CONVERSION OF A HISTORIC LOWER MANHATTAN LANDMARK, A RARE CLOCK AND CLOCK TOWER, TO A LUXURY APARTMENT WAS PROPERLY APPROVED BY THE NYC LANDMARKS PRESERVATION COMMISSION, APPELLATE DIVISION REVERSED (CT APP).
The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Garcia, over an extensive two-judge dissenting opinion, reversing the Appellate Division, determined the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) properly approved the redevelopment of 346 Broadway, a historic building in Lower Manhattan that the LPC had previously designated as a landmark. The redevelopment entailed conversion of an interior landmark (a clock) to a luxury apartment:
In its initial designation report, the LPC noted several of the building’s unique features. The exterior of the “palazzo-like tower,” constructed in “the neo-Italian Renaissance style,” was largely built with “white Tuckahoe marble.” The “interiors” were also “designed using the finest craftmanship and lavish materials” including “marble, bronze, [and] mahogany.” Among the interior spaces designated were the former “Banking Hall,” a “grand and boldly scaled neo-Classical room” with “monumental freestanding Corinthian columns, and “[t]he clock tower” which housed a “No. 4 Striking Tower Clock”—a mechanical clock driven “by a thousand pound weight” which “strikes the hours” with a hammer and a “5000 pound bell.” The clock was manufactured by E. Howard Watch & Clock Company and “was specially equipped with a double three-legged gravity escapement”—a feature, petitioners claim, is shared by only one other tower clock: the clock housed by Elizabeth Tower (also home to the bell known as Big Ben) in London. In total, the LPC landmarked 20,000 square feet out of the building’s total interior space of 420,000 square feet. * * *
… [T]the developer intended to keep the clock running electrically. …
… [T]he LPC found that the developer’s plan would have “the main lobby, stair hall, clock tower rooms and banking hall . . . fully restored.” Additionally, it would “allow accessibility by the public to the lobby and former banking hall.” The LPC also found that “the clock mechanism and faces will be retained, thereby preserving these significant features.” In sum, the LPC found that “the proposed restorative work will return . . . the interior closer to [its] original appearance, and will aid in [its] long-term preservation.”
FROM JUDGE RIVERA’S DISSENT:
Notwithstanding the historical significance of the clock to the City, the LPC approved the building owner’s request to convert this interior landmark into a luxury apartment. The former is a rare horological masterpiece; the latter is a typical, now-commonplace, development for the wealthy by the wealthy. Although the LPC has great latitude to decide whether to approve an alteration to an interior landmark, it cannot approve an alteration that, by its very nature, amounts to a de facto rescission of a landmark designation. So, the question is, when is an interior landmark no longer an interior landmark? The answer is contained in the plain language of the Landmarks Preservation Law, which defines an interior landmark as accessible to the public for the people’s benefit and welfare. Transforming an interior landmark into a private residence such that it is completely closed off from the public, annuls its designation and is inconsistent with the purpose of the Landmarks Preservation Law. Matter of Save America’s Clocks, Inc. v City of New York, 2019 NY Slip Op 02385, CtApp 3-28-19