Home : Preservation : East Village : Latest News : 10/29/09

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East Village’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral Now Being Considered for Landmarking At Tuesday’s hearing the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) also voted to ‘calendar,’ or formally consider for landmark designation, the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Martyr Protection at 59 East 2nd Street in the East Village. Last year GVSHP and the East Village Community coalition, with the support of Councilmember Rosie Mendez, called upon the LPC to landmark the historic 1891 structure after we discovered a plan to erect an 8-story condo-tower atop it.  In response, the LPC reached what is called a “standstill agreement” with the church, whereby they agreed to temporarily halt any development or alteration plans.  In the meantime, the East Village rezoning which GVSHP and many others had been pushing for was enacted, and put in place new height limits for the neighborhood which would have prevented the condo-tower plan from moving ahead.  With the calendaring of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral, a public hearing should be scheduled on the proposed designation in the near future. However, the LPC has still not taken any action on other historic East Village sites we have proposed for designation, such as the threatened Congregation Mezritch Synagogue at 415 East 6th Street, the East Village’s last operating tenement synagogue, and 101 Avenue A, an architecturally distinguished tenement with a 130-year old ground-floor public gathering space which for generations housed a German social hall and eventually the avant-garde Pyramid Club. HOW TO HELP: Send a letter to the LPC thanking them for calendaring the Russian Orthodox Cathdedral, and urging them to do the same for other proposed East Village landmarks such as Congreagation Mezritch Synagogue and 101 Avenue A  > > Image of Cathedral Courtesy of Barry Munger. Next: 11/24/09 Previous: 10/13/09

Home : Preservation : East Village : Latest News : 10/29/09