansions, rowhouses, apartments and institutional buildings constructed around the turn of the century. However, the district is best identified with its harmonious expanse of two and three-story rowhouses with deep front yards.
In the early 1970s, the Park Slope Civic Council conducted a block-by-block survey of the Park Slope neighborhood and asked the Landmarks Preservation Commission to designate the entire area from Sixth Avenue to Prospect Park West, from Park Place south to 10th Street. The group believed that this area best reflected the history, architecture, development and cohesiveness of the Park Slope neighborhood. However, in designating the Park Slope Historic District, the Commission chose what the civic council has described as "an overly strict interpretation" of the "Park Slope" neighborhood. The Commission designated a jagged, L-shaped district that primarily protected the blocks between Prospect Park West and Eighth Avenue.
"The almost-entire omission of Seventh Avenue, Park Slope's commercial strip, was a reflection of the Commission's reluctance in its early years to designate and regulate commercial buildings within residential districts. The architecture of the many un-designated blocks in Park Slope is similar in integrity, style and period of development of the blocks that have been protected for over thirty years," according to the council.
The extension would add 564 buildings to the existing district, which contains 1,975 buildings.
The proposed extension would include both sides of Seventh Avenue from Seventh to 16th streets and numerous sidestreets and some properties that remain unprotected on Prospect Park West.
A March 6, 2010 update at the website of the Park Slope Civic Council maintained that
the commission is "committed to studying additional blocks of Park Slope for the second expansion phase."
The update said also said that a public meeting in the community will be held by the commission on the first expansion plans and that "assuming the public meeting goes well, there will be a public hearing next spring before the LPC Commissioners, followed by a vote to designate the expansion."
In 1973 the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Park Slope Historic District in Brooklyn. The designation report for the district notes that the district's "tree-lined streets and wide avenues, with houses of relatively uniform height, punctuated by church spires, provide a living illustration of the 19th century characterization of Brooklyn as 'a city of homes and churches."
The area, which borders Prospect Park, contains a mix of mansions, rowhouses, apartments and institutional buildings constructed around the turn of the century. However, the district is best identified with its harmonious expanse of two and three-story rowhouses with deep front yards.
In the early 1970s, the Park Slope Civic Council conducted a block-by-block survey of the Park Slope neighborhood and asked the Landmarks Preservation Commission to designate the entire area from Sixth Avenue to Prospect Park West, from Park Place south to 10th Street. The group believed that this area best reflected the history, architecture, development and cohesiveness of the Park Slope neighborhood. However, in designating the Park Slope Historic District, the Commission chose what the civic council has described as "an overly strict interpretation" of the "Park Slope" neighborhood. The Commission designated a jagged, L-shaped district that primarily protected the blocks between Prospect Park West and Eighth Avenue.
"The almost-entire omission of Seventh Avenue, Park Slope's commercial strip, was a reflection of the Commission's reluctance in its early years to designate and regulate commercial buildings within residential districts. The architecture of the many un-designated blocks in Park Slope is similar in integrity, style and period of development of the blocks that have been protected for over thirty years," according to the council.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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