A few examples of tax credit projects above: Kings Theatre - Flatbush, Brooklyn and a restored New York City home.
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We Need Your Help to Continue State Historic Tax Credits
Your support helped convince Congress to continue the Federal Historic Tax Credits, now we need your help to
convince Albany to do two things:
extend the popular State Historic Tax Credits through 2024 and separate the State’s commercial tax credit from the Federal tax credit.
Here’s why we need your help…
In prior years, the Governor has renewed the credits two years ahead of their expiration date. But he did not do so this year. We are asking State Legislators to include a renewal through 2024 in both the Senate and Assembly budget bills. That will give property owners and developers confidence that this valuable program will continue. It often can take years to put a project together.
New York instituted commercial and homeowner tax credits in 2007. Since then, homeowners have invested more than $75 million in historic residential properties, receiving $15 million in credits. In New York City, Crown Heights, Clinton Hill, Stuyvesant Heights, Ditmas Park, Sugar Hill, Greenwich Village and Jackson Heights property owners have benefitted.
New York is the biggest user, and beneficiary, of the Federal Tax Credits, which only apply to commercial properties. State developers received more than $831 million in 2016 alone. Developers have often paired New York’s commercial credits with the Federal credits on major projects like the Apollo Theater and Randolph Houses in Harlem, and the Kings Theater in Brooklyn.
While Federal credits are renewed
, Congress required that the credits must now be taken over a 5-year period instead of all at once. We believe that lowers the value of the credits and we don’t want that to happen to New York’s credits.
Contact your
State Senator
and
State Assembly Member
and say:
Please renew the State historic tax credits through 2024 and please separate New York’s commercial credit from the Federal credit. We need to continue to benefit from the projects the credits make possible.
The Conservancy is working with the Preservation League of New York State and other colleagues to urge this Legislative action.
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Staten Island
Frederick Law Olmsted House - Conditions Report Update
A conditions report the Conservancy commissioned on the Olmsted House determined that some $460,000 in repairs are needed to secure this important landmark. We have shared the report with Parks Department officials and Councilman Joseph Borelli of Staten Island, but have yet to hear if they will seek City budget funds.
Architect Michael Devonshire of Jan Hird Pokorny Associates examined every major building feature at the Olmsted House and set out detailed cost estimates for making the necessary repairs. This emergency work will insure that the house is properly sealed and stabilized while it awaits its future restoration and adaptive reuse as an education and nature center. The report urged the Parks Department to clear out all flammable materials from the interior immediately. The house is full of papers and articles left by the family who sold the building to the City in 2006. Other recommendations include installing a security fence, improving the sealing of the windows and doors, constructing temporary shed roofs over the east and south areaways to protect the exposed foundation walls, mortar analysis and the repointing of the foundation walls.
The House, officially known as the Olmsted-Beil House, is city-owned and sits in a small public park in southeast Staten Island. Both are currently off limits to the public. The House is one of the earliest designated City landmarks.
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827-831 Broadway
Conservancy Testifies Against Rooftop Addition
The Conservancy spoke out against a proposal that would have set a precedent for looser standards at landmarks designated for their cultural or historic significance. At an LPC hearing on January 9, the Conservancy joined elected officials, local advocates, and neighbors, in asking the Landmarks Commission to reject a plan for a large, glass-clad rooftop addition to the 827-831 Broadway Buildings, an individual landmark designated at the end of 2017.
The 1867 Buildings were designated for associations with the Abstract Expressionist artists who once lived and worked there, especially Willem de Kooning. The LPC also called out the architecture, referring to them as commercial “’palaces’ which “drew architectural inspiration from Italian palazzi” and marked a moment when architect Griffith Thomas, whose later work would be largely associated with cast-iron buildings, started using cast-iron elements.
The architects presented an addition that ignored the context of the historic structure, and justified the move by saying that this is a cultural landmark, so they did not need to make any connections to the architecture and based their design on de Kooning’s art.
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Landmarks Conservancy
Mark Weber Rejoins our Staff as Historic Properties Fund Director
Mark Weber has rejoined the Landmarks Conservancy as Director of the Historic Properties Fund, one of the largest revolving loan funds for preservation in the country.
He returns after a lengthy stint at the World Monuments Fund where he oversaw preservation projects in South Asia and Europe.
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Historic Properties Fund Director - Mark Weber
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“My return to the Conservancy is a comfortable fit with the staff and with preservation projects,” Weber said. “But running the Historic Properties Fund is a new and challenging assignment.”
Weber served as the Conservancy’s Technical Director from 1986-1998. He helped document the abandoned buildings on Ellis Island’s South Side and stabilize one of the former hospital buildings. Other work included consulting for the Jay Heritage Center in Rye and documenting and salvaging the Duryea House, an early Dutch home in Brooklyn.
Before joining the Conservancy, Weber worked for the Preservation Society of Newport County in Newport, R.I. and the Newport Restoration Foundation. While there he co-authored “Newport Houses,” which was published by Rizzoli. He has a M.A. in Historic Preservation from Boston University’s Preservation Studies Program and a B.A. in Economics from the Wittemore School of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire.
Since its inception in 1982, the Historic Properties Fund has made more than $26.5 million in investments for restoration work on more than 250 buildings in the five boroughs.
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45th Anniversary Celebration
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It was hard to choose 45. Our loans, grants, technical assistance and advocacy have helped thousands of buildings. We hope you'll enjoy the range and diversity on display here. We have so many favorites, we will feature more projects as the year continues.
Keep in mind, this list is in no particular order of importance.
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Tourist In Your Own Town
View Historic Collections in this Beautiful Brooklyn Landmark
Visit the Brooklyn Historical Society in Brooklyn Heights to learn more about this remarkable borough and its people, as well as contemporary cultural and social events and issues.
The Society is housed in an 1881 building designed by architect George B. Post. The National Historic Landmark is noted for its rich terra cotta color and detailing. The landmarked interior library holds an impressive collection of materials, and features elaborately carved woodwork, original furnishings and stained-glass windows.
A long-term exhibit includes an in-depth look at African American leaders of the borough’s anti-slavery movement. Rotating exhibits include the vibrant history of Prospect Park, rare photographs of author Truman Capote and his Brooklyn Heights neighborhood, and much more.
Plan Your Visit:
Located at 128 Pierrepont Street, in Brooklyn Heights the museum and library are open to the public. For hours and directions, visit
brooklynhistory.org
You can also visit a
new outpost
of the Historical Society in the Empire Stores on the Brooklyn waterfront in DUMBO.
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Mystery Landmark
Did You Identify This Mystery Landmark?
It is the former TWA Terminal at JFK International Airport in Queens. This exterior and interior landmark (designated in 1994) was designed by Eero Saarinen & Associates with Kevin Roche in 1956-62. It is considered to be one of the great masterpieces of expressionistic modern design.
The building was correctly identified by Eva Lam and her favorite landmark is the
Fuller Building
in Midtown.
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Sacred Sites Open House
SAVE THE DATE - May 5-6, 2018
The Conservancy will host its eighth annual Sacred Sites Open House on May 5-6, 2018. Please join us as religious institutions throughout New York State highlight the art and architecture of their buildings. This year’s theme is, “Sacred Sounds and Settings” and focuses on music and artistic performance in these spaces. For congregations interested in participating, our
online registration form
is available.
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This newsletter is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
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