The saga of 11-15 Old Fulton Street continues, as seen recently in some local blogs. If you care about saving historic buildings from the wrecking ball, read on.
Shrouded under scaffolding at present, 11, 13 and 15 Old Fulton Street are part of the last remaining vestiges of Brooklyn’s early commercial waterfront. Built between 1836-39, well before the Brooklyn Bridge, 11-15 Old Fulton Street is a row of Greek Revival style brick and stone commercial buildings whose style, scale, materials and details have been described by the Landmarks
Fulton Street circa 1885
Preservation Commission (LPC) as reminders of 19th century commercial life and development in Brooklyn, and as contributing to the special architectural and historic character of the Ferry Fulton Historic District. According to the LPC, these buildings have special significance as “one of the few surviving examples of Greek Revival commercial architecture in the city.”
The Fulton Ferry Landing Association has been fighting for the preservation of these structures (and opposing their destruction or inappropriate expansion) for a number of years. In late 2007, the previous owner, Michael Mazza, sold the properties to a partnership. Since then, the development has stalled as a result of the real estate crisis. The new owners have permitted the structures to deteriorate, leaving windows open to the elements, in an apparent effort to achieve what is known as “demolition by neglect”; that is, allowing Mother Nature to bring down the buildings, since — as we all assumed — the city would not issue a demolition permit for what its own Landmarks Commission labeled such significant structures. For a developer it is almost always easier and cheaper to simply knock down an old building and build new construction, whatever the cost to our historic heritage.
To prevent this, we have been in regular contact with the LPC about the conditions at the buildings. On more than one occasion we were promised that work to reinforce and support the structures would commence, only to be disappointed. We were even promised by Landmarks that if there was insufficient progress with the necessary structural repairs, they would initiate a lawsuit against the developer and its lenders to compel them to perform the work.
In late spring of this year a meeting took place between Landmarks, the Department of Buildings and the owner’s representatives to assess the state of the structures. By DOB’s own evaluation, the front façade, party walls and roof of the structures were in good shape; the rear walls required substantial shoring and bracing. All parties appeared to be cooperating towards developing a scope of work to be performed by the owner to preserve the buildings.
Fast forward to August 12th, when to our surprise we discovered that the Department of Buildings had issued a demolition order on these structures, apparently ignoring the analysis of its own engineers that the buildings could be successfully supported, and tossing aside all of the previous efforts of LPC and Fulton Ferry Landing Association to compel the owners to fulfill their obligations to these historic structures.
Much alarmed, we called upon our local elected officials and the LPC to halt the demolition of these buildings. The DOB order was inexplicable given the fact that their own engineers had determined that the buildings could indeed be shored up and successfully rehabilitated. We still do not know what influence was exerted at DOB to achieve this unannounced reversal of the rehabilitation program that had been put in place to save the buildings. After a great deal of effort and pressure from our elected officials, the demolition order has been put on hold for a week by the DOB, but the future of these historic buildings is now extremely tenuous.
If you care about the historic character of our neighborhood and wish to preserve these remarkable Greek revival buildings, please send an email expressing your opposition to their demolition with the subject line: Stop the Wrecking Ball! Save 11-15 Old Fulton to:
Rtierney@lpc.nyc.gov
rlimandri@buildings.nyc.gov
tfariello@buildings.nyc.gov
and CC: slevin@council.nyc.gov; millmanj@assembly.state.ny.us; squadron@senate.state.ny.us
A sample email follows. Of course, you may add your own thoughts as well.
Built between 1836-1839, 11-15 Old Fulton Street is a row of rare Greek Revival style brick and stone commercial buildings. Their style, scale, materials and details have been described by the Landmarks Preservation Commission as reminders of 19th century commercial life and development in Brooklyn, and as significant structures in the Fulton Ferry Historic District.
These buildings are one of the few surviving examples of Greek Revival architecture in the City, according to the LPC. They deserve to be shored up and saved, not demolished.
The current owners of 11-15 Old Fulton have left windows open to the elements, left a broken pipe to flow unstopped in the basement, and allowed the structures to deteriorate. In spite of their neglect, when the DOB’s Forensic Engineering Division conducted a site visit with the LPC in late spring, 2010, the DOB determined that the front facade, party walls and roofs were in good shape, though the rear walls required additional support and substantial shoring.
The agencies were awaiting modified plans from the owner’s engineers when the DOB issued a demolition order, despite its own evaluation that these buildings could be successfully supported.
The DOB has full discretion to “demolish, repair, or take whatever action is necessary” to make a building safe. Within a historic District, with frail structures worthy of protection, this can have the unintended result of rewarding owners who are seeking to demolish by neglect.
Do not reward the owners for their neglect. Force them to restore these historic buildings, or allow the DOB to do so.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
1.You are hitting the target, but missing the mark. This is not an issue of wrecking ball or no wrecking ball. It’s an issue of public safety vs the owners making repairs. It is the city’s responsibility to protect public safety. Don’t blame them.
Instead of harrassing Landmarks and blaming the DoB, you should be ganging up on the owners who have allowed the buildings to deteriorate to this state and can still save them if they choose to.
Clearly, the owners have been playing you and Landmarks all this time because nothing has been done. CALL THE OWNERS DIRECTLY!! It’s not the DoB or Landmarks fault, their actions are a symptom of the situation the owners have created – don’t go through landmarks to get at the owners.
2. If there has been a demo order, then the buildings must be in rough shape and therefore truly dangerous. Again, it seems that you are on the wrong side of right issue – if you really cared about the neighborhood you would consider the people and property at risk in the meantime while you, landmarks and the owners wasted time playing games for the past year. Face it. You and landmarks together have not been effective in creating a safe environment for people and property around these buildings in the meantime, while you “work to save the buildings”. Since when are buildings more important than human life or life and limb?
So, having said that if you are so inclinded to write to Landmarks “save the buildings from the wrecking ball” – instead of berating government entities for focusing on public safety by putting a demo order on the buildings – ASK THEM TO PUT PRESSURE ON THE OWNERS TO FIX THE BUILDINGS, OR WRITE THE OWNERS DIRECTLY AND ORDER THEM TO FIX THE BUILDINGS !!!
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The demise of the 150 year old buildings at 11-15 is all too familiar and appears a repeat of what happened at #4 Water. In the late 1980′s, this historic waterfront warehouse (now houses Ignazio’s Pizza and about 10 condos) was to be converted to condos and was required to preserve its historic façade (the reset of the building would be replaced, plus two stories, and built upon the façade). Constantine Karrallis was the architect. LPC approved. I don’t remember a rigorous public approval process then, either. During demolition, it was soon determined (and quite obvious) that the façade was too fragile to support a new building and the DOB determined that the facade had to be completely stabilized and then attached to a new building within. This required all new plans and another filing and approval process. Nothing happened – the project was halted. After more than ten years of continuing decay, the DOB became interested, but it did not matter, the entire façade soon collapsed on its own one day (in front of Monique Denoncin of Vinegar Hill). In no time were the original plans resubmitted (with a faux façade), approved (albeit without process, despite a more than ten year lag), the units were pre-sold, and in short order the building was up. FFLA had the normal battles reminding LPC that the builders were willfully violating the height agreed in the plans (they had to lower the mechanicals, stacks, and vents and remove one upper room).
So, here we are again. The buyers own three adjoining buildings in a historic district and must preserve as much of the building as possible, especially the façade, an arduous and expensive requirement. The plans were submitted, adjusted and approved about five years ago. Since then there have been minor cosmetic adjustments to the façade. The building changed hands again several years ago; the plans are still intact and executable. And the three buildings have just sat there, further deteriorating. I do not recall seeing any scaffolding in front of these buildings during that time to address the obvious structural defects. FFLA is active about this, not forgetting 4 Water. DOB notices started appearing last year. And then on Monday, August 9th, CB2 is notified (and no one else, not even LPC) of the forthwith order by the DOB to demolish, and by Wednesday, scaffolding erected and permits posted. It’s in all the papers and blogs.
While FFLA pursues LPC to do what it can do to block the demolition (to force preservation), I stare and wonder what might replace these wonderful old architectural neighbors. It is a sad moment.
On Thursday, Grimaldi’s patrons escape the rain under the cover of the newly erected scaffolding bridge in front of 11-15, oblivious to the fate of either of these neighborhood icons. Life goes on in Fulton Ferry Landing.
Thanks for the comment, Dane, but in all fairness, the job of going after the owners is for the city agencies, not for a community association. Furthermore, the owners were not easy to contact. Even the community liaison for the Water/Sewer project had a hard time tracking them down. The approach we have taken is one that several well-known preservation groups advised and approve of.
As for the necessity of the demo order as it relates to the public safety, we stand by the facts as presented by the DOB’s own engineers, which were stated in this post. The buildings are not in rough shape, and are not “truly dangerous.” The rear of No. 11 needs shoring and bracing, and that’s it. It goes without saying that the buildings are not more important than human life, but that does not decribe the situation on Old Fulton Street.