University House

[TonyO]

9th & 10th Street LLC is proposing to build a new building where a old school building stands now.
http://singerfinancialcorp.com/University/images/revised_rendering_chop.jpg

The current building is used as a community center.

http://stopthedorm.org/images/PS64Front.jpg

Here is the location from aerial view:

http://singerfinancialcorp.com/University/images/photos/aerial.jpg

Here is the project's homepage:

http://singerfinancialcorp.com/University/index.html

Local NIMBY's are trying to block it, of course. The building is out of place in the East Village.

http://stopthedorm.org/

[krulltime]

I really like it. The mix of details for the way the windows are located is always a plus for me.

I walked beside the old building and I always though it was abandon for a while. I though it was going to be converted in residential since it had that temporary wall. But I guess they did that to keep peolple out while they decide what to do then. It is not a bad looking building.

[Derek2k3]

It's pretty much cancelled already. Read recent editions of The Villager for more info.

[TonyO]

Opponents were out in force just this past weekend having people send postcards to the mayor objecting to University House. It looks like the current owners want to restore the old building now.

‘Restoration’ of CHARAS building called a facade

By Lincoln Anderson




Villager file photo by Akiko Miyazaki


The former P.S. 64 on E. Ninth St. was home to the CHARAS/El Bohio arts and community center until a few years ago. The owner has filed extensive plans to remove all cast-stone detailing around the windows on all 12 sides of the classic, “H”-shaped, century-old school building.

As the nonprofit group that had been exploring building a 23-story dormitory on E. Ninth St. announced it is pulling out of the project, opponents of the plan recently uncovered a potential new threat: a permit issued for “repairs and restoration” of the facade of the old school building on the site.


Dorm opponents fear the facade work is an effort to block landmarking of the former P.S. 64 — most recently home to charas/El Bohio — so the landlord can demolish it and build the tower. On the other hand, landmarking the existing building is, in part, a strategy to stop the dorm.


Filed by SLCE Architects for 605 E. Ninth St., owned by Gregg Singer, the plans call for removal of almost all the exterior ornamentation — mainly around windows — above the first floor of the five-story, turn-of-the-century building. The Department of Buildings approved the plans on May 5. The applicant began filing the plans in March 2003, meaning the current permit is a renewal, according to D.O.B.


Referring to “work…to be demolished” the plans state the intention to: “Remove existing cast-stone veneer, pediments, keystones and cornices from facade, patch and prep subsurface to receive brick veneer;” and “Remove existing copper fascia/coping edge [along cornice line] and replace with aluminum coping.”


The permit states the cost of the facade demolition as $600,000, which Ilyse Fink, Buildings director of communications, said sounds about right for the amount of work.


Jennifer Givner, a Buildings spokesperson, said a sidewalk construction shed would have to be erected for the exterior work. The building doesn’t fall under Local Law 11, which requires that landlords of buildings over six stories keep their facades safe.


Michael Rosen, of Stop the Dorm/Save Our School, uncovered the plans through his contacts as a former developer. Stop the Dorm has sent thousands of petition signatures — collected over the last month from Tompkins Sq. Park to Avenue D — to Robert Tierney, Landmarks Preservation Commission chairperson, calling for the turn-of-the-century building to be landmarked. S.T.D. opposes the dorm and supports returning the old building to use as a community arts center.


“Clearly, demolition is being done under the guise of renovation,” said Rosen. “Absolutely nothing is being repaired here or restored. This is absolutely the destruction of a New York treasure.”


Rosen called the facade work an “aggressive” tactic that property owners have been known to use in New York City to block preservation attempts.


East Village is landmark deprived

He said the old P.S. 64 building, designed by noted public schools architect Charles B.J. Snyder during the “golden age” of school construction, is worthy of landmarking on its merits. (Snyder was renowned for his distinctive, “H”-shaped school buildings.) Plus, the East Village, which lacks a historic district, has been neglected by Landmarks, Rosen added.


“We’ve looked at [the former] Stuyvesant High School, which is also a Snyder building, and there’s no way that building outshines this building,” Rosen said. “Very, very few things in this neighborhood are landmarked. This neighborhood is very underrepresented in terms of landmarks.”


Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, said landlords will sometimes make last-minute exterior changes either to try to avoid being included in historic districts or, at least, not have to maintain historic facades. Berman noted that right before the Gansevoort Historic District was designated last year, some Meat Market property owners illegally removed metal canopies.


Singer, the building’s landlord, however, variously claimed to not really know what was going on and that the repairs were being done for “the tenant,” which he doesn’t yet have. He said he couldn’t explain the work in detail, but that his in-house contractor could, but that the contractor isn’t comfortable talking to the press. Meanwhile, Donald Gabbay, of Plaza Construction, listed as the permit applicant, declined comment when called by The Villager.


“That’s something that sounds like the condition of the building,” Singer offered, referring to the facade work permit. “It’s dangerous. Stuff could be falling down. It’s an old building.”


Added Singer, “If the city wanted to landmark it, they would’ve landmarked it a long time ago. They owned it all these years…. I didn’t buy a landmarked building.” (Singer bought the property at auction for $3.125 million five years ago.)


“People can’t afford to renovate the building now — how are they going to afford to renovate it if it’s landmarked?” he asked.


For now, Singer said he is keeping open both options of building “University House at Tompkins Square” — the 700-plus-room student dorm — and finding nonprofit tenants for the existing former public school building.


“Whatever comes first — the dorm or the tenant,” he said. Constructing the dorm depends on state Dormitory Authority bonds being issued through legislation in Albany, which both State Senator Martin Connor and Assemblymember Steve Sanders have said they oppose.


Not taking the bonds rebuff lightly, Singer said he has a local operative, whom he didn’t name, who will “expose” Sanders and Connor.


“We’ll go public — and good luck to them at election time,” Singer warned.


As for tenants, Singer says he’s been unable to find any in five years and that the community ought to help find him one. Yet, Stop the Dorm members contend a dance/spiritual group offered Singer $20 million to buy the building and that, more recently, a dance group offered $40 million. Singer denied knowledge of the offers and reiterated he didn’t buy the building to sell it, but to lease it.


Asked if he would consider scaling back the dorm’s size, Singer said he did that six months ago, reducing it from 27 to 23 stories, which he said is the ideal height for the project to work and can’t be lower.


As usual, Singer blasted and belittled his opponents, calling Councilmember Margarita Lopez “a fraud,” the information on Stop the Dorm’s Web site “made up,” CHARAS, the arts organization he evicted from 605 E. Ninth St. over two years ago, “just a name — there is no such thing,” and Susan Howard, of Save CHARAS “a joke.”


Asked if he was still working with the nonprofit group National Development Council on developing the dorm, Singer didn’t say that their relationship was ended.


“N.D.C. want the community to meet with them — and if the community doesn’t want to meet with them, they don’t know what to do,” Singer stated.


N.D.C.: We’re outta here

However, speaking May 25, Daniel Marsh, of N.D.C., said they are no longer working with Singer on the dorm and have given up trying to reach out to the community to devise an alternative project for the site. Marsh said the community clearly didn’t want to hear from them — and that East Villagers’ angry opposition left N.D.C. reeling. In short, they’ve thrown in the towel.


“We never had made a decision to move ahead with the project,” Marsh said. “And when things got out of hand we decided not to proceed. There were so many discussions and fabrications on Web sites that were not true…. We can only stand so much. We entered our process with good intentions and before we even had a chance to talk to anyone we were maligned. Our involvement was not going to be received very well, in our mind.”


Asked when N.D.C. decided to pull out, Marsh said, it was three weeks ago, “about the time the community was making fun of our chairman [Samuel Beard] and maligning him.”


He said, N.D.C. will move on to other projects they’re working on, like building a new magnet school in Hartford.


Councilmember Lopez noted she had had a meeting scheduled last Monday with Marsh, but he cancelled.


Eric Lugo, Lopez’s chief of staff, who spoke with N.D.C. about the cancellation, said he understood they had backed out of the project.


“They got hit so hard on the dormitory thing that they don’t want to do anything,” he said.


But while N.D.C. may be gone, Singer’s still around.


“One more time I am in disbelief at the attempt to destroy this historical building,” said Lopez, of the facade-demolition plans. “First he buys this building, even though it was for community use. Now he tries to destroy the value of the building.”


Lopez conveyed to Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster that she feels it’s illegal for Singer to get a permit to demolish the facade when the building is being considered for landmark status.


“This is outrageous — the Buildings Department is not seeing clearly what this is about,” Lopez told The Villager.


However, D.O.B. spokespersons said if the building isn’t landmarked or calendared for a hearing before the Landmarks Preservation Commission they can’t stop the permit being issued or the work being done.


Asked where the request for designating 605 E. Ninth St. a city landmark stood, Diane Jackier, Landmarks’ spokesperson, said, “We received a request for evaluation and this is under review.” Asked if there were instances when an emergency stop-work order could be put on a potential landmark, Jackier said she was only giving the one comment.


Stop the Dorm has been holding meetings, closed to the press, at Two Boots Video/Den of Cin on Avenue A to come up with a plan for reusing the existing P.S. 64 building.


At its full board meeting on May 24, Community Board 3 passed the following resolution regarding the “CHARAS site/University House development”: “1) To strongly support the designation of the Beaux-Arts building at 605 E. Ninth St. a landmark; 2) to, once again, condemn the underhanded disposition of the building [by the city] to Gregg Singer, which has endangered its use as a community facility, and 3) to observe that the ramp constructed at the building is a paradigm of handicap construction.”

[krulltime]

^ I gess I agree it is a nice building to be destroy. I like it.

But the rendering fo the new building should be built somewhere else I hope. :wink:

[Gulcrapek]

Sorry, but there are much, much better examples of that style of architecture, mainly schools, around the city. I don't see why it deserves to remain.

[Stern]

I agree with you Gul. Besides the new building is much nicer. I think they could find a middle ground however if the developer includes a community facility.

[Lauren Loves NY]

OK, from all that I've read, I pretty much understand what a NIMBY is and what their mission is, but what does the acronym stand for?

As for the proposed building, I really like it. P.S. 64 doesn't seem remarkable enough keep. I say make better use of the land.

[Gulcrapek]

Not In My Backyard.

[Lauren Loves NY]

Not In My Backyard.

Ah. Thank you!

[TonyO]

http://www.thevillager.com/villager_82/cover.gif
A view from 10th St. across Avenue B of the proposed 222-room dorm. The 10th St. side of the existing former school building would be demolished for the project.

Son of towering dorm:19 stories at CHARAS site

By Lincoln Anderson


In an apparent effort to curry favor with those who want the old P.S. 64 school building landmarked, developer Gregg Singer commissioned an architectural firm known for historical renovations to do a new design that preserves at least part of the turn-of-the-century building.


Like Singer’s initial plan for a 23-story dormitory tower — first reported by The Villager in April — the new design, as before, called University House at Tompkins Sq., also includes a tall tower. Filed last month, the new plans call for a 19-story tower set on the site’s 10th St. side, where that portion of the old “H”-style school building would be demolished. The old school building’s Ninth St. facade would be preserved and incorporated into the dormitory.


The new tower would be equal in height to the 16-story Christodora House condo apartment building just to the west. In September, Singer told The Villager that the redesign would be set back more toward 10th St. in order to block less of the views of Christodora tenants.


The previous 23-story design, by S.L.C.E., would have kept none of the old P.S. 64, most recently home to the former CHARAS/El Bohio community and cultural center. That design was roundly condemned by community members and local politicians as too tall and inappropriate for the site.


Richard Blinder, a principal in the firm of Beyer Blinder Belle Architects and Planners, said Singer contacted them about six months ago.


“He called saying he had to deal with a potential landmarks issue,” said Blinder, who is responsible for the redesign. “But at this point,” Blinder added, “this is not a landmarked building, we don’t think it’s going to be a landmark and we’re doing everything to restore the Ninth St. facade.”


The plan calls for 222 dormitory units, as well as facilities to support the students, including a laundry room, recreation room, meeting rooms and study rooms, plus a 45-car underground garage. Blinder said he couldn’t say how many students would be housed in the dorm rooms, as the number of beds has not yet been set. There would be three elevators.


“We all think it’s a good proposal,” said Blinder. “We responded to some of the concerns that we’ve heard about. We know there’s community opposition. We’ve responded to that part of it we think is possible to respond to.”


However, Blinder added, just keeping the existing building without adding the new tower wouldn’t work because it wouldn’t contain enough dorm rooms. He also said the old building couldn’t physically support the tower.


Blinder compared the design to what was done when the Helmsley hotel was added above the landmarked Villard Houses at 50th St. and Madison Ave. He said the old P.S. 64’s Ninth St. facade “will be kept to look very much as it does today” — though adding that “that terrible, horrible, winding [handicapped-disabled] ramp,” would be removed. A small handicapped lift would be added instead. Otherwise, the entry stairs and plaza on the Ninth St. side would be kept.


Blinder said they presented the plan to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, though L.P.C. approval isn’t required.


“They thought it was thoughtfully done,” he said. He added that the design of the top of the tower is modern yet includes a mansard roof and that the tower is in three column-like sections to mirror the old school’s design.


The building will make use of the community facilities zoning allowance, which is exploited by nonprofit developers to add bulk. As a result, the building would be “substantially more than what you could build as a residential building,” he said.


He said he feels the new building would improve the 10th St. side of the property by opening it up with windows to student spaces and study rooms. The current school building with its wall on 10th St. “turns its back on the community,” Blinder feels.


Blinder said the plan is for there to be about 45 dorm rooms packed into the sides and front of the “C” left when the back of the “H” building is demolished. These rooms would have 15-ft.-tall ceilings, while the rest of the dorm rooms would have lower ceilings.


Based in the Village on University Pl., Beyer Blinder Belle restored Grand Central Terminal and Ellis Island. The firm’s latest project is to restore the U.S. Capitol. Their earliest work was as consultants to Community Board 2, for which they did studies of the waterfront and far West Village and during which they met legendary activists like Jane Jacobs, Tony Dapolito and Ruth Wittenberg.


“We have longstanding connections to the Village,” Blinder said. “We consider Jane Jacobs to be one of our mentors.”


Asked if the firm was worried about backlash for getting involved with the contentious project — and told that one prominent public relations firm previously dropped Singer as a client feeling the issue was too hot to handle — Blinder said of the developer, “I don’t know what he was like when he started the process — but I think he’s tempered where he was.”


As he did in April, Singer let someone else do most of the initial explanation of the new project. Back then it was Daniel Marsh, president of National Development Council — a nonprofit developer Singer hoped to have build and run the dorm with a long-term lease. N.D.C. ultimately backed out in the face of community pressure.


However, Singer did answer a few questions from The Villager via his wireless BlackBerry. Asked how he would finance the project, Singer said he would try again for New York State Dormitory Authority bonds — even though both Assemblymember Steve Sanders and State Senator Martin Connor previously said they would not support the required bonding legislation.


“The best financing for the schools would be bonds issued by the N.Y.S. Dormitory Authority,” Singer said. “They understand the severe shortage of dorms in N.Y.C. and are interested in helping students in having affordable housing.”


Asked about the project’s cost, Singer replied, “No price.”


Asked if a nonprofit organization would be operating the building, Singer said: “It would not be appropriate to discuss the tenancy or operation.”


However, a new 13-story building being constructed at 81 E. Third St. has recently called attention to the requirement for developers to have a lease in place when they submit plans calling for community facility space. Plans submitted for that building called for it to be half dormitory, yet on closer inspection, the Department of Buildings found there was no lease in place. The developer was given a month extension to respond — yet the 13 stories of steel were put up in a flash in just a month.


Yet, Singer contends his case is different and that he doesn’t need to have a lease in place.


“That’s typical of residential zoning whereby an owner wants to increase his amount of square feet by utilizing a community facility use,” he said. “That’s not our situation.”


It was no conclusive by press time whether Singer is right or wrong on this point.


In addition, Singer said of the dorm project: “The community board approved this use a long time ago. In recent years the community board has not been interested in discussing this or any project at this location.”


Speaking last week, Jennifer Givner, a Buildings spokesperson, said the new design plans were submitted to a planning examiner on Oct. 26. As for how the project benefits from the community facilities allowance and whether a tenant must be in place to get this allowance, Givner said, “I think we’ll have to look at this when we actually review the plans. I don’t want to speculate. Basically, it’s a 19-story building. It’s likely to be a tedious process, a lengthy review,” she added.


As The Villager was going to press Monday (a day earlier due to a printer’s date for Thanksgiving) Givner was not available for follow-up questions on whether a tenant must be in place for the dorm to qualify for the community facilities allowance or to allow it to be built in the first place.


John Beckman, a New York University spokesperson, said the school isn’t interested in the dorm.


“We are not involved in the project,” Beckman said. “We have said ‘no’ every time the developer has approached us. He has not approached us recently. We are unaware of any new plans.”


Those who opposed the previous incarnation of the student dormitory are equally against the latest design. Local elected officials, the East Village Community Coalition and Community Board 3 all support restoring the building and using it as a community, cultural and educational center.


“Here we go again,” said Councilmember Margarita Lopez, sounding exasperated. “I don’t know how to make clear that proposals like that do not fulfill the needs that this community has. It shows the only purpose that this man has is to make money. This community has a lot of needs — and that building doesn’t fulfill any of them. It’s sickening.”


Told the dorm has a garage, Lopez said it sounds more appropriate for a residential building.


“This is the first time I have seen a residence for students with a garage for 40 cars,” she noted. “Perhaps this is a Trojan horse — and he thinks that we don’t know Greek mythology.”


Michael Rosen, a founding member of Save Our School/Stop the Dorm and the East Village Community Coalition, was also disappointed by the latest proposal.


“We knew that they were talking to Beyer Blinder Belle,” Rosen said, adding that community pressure must have pushed Singer to pick the firm known for historically sensitive projects.


Yet, Rosen said, “Beyer Blinder Belle is willing to support destroying part of the sanctity of this building.” Rosen said E.V.C.C. met with the firm, but Beyer said he had no knowledge of such a meeting. “We discussed with them the importance of this building to the neighborhood,” Rosen said.


E.V.C.C. is leading the effort to landmark the old building, designed by legendary schools architect B.J. Snyder and the place where Yip Harburg, who wrote “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” was educated and where Elizabeth Irwin first tested her revolutionary theories on learning.


Rosen thinks Singer can make a fine profit without a tower, especially since Singer bought the 135,000-sq.-ft. building for a low price of $3.15 million. The property has 110,000 sq. ft. of air rights.


“Mr. Singer could make a lot on this property as an arts and cultural center,” Rosen said.


If Landmarks doesn’t designate the building, allowing part of it to be destroyed for Singer’s new plan, Rosen said, “It would really be an abandonment of their responsibilities and a betrayal of the citizens of New York.”


Rosen is unconvinced by Singer’s claim that he doesn’t need to have a tenant in place to get the community facilities allowance. David McWater, chairperson of Community Board 3, is similarly skeptical.


“I don’t claim to be the expert, but as I understand it, you’ve got to have a tenant in place,” said McWater. As for Singer’s saying that the board has supported a dorm on the site, McWater said, “I’m pretty sure when the newspaper story broke [about the 23-story dorm in The Villager in April], I’m sure we passed a resolution against it. I don’t recall Community Board 3 ever being in favor of a dorm there.”


Andrew Berman, director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation, disapproved of the new design, noting, “I would say that taking a four-or-five-story building and sticking a 19-story building on top is not my idea of preservation.”


Assemblymember Sanders, who represents the district in the State Legislature, said nothing has changed and that there’s no way he would support legislation for Dormitory Authority bonds for University House.


“In four words — not going to happen,” he said. “Evidently, Mr. Singer hasn’t learned a darn thing. If he had been paying attention, he would have learned by now that he can’t make these decisions without consulting with the community, local elected officials and other community groups.”


Sanders added he is certain State Senator Martin Connor would not approve a bonding bill in the State Senate, either.


“In the Thanksgiving vernacular,” Sanders said, “this turkey ain’t gonna fly.”

http://www.thevillager.com/villager_82/charas.gif

[billyblancoNYC]

These people piss me off like I can't even describe. It's so frustrating that these winners have any say. They don't want ANYTHING there. Or maybe a meth clinic or homeless shelter. Give me a break. It seems to be a more than fair compromise.

[NewYorkYankee]

F NIMBYS, the city should say "If you dont like it MOVE". I bet once they built it no one in the area would even care. :roll:

[Gulcrapek]

"Sanctity" of the building? Like the "sanctity" of marriage? Gimme a break.

I like the old design much better.

[TLOZ Link5]

The old design didn't appeal to me. Too lithic.

The question is, who is going to occupy this "dorm?" NYU, for one, has already stated that it's not interested.

[Stern]

The question is, who is going to occupy this "dorm?" NYU, for one, has already stated that it's not interested.

We're not talking about Podunk here. Even if it were built entirely as low-income housing it would justify the cost. Further there are many college's in NYC without dorms, NYU owns the village, but CUNY for example except for some at Hunter has none whatsoever.

[Schadenfrau]

Cooper Union has very few dorms but also very few students. I'm also skeptical that the East Village needs 700 new dorm rooms. The developers would be better off with a mixed income building.

[TonyO]

TheVillager

Editorial


E. 9th developer must show us the dorm tenants


A group of more than 100 East Villagers gathered on City Hall’s steps in Tuesday morning’s dreary weather to call on Mayor Michael Bloomberg to show some generous holiday spirit and return the former P.S. 64 building to the neighborhood as a community center for art, education, training and more.


We would guess that unlike his predecessor, Mayor Bloomberg would not have chosen to auction off the building — formerly home to CHARAS/El Bohio — to a private developer.


Yet, the building was auctioned in 1998 to Gregg Singer for $3.15 million. He bought it knowing it had a deed restriction for use as a so-called community facility, limiting his options. Were the city to take the building back, given the increase in local property values, Singer would likely sue for many millions more than his purchase price. He might also have a good case to fight landmarking.


Opponents of Singer’s plan to build a 19-story, 222-bed dorm on the site of the rear of the building, which would be demolished for the project, have been lobbying the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission to landmark the existing former public school. Yet, attempts to landmark the building when it was tenanted by CHARAS and owned by the city failed. It would be surprising if the city were to turn around and say it should be landmarked now. Still, in the past year the building’s forgotten rich history has been unearthed. Certain features of the B.J. Snyder-designed “H”-style school were original. Yip Harburg, the “Wizard of Oz” lyricist, went there. Famed educator Elizabeth Irwin tried her theories on learning there.


There are serious questions about whether Singer can proceed with the project without a tenant identified. New York University, conceivably Singer’s main client, says they’re not interested. According to the Buildings Department, Singer must prove an “affiliation with a school” and show “evidence of institutional control” of the building in order to build. In other words, constructing a mega-dorm on spec and putting ads in the real estate section for student rooms won’t cut it.


The dorm’s opponents may have lawyers from the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund challenge the dorm’s legality, arguing that Singer, in his purchase agreement, committed to executing a “viable plan” for the property. It doesn’t sound like Buildings would consider a “speculative dorm” operated like a pseudo youth hostel a viable plan.


However, Singer has made some compromises. He redesigned the project, saving the old building’s historic Ninth St. facade. But the community still wants its community center. Maybe Singer could compromise still more, making half the project a community center, the rest a dorm, albeit scaled down significantly. Perhaps the community could compromise a bit and might accept something like this. Perhaps not.


One thing we do know, like the famous movie line, “Show me the money,” Singer must “show us the tenants.”

[TonyO]

NY Sun

Residents, Developer Wrestle Over P.S. 64 Site

BY JULIA VITULLO-MARTIN - Special to the Sun
August 18, 2005

The slogan "Help keep New York filthy" is scrawled on the graffiti-filled wall running the length of the 135,000-square-foot Beaux Arts building at 605 E. 9th St. that was the subject of a contentious hearing held on Tuesday by the Board of Standards and Appeals. The building's owner is certainly doing his part to live up to the slogan, some concerned neighbors say. An elderly Irish man sitting on the stoop across the street cites broken windows, trash strewn the length of the front, and "rats, rats, rats inside." Opened in 1904 as a public school to anchor the teeming immigrant neighborhood around Tompkins Square Park, the once handsome P.S. 64 is now a mess - and deteriorating daily. It is "a closed, shuttered eyesore," according to testimony by state Assemblyman Steven Sanders, who represents the East Side of Manhattan.

A lawyer who represents the shareholders of the neighboring upscale Christodora House, Howard Zipser, says the developer is "trying to put the building in such a bad condition it has to be demolished."

Its future is a matter of angry debate in the East Village, with many - perhaps most - residents and elected officials opposed to the developer's plans to replace the school with a 19-story dormitory, holding 222 dorm units and a 45-car underground garage.

In 1998, developer Gregg Singer and his partners paid $3.1 million for P.S. 64 at a public auction conducted by the Giuliani administration. They agreed to maintain it as a "community facility." The chairman of Community Board 3, David McWater, recalls that residents of the East Village assumed the deed restriction would protect cultural and community groups that had been using the building. Instead, Mr. Singer immediately moved to evict them.

Under the zoning resolution, a community facility includes hospitals, churches, homeless shelters, libraries, museums, nursing homes, monasteries, or dorms. Mr. Singer and his partners, however, do not have a school or university that says it wants or needs the dorm. Though they've created a nonprofit group, University House, to run the dorm, they are essentially building on spec.

As allowed under community facilities zoning, created by the Wagner administration in 1961, Mr. Singer and his partners applied to the Department of Buildings for a work permit to construct a far larger building than normal. The extra rentable space amounts to a substantial and much sought-after subsidy. The result on the Lower East Side has been a smattering of out-of-scale buildings shooting up in the middle of low-rise blocks. A preservationist, Andrew Berman, who is executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, says New York University alone has built at least 11 outsized buildings downtown.

Fearing that the developer was about to build an "illegal, oversized structure" on the P.S. 64 site, the Department of Buildings denied the permit, saying that any dorm must be "controlled by an institution for the institution's benefit." (The Department of Buildings had already been badly embarrassed by a speculative dorm built a few blocks away on East 3rd Street.) Mr. Singer asked the Board of Standards and Appeals to order the buildings department to grant the permit, arguing that the DOB cannot deny a permit simply because it "suspects" a "possible future illegal use." Mr. McWater testified that Mr. Singer is "circumventing community plans by trying to avoid meeting the most minimum regulations." What's not to believe that in a year or two he won't petition the city to get rid of the restriction altogether? Mr. McWater asks. "He'll say, 'My dorm isn't successful. I need an economic hardship variance.' That's how this works."

Mr. Berman calls the building a "Trojan-horse dorm."

A lawyer for Mr. Singer, Jeffrey Glen, contended that "90% of what's going on is that the BSA commissioners are interested in the event that a building is built but can't be profitably used as a school dormitory. Our position is that while this is a perfectly legitimate inquiry, DOB doesn't have the right to withhold a permit based on whether or not the building is likely to be a success." DOB Deputy Counsel Felicia Miller testified that the agency defines a dorm "in terms of 'institutional nexus' to avoid the situation where we might erroneously permit oversized non-community facility residences." A building occupied by a group of theology students, she added, would not qualify as a monastery.

A zoning lawyer and neutral observer, Howard Goldman, said the buildings department is correct here. "The city charter gives the Buildings Department the responsibility for interpreting the zoning resolution, which only has the bare bones of what's required. Buildings puts flesh on the bones through their specific requirements for applications that come before them," Mr. Goldman said. There is no other way to do it, he added. Otherwise the zoning resolution would be 10 times longer, which nobody wants. "Buildings is saying to the developer: Show us who's going to occupy this site. Show us the terms of the arrangement. Show us this is not a speculative benefit but it's really for the benefit of a specific user."

At the standing room-only hearing, held at 40 Rector St., on Tuesday, every single public official or neighborhood resident who spoke opposed the dorm. "Opposition is coming from virtually every quarter," said Mr. Berman. "It's hard to find anyone in the neighborhood who supports it."

An activist and founding member of the East Village Community Coalition, Roland Legiardi-Laura, argues that community facilities should "reflect the real needs of the neighborhood. An ambiguous college dormitory for an as yet undetermined palette of university students would not create anything of real value to the East Village, which is host already to thousands of college students. This is a very strange concept, to have a building rented out to a mishmash of schools. Students won't feel any loyalty or connection to the community, and are likely to be more of a disruption rather than less." Community Board 3 does not have a single college or university within its borders.

The East Village faces a difficult future, as it tries to balance the needs and desires of its residents with development pressures. It has retained its low rise character in part because it is poorly served by public transportation, parks, and schools, even as it is overburdened by large public housing projects on the edges. A worried City Planning Commission is studying the neighborhood's overall zoning. But so long as community facilities zoning trumps all other rules, neighborhood character cannot be protected.

[londonlawyer]

The thought of tearing down that beautiful old building makes me sick. With all of the dilapidated white brick buildings and "brownstones" that have been completely stripped of their ornamentation as potential tear downs, it is absurd that anyone would think of razing a great old structure like that.

[Fabrizio]

The East Village: second greatest neighborhood in N. America:

http://www.pps.org/info/newsletter/november2004/november2004_neighborhoods

Why chip away at it? That building as seen in the first rendering on the first page of this thread is just awful. Why do so many of you seem to ignore what´s going on at street level? It´s a tower in a park with metal fence around it. Charming. Haven´t we seen before how this formula craps up a street ? Thanks to the NIMBY´s the developer at least went back to the drawing board.

[ASchwarz]

The thought of tearing down that beautiful old building makes me sick. With all of the dilapidated white brick buildings and "brownstones" that have been completely stripped of their ornamentation as potential tear downs, it is absurd that anyone would think of razing a great old structure like that.

The building is awful. It's a deteriorated old school. Singer has no plans to demolish the school; he plans to renovate the school building and add a new building in the courtyard.

The "community" doesn't care about the school nor the development; they hate the developer because he purchased a site that was previously used by Charas, a politically powerful local organization.

Giuliani sold the site to Singer (the developer) and activists declared war against him and the building. They have prevented him from leasing the site to nonprofits by making threats, warning others not to negotiate, etc. Singer is just trying to make a reasonable return.

There are already a bazillion dorms in the East Village. The planned building is no bigger than the neighboring Christadora House. There is nothing "out of character" with the dorm proposal, neither in scale nor in use. The issue is with the neighborhood activists and Singer.

[pianoman11686]

In Defiance of Landmark Commission, Developer To Alter Part of Building

BY DAVID LOMBINO - Staff Reporter of the Sun

June 21, 2006

http://www.nysun.com/article/34799

Following through on a threat, a developer says he'll begin scraping the architecturally significant elements off the facade of his building on East 9th Street as early as tomorrow - defying a decision yesterday by the Landmark Preservation Commission to designate the vacant school as a historical landmark.

The developer, Gregg Singer, claims the landmark designation is not based on the building's merit, but is part of a campaign by the Bloomberg administration to block development on the site as political payback for a supporter.

Mr. Singer said Mr. Bloomberg "is trying to use landmarks to stop development, and that is illegal. He is using Soviet-style tactics and doing what he wants with no regard for the law."

Mr. Singer was consulting with his team of lawyers yesterday and did not attend the commission's hearing. The designation requires final approval by the City Council, but Speaker Christine Quinn already gave her support to the landmarking.

In 1998, Gregg Singer and a group of unnamed investors purchased the former home of P.S. 64 for $3.15 million from the city. If yesterday's designation holds up in court, Mr. Singer said it would cost him $36 million - the value of the building's 120,000 square feet of air rights.

Last month, Mr. Singer sued the city for $100 million, claiming it was interfering in the development of his property. The suit claims that Mr. Bloomberg "manipulated City agencies like marionettes to concoct ways to prevent" Mr. Singer and his investors from converting the property into a dormitory.

The suit says that Mr. Bloomberg "cut a dirty political deal" with a former City Council member, Margarita Lopez, to block the proposed development in exchange for her endorsement in the last mayoral election. Ms. Lopez was a strong opponent of Mr. Singer's in his previous attempt to prepare the building for development. Mr. Singer's lawyer is a former deputy mayor for the Giuliani administration, Randy Mastro.

A lawyer with the city's law department, Gabriel Taussig, said the allegations are "absolutely without any merit."

"We intend to vigorously defend the city's position in the litigation," Mr. Taussig said yesterday.

Yesterday, landmarks commissioners cited a variety of reasons for the designation, including the French Renaissance revival-style architecture and the famous New Yorkers that attended the school, including a songwriter, Yip Harburg, and a director, Joseph Mankiewicz. Several commissioners said the building was a centerpiece of a grassroots political movement in the 1960s and 1970s that sought to revitalize neglected urban neighborhoods through community involvement.

Commissioner Roberta Gratz called the Giuliani administration's decision to auction the building "sheer folly."

"P.S. 64 is not only a New York City landmark," Ms. Gratz said. "It is a national landmark in the post-World War II struggle to save American cities."

"Designating P.S. 64 won't by any stretch of the imagination stop development on the Lower East Side; it will, however, stop inappropriate development and make the appropriate and beneficial possible," Ms. Gratz said.

The commission's landmarks designations have never been overturned by courts. A spokeswoman for landmarks, Elisabeth de Bourbon, noted that a number of city-owned buildings across the city have been auctioned off to private owners and subsequently landmarked.

She said that a preliminary search showed that P.S. 64 was not considered for designation as a landmark when it was auctioned off by the city in 1998.

Preservationists hailed yesterday's designation as significant for its consideration of the cultural history of the building, in addition to its architectural merits.

The director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, Andrew Berman, said: "In the '60s, things that related to immigrant history and the working class were generally shunned by the commission. These days, they are more willing to look at those things."

The building has sat vacant since 2001, when a court evicted a popular Latino community center called Charas/El Bohio, inciting large community protests.

For Mr. Singer to use the lucrative air rights over the vacant school, the building must be available for community facility use, according to the deed. After a series of earlier designs, Mr. Singer has most recently proposed developing a 19-story dorm in the back of the building, preserving most of the building's historic facade. Mr. Singer said he has tried winning the community's and the city's support through other incentives - including a share of profits - to no avail.

A local filmmaker who attended yesterday's hearing, Roland Legiardi-Laura, said a dorm would destroy the neighborhood. He said Mr. Singer had a right to build, but that he should do so "ethically" and "with sensitivity to the community."

"We hope he will reach a logical epiphany," Mr. Legiardi-Laura said. "What will you gain right now by stripping the building?"

Mr. Singer said that without the architectural details, a judge would be more likely to reverse the commission's decision.

"The law says you can not landmark to stop development," Mr. Singer said. "A judge will look at the building and say there is nothing redeemable about the building."

City Council Member Rosie Mendez, who succeeded Ms. Lopez in January, said she would not be concerned if Mr. Singer moves ahead with selective demolition of the building's facade. She considers it a victory because the "building has been saved."

Ms. Mendez said she would work toward opening up the facility for community use. She acknowledged that could mean acquiring the building from Mr. Singer, who has said it would cost $86 million to do so.

"Maybe we will get an angel," Ms. Mendez said.

© 2006 The New York Sun, One SL, LLC.

[pianoman11686]

More from http://cityrealty.com/new_developments

Former PS 64 building on Lower East Side designated a landmark 21-JUN-06

The Landmarks Preservation Commission yesterday designated as an individual landmark the former P.S. 64 building at 605-15 East 9th Street in the East Village.

Commission chairman Robert B. Tierney said that "P.S. 64 is a dignified, ornate structure that made an eloquent statement about the importance of education." "In a neighborhood crowded with tenements," he continued, "this school was to become the centerpiece of the community, a role it continued to play throughout its history."

The French Renaissance Revival-style building was acquired at a city auction in 1998 for $3.15 million by Gregg Singer of the Singer Financial Corporation who wants to erect a 19-story “dormitory” on the site and recently received a building permit to remove façade decorations from the existing five-story, red-brick building.

The developer had agreed to continue not working on façade changes until yesterday when the commission was scheduled to issue its decision on the proposed landmark designation.

The impressive, five-story, red-brick and white terracotta, mid-block building extends through the block to 10th Street. On Ninth Street, it is immediately east of Christadora House, the tallest building fronting on Tompkins Square Park.

When Mr. Singer acquired the property it was occupied by the Charas/El Bohio community and cultural center. The center was evicted and Mr. Singer had plans developed by Beyer Blinder Belle for a handsome, 27-story, residential structure on part of the site. After protests about the height of the tower, it was redesigned and lowered to 19 stories and further revisions have been made.

Many of the city’s public schools erected in the early 20th Century were imposing and very attractive structures in historical revival architectural styles, often with large courtyards and very high ceilings and large windows. Such schools were often the only significant local landmarks other than some churches in many of the city’s poorer neighborhoods.

P.S. 64 was erected under the supervision of C. B. J. Snyder, the city’s Superintendent of School Buildings, who created, according to the commission, "some 170 distinguished structures."

An article by David Lombino in today’s edition of The New York Sun reported that “Following through on a threat, a developer says he’ll begin scraping the architecturally significant elements off the façade of his building on East 9th Street as early as tomorrow.”

Mr. Singer did not attend yesterday’s meeting of the commission. Last month, he sued the city for $100 million, charging that the Bloomberg Administration was sabotaging his efforts to find users for his proposed redevelopment on the site.

The commission’s designation of the building as a landmark must be approved by the City Council and Mr. Singer maintains that he has a valid permit from the Department of Buildings to remove façade elements. Mr. Lombino’s article quoted Mr. Singer as saying “A judge will look at the building and say there is nothing redeemable about the building.”

The commission's designation of the building was hailed by the East Village Community Coalition, which had been campaigning to stop Mr. Singer from erecting a 19-story "dormitory" on the 10th Street side of the property. Its website today maintained that "Members of the community are reaching out to him as a neighbor to discuss how we can work together to plan the future of this landmarked local treasure."

An article by Sarah Ferguson in the June 13th edition of The Village Voice noted that the building "was the first public school to offer free, open-air theater to city residents, who in 1911 strained to hear Sydney Greenstreet [one of the stars of "The Maltese Falcon" movie] recite 'Gunga Din' over the din of trolley cars rumbling down 10th Street."

http://www.cityrealty.com/graphics/uploads/1150915516_charas6.gif

[pianoman11686]

From http://cityrealty.com/new_developments:

Developer starts to dismantle trim at landmark PS 64 building 25-JUL-06

An article by Sarah Ferguson on the Power Plays blog of The Village Voice reported today that developer Gregg Singer has commenced dismantling of the architectural trim on the former P.S. 64 building at 605 East 9th Street that was declared an official city landmark last month.

Mr. Singer obtained an alteration permit three years ago from the city’s Department of Buildings and the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission had gotten the Buildings Department is issue a stop work order on the project for several weeks while it was considering its designation as a landmark. The alteration permit expires in October.

Mr. Singer bought the building in 1998 when the former school building was being used as the Charas/El Bohio community center and he originally sought to build a 26-story dormitory on part of the property under the site’s community facilities zoning. He subsequently reduced the plan to 19 stories, but has not yet found an educational institution willing to commit to the project.

The attractive red-brick building is located at 6xxx East 9th Street, just to the east of Christadora House that fronts on Tompkins Square Park. The school property extends through to 10th Street.

The Voice article today quoted Mr. Singer as declaring “It’s a shame. The city forced me to do it,” adding that the developer maintains he has “’no choice’ but to strip the façade so he can go to court and try to overturn last month’s landmarks designation.”

The Voice article also quoted the developer as stating that “Either we make it a homeless and drug treatment center with government funding to do it long-term, or they let me add a few floors and turn it into condos, and I’ll give the community some pace at below-market rent.”

http://www.cityrealty.com/graphics/uploads/1153861714_charas5.gif

[lofter1]

I hope they throw this MF Singer in jail.

[pianoman11686]

Ruling Favors Developer’s Plan for Vacant East Village School

By CHARLES V. BAGLI
Published: June 1, 2007

After nine years of battling community activists and the city, a developer has won a round in his effort to redevelop a vacant, crumbling school building on the Lower East Side.

A state appellate court in Manhattan ruled on Tuesday that the Bloomberg administration had improperly refused to issue a building permit that would have allowed the developer, Gregg L. Singer, to build a 19-story dormitory on the site of Public School 64, which sits on East Ninth Street, near Tompkins Square Park.

The project, which ignited a bitter fight against gentrification, would preserve the five-story building’s French Renaissance facade.

“The building has been vacant for a long time, and it’s an eyesore,” Mr. Singer said yesterday. “The idea isn’t for us to stay in court forever. Let’s keep politics out of it and stay focused on what’s good for the city.”

But the city does not intend to issue a permit anytime soon. John Gallagher, a spokesman for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, said that the administration would appeal the ruling, in which two of the five judges dissented, and that there were two other outstanding lawsuits over P.S. 64.

Mr. Singer bought the building for $3.15 million in 1998 at a city auction amid protests by activists and elected officials. He has been blocked at every turn from renovating it for elderly tenants, nonprofit organizations or college students, and the upper floors now serve as a roomy pigeon coop.

After the school closed in 1977, it became an unofficial but widely used community center for theater groups, artists and political activists. Mr. Singer evicted the tenants, who viewed him as an interloper with a secret plan to build luxury housing. The opposition eventually swelled to include the pro-development Bloomberg administration and even the owner of the penthouse next door at the Christadora House, which had been at the center of its own gentrification battle in the 1980s.

In 2004, the city refused to issue a building permit for Mr. Singer’s dormitory proposal, and in 2006 it designated the school a landmark, further restricting his ability to renovate or demolish it. He claimed that he had been double-crossed by some city officials who had indicated support.

Mr. Singer sued, several times. In one case, he sought $100 million in damages, claiming that Mayor Bloomberg had “cut a dirty political deal with the local city councilwoman at the time, Margarita López: In exchange for her support of his re-election bid, he would see to it that his administration blocked the owner’s development plans.”

This week the appellate court ruled in Mr. Singer’s favor on the building permit.

What brought the case to this point was the city’s fear that should Mr. Singer’s dormitory plan be allowed, he might later use the property for market-rate housing. This led the Bloomberg administration to impose what Mr. Singer and other real estate executives called an “unprecedented” requirement: He had to provide a leasing agreement with a specific school or schools. The city rejected Mr. Singer’s application when he failed to produce such a lease.

The court said that the city could not prohibit the dormitory project based on a possible future illegal use, especially since it could easily deny or revoke a certificate of occupancy.

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

[ablarc]

The project, which ignited a bitter fight against gentrification, would preserve the five-story building’s French Renaissance facade.
So is it still there or is it partially or fully dismantled?

Photos?

[brianac]

Developer Blocked in Bid To Build Unaffiliated Dorm

By BENJAMIN SARLIN (http://www2.nysun.com/authors/Benjamin+Sarlin)
Special to the Sun
March 26, 2008

The city can legally deny developer Gregg Singer a permit to build a student dormitory in the East Village on the basis that he does not have an educational institution lined up to use the facility, the New York State Court of Appeals has ruled.

In the ruling yesterday, the court wrote that if the dormitory were completed and no school leased its space, the city would be unnecessarily forced to either allow Mr. Singer to use it for other purposes or require it to be torn down or left vacant. The 7–0 decision overturned a ruling by a lower appellate court.

The long-standing dispute involves the former home of P.S. 64, on East 9th Street between avenues B and C, which Mr. Singer purchased from the city in 1998 for $3.1 million.

Community groups protested the developer's plans to build a 19-story student dorm on the site, saying it was an attempt to illegally build luxury housing. In 2004, the city's Department of Buildings rejected Mr. Singer's application to build the dormitory, saying the building needed to be affiliated with a specific academic institution beforehand. A state court upheld the city's decision in 2006, but last year an appellate court sided with Mr. Singer.

Yesterday's decision, by the state's highest court, reversed the 2007 ruling.

In 2006, the city declared the building a landmark based on its distinctive early-20th-century architecture. In response, Mr. Singer destroyed parts of the building's façade, which he said would bolster his case to reverse the decision by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Mr. Singer is suing the city for $100 million, saying Mayor Bloomberg blocked the site's development as part of a scheme to gain a political endorsement in the 2005 mayoral election.

The developer did not return a request for comment last night.

Copyright 2008 The New York Sun.

[brianac]

He said the old P.S. 64 building, designed by noted public schools architect Charles B.J. Snyder during the “golden age” of school construction, is worthy of landmarking on its merits. (Snyder was renowned for his distinctive, “H”-shaped school buildings.) Plus, the East Village, which lacks a historic district, has been neglected by Landmarks, Rosen added.

About New York

A Builder of Dreams, in Brick and Mortar

By JIM DWYER (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/d/jim_dwyer/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
Published: October 17, 2008

The question was put to a class from a Brooklyn high school: Had they ever given a moment’s thought to their school building?

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/10/18/nyregion/18about01-190.jpgMunicipal Archives, City of New York
Charles B. J. Snyder designed hundreds of New York schools from 1891 until 1922. More Photos » (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/10/17/nyregion/20081018ABOUT_index.html)

Multimedia

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/10/17/nyregion/20081018ABOUT-B.JPGSlide Show (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/10/17/nyregion/20081018ABOUT_index.html)Transforming Public Schools (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/10/17/nyregion/20081018ABOUT_index.html)

The quick answers were no, no, no. Then:

“Huge windows,” said Justin Statia.

“I wondered why the hallways are so thin,” said Gaston Ovando.

“It’s old,” said Hanifah Presley. “My granduncle went here.”

The students attend the Academy for Young Writers, a small program housed in Junior High School 50 on South Third Street in Williamsburg.

The building opened in 1915, so for these students — and for tens of thousands of others at schools across the city — a hand from the distant past shapes their daily pilgrimages.

At the turn of the 20th century, one man, Charles B. J. Snyder, designed and supervised the construction of 400 public schools in New York. The one on South Third Street is among 270 Snyder buildings still in use, a roster that includes such majestic presences as Curtis High School in Staten Island, Erasmus Hall in Brooklyn, Morris High School in the Bronx and the old DeWitt Clinton High School, now occupied by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/j/john_jay_college_of_criminal_justice/index.html?inline=nyt-org), in Manhattan.

Though Snyder’s vision has been part of the lives of tens of millions of schoolchildren, few people know of him or of his role in transforming New York. He died in 1945 and was buried in an unmarked grave in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, his death unnoted in The New York Times.
It took a newcomer to the city to discover a forgotten genius.

Three years ago, Jean Arrington, her children grown, gave up a tenured position at a college in Raleigh, N.C., and moved to New York. She spent the summer of 2005 looking for a job in the public schools.

“I was amazed by these school buildings,” Ms. Arrington said. “We didn’t have anything like this where I grew up, in Montgomery, Ala.”
In libraries, she found little on the buildings, almost nothing on the architect. At the Municipal Archives, she read annual reports filed by Snyder during the 31 years he served as superintendent of school buildings. She visited every Snyder building. And she pieced together a narrative of epic accomplishment that began in 1891 with the firing of a school architect who had been charged with corruption. To replace him, the Board of Education turned to Snyder, a slight man of 5-foot-6 or 5-foot-7, a descendant of Dutch settlers in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. He was 31 years old.

For the next three decades, until his retirement in 1922, Snyder presided over the greatest expansion of schools in the nation’s history. It was not uncommon for him to open more schools in a single year than existed in most other American cities. His buildings were big enough to hold the waves of immigrants flooding into the city, to have indoor play areas for the kids and auditoriums for the community, and light and air, the values of an age made real in brick, mortar and steel.

“New York has one of those rare men who open windows for the soul of their time,” the journalist Jacob Riis (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/jacob_riis/index.html?inline=nyt-per) wrote of Snyder in his 1902 book “The Battle With the Slum.” “He found barracks, where he is leaving palaces to the people.”

Under Snyder, 60 percent of the building exteriors were made up of windows, double what had been the standard; many of these were 10 feet high. If only for sheer mass, his buildings dominated the neighborhoods, but they were also distinctive for their elegance, incorporating elements of the Beaux-Arts, Flemish Renaissance, Italian palazzo and Collegiate Gothic styles, Ms. Arrington notes.

“His story possessed me,” said Ms. Arrington, who is now at work — without a publisher or a contract — on a book about Snyder’s life and times.

“Snyder insisted that all N.Y.C. public schools be built of fireproof materials, and he developed an interlocking type of stairwells, such that the buildings could be emptied within three minutes,” she writes in the book. “His schools included new features reformers were pushing for, such as auditoriums with projection rooms and organs, space for public art, laboratories, vocational training facilities, gymnasiums, swimming pools and roof playgrounds. The buildings were designed also to accommodate new after-school activities like recreation classes and evening lectures.”

In May 1922, Snyder retired. He had not had a vacation since 1904. “I am tired and completely worn out,” he said, according to an article in The Times.

He slipped from the public eye. In 1945, Snyder, 85, and one of his sons were asphyxiated in an accident involving a kerosene stove at a house in Babylon, on Long Island. He was buried in a family plot in Woodlawn, but without a stone. His great-granddaughter Cindy LaValle, 60, said the family was apparently short of money at the time. Over the years, she said, family lore about her great-grandfather has been limited to artifacts, like his silver or a clock. “I never heard what a great man he was,” she said.

Through an article by Christopher Gray in The Times, Ms. Arrington connected with Snyder’s descendants.

A few days ago, they arranged a bus to take them to Woodlawn Cemetery, to unveil a gravestone. Then they drove across the city, finding his legacy in every neighborhood.

E-mail: dwyer@nytimes.com


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/18/nyregion/18about.html?ref=nyregion

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