By Jess Schiewe 6/07/12 4:23pm

Making History

This hospital gives us the creeps, but apparently it's worth saving.

Give Us Your Tired, Your Weary Buildings: Ellis Island Named to Endangered Building List

Plants and animals aren’t the only things that are endangered—buildings are, too! Or so says the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

And although the number of endangered historic buildings is nowhere close to the whopping 2,000 endangered plant and animal species, endangered anything is never a good thing, which is why the Trust releases a list of the top 11 endangered historic buildings each year.

Since the annual list was started 25 years ago, only seven New York sites and buildings have been classified as endangered—thanks to the city’s Landmarks Law, in part—though that seventh was just added this year. Read More

By Matt Chaban 6/04/12 6:10pm

Creeping Ivy

6 Photos

Cap and Green

The Class Is Always Greener: Columbia’s Manhattanville Campus Earns Top Sustainabilty Grade

With the exception of a deadly construction accident in March, things have been fairly quiet on the western front of Harlem. Starting nearly a decade ago, Manhattanville became one of the most hotly contested corners of the city, as Columbia University first worked to have the neighborhood rezoned for a new 17-acre campus, approved in 2007, followed by the state leading an eminent domain case on the school’s behalf to repossess the land of two local business owners, which culminated in 2010. (Since then, the city’s focus has shifted south, to another university-led redevelopment.)

All the while, Columbia has gone about the work of creating the most environmentally progressive neighborhood in the entire five boroughs, all from whole cloth.

Last week, the U.S. Green Building Council awarded Columbia’s new campus with LEED ND Platinum, the highest rating in the council’s new-ish neighborhood development program. It is only the fifth project in the state to earn such recognition, and the first to achieve LEED ND Platinum. The designation means that the project has embraced the goals of accessibility, density, design and environmental efficiency, creating a model for future development.

“We like to think of it as a three-legged stool: environment, economy, equity,” Jason Hercules, director of the LEED ND program, told The Observer. “Manhattanville excelled in all three.” Read More

By Jess Schiewe 6/04/12 1:16pm

Under Development

The city hopes to build a 42,000-square-foot complex down the block from Harlem's Apollo Theater, but given their track record, this might be wishful thinking.

Harlem Is Skeptical Yet Another 125th Street Development Won’t Fail

Promises: they’re easy to make, but hard to keep. Just ask the residents and landowners of West Harlem.

For the last five years, a number of developments have been proposed along 125th Street, but most have fallen through. Take, for instance, Vornado Realty Trust’s ambitious plans for a 600,000-square-foot office building on the corner of Park Avenue that would have housed Major League Baseball’s new television network. That building never materialized, nor did a later development, planned on the same site, for a high-rise that included a Marriott hotel.

So what’s the beef? Why are so many projects along 125th Street (as well as nearby Lexington and Morningside avenues) habitually planned and then abandoned? Read More

By Jess Schiewe 6/01/12 12:57pm

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

union-square-whole-foods

Whole Foods—and Fatty Foods—Coming to Harlem

Over the course of the next few years, Harlem will undergo some major plastic surgery.

First up: a facelift.

Earlier this year, Columbia University began construction of their latest Manhattanville campus expansion, a 17-acre, $6.4 billion site in West Harlem which will serve as the future location of the Jerome L. Green Science Center.

“Five years ago we got some peculiar looks before bidding this project out,” executive director of environmental field compliance for Manhattanville development, Ramesh Raman, told DNAinfo. “Now, good contractors realize this is the wave of the future.”

Second in line: buttock implants. Read More

By Kim Velsey 7:14pm

Manhattan Transfers

11 Photos

Harlem Townhouse

Novelist Min Jin Lee Turns a New Page, Moves From MiMA to Harlem Townhouse

Novelist Min Jin Lee, the author of the oft-best-book-listed Free Food for Millionaires is embracing a change of scenery—moving from the ultra-modern Midtown MiMA tower to a Queen Anne style townhouse in Harlem.

Ms. Lee and her husband Christopher Duffy bought the 19th century townhouse at 133 West 122nd Street  for $2.2 million from heiress and up-and-coming record exec Jaylaan Ahmad-Llewellyn, according to city records. Read More

By Kim Velsey 5/02/12 5:27pm

Crimes and Misdemeanors

The property in question. (Property Shark)

Elderly Harlem Woman Swindled Out of Multi-Million Dollar Property

It was a classic set-up: a trusting, elderly woman with a valuable property and a clever con to separate one from the other.

Brooklyn lawyer Ifeanyichukwu Eric Abakporo and Latanya Pierce have been arrested for allegedly scamming an elderly woman out of her multi-million-dollar property in Harlem, then convincing the bank to give them a $1.8 million mortgage loan on the home, according to Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.

Mr. Abakporo, 52, a Nigerian citizen and resident of Queens and Ms. Pierce, 43, of Brooklyn have been charged with wire fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and bank fraud conspiracy. Read More

By Eddie Small 4/26/12 3:50pm

Harlem Shuffle

Harlem still has plenty of work to do. (Getty)

Can Old Harlem Be a Part of the Changes Sweeping the Neighborhood?

Martha Brown has worked in Harlem for more than three decades and has lived in the neighborhood for even longer. Over the last 15 years, she said she has seen a tremendous amount of change come to the area, some of which she characterized using that word that catches in the throats of so many New Yorkers: gentrification.

“People that were here, they’re not going to be able to stay,” she said. “They’re not going to be able to afford it.”

While developers of all stripes, from the institutional to the entrepreneurial, continue to beset Harlem with their developments, on Tuesday night, a group of them attempted to assuage the community’s concerns at a townhall meeting hosted by the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce. Change will not stop coming to the alternately famous and infamous New York neighborhood anytime soon.

But the presenters from five separate projects tried to convince the crowd of one things: these changes were going to include them. Even if those in attendance might never occupy one of these projects, they might at least hope to work at or otherwise benefit from one of them. Read More

By Matt Chaban 3/23/12 6:18pm

Accidents

Inside the accident. (FDNY)

Freak, Historic Accident Caused Collapse of Columbia Building Says Demo Contractor

Blame it on the builders.

Breeze International, the firm demolishing a Manhattanville building for Columbia that collapsed yesterday and claimed one life, just released a statement addressing the cause of the accident. The firm’s investigation found that an unusual construction configuration appears to be the reason the building was destabilized and collapsed.

Because the structural beam the demo crew severed was not properly connected to the rest of the structure, when it was cut, everything else came down around it. Breeze points to a lack of construction drawings from when the building was built between eight and 10 decades ago as to why the unusual connection was not initially recognized. Read More

By Michael Ewing 3/23/12 1:20pm

Harlem Shuffle

I'm on top of the city, ma! (Streeteasy)

Who Really Wants to Spend Millions on ‘Central Park North?’

Of course, the view of Central Park from the southern ends are mind-blowing and dream-esque, but have you ever considered the views from the north side of the park?

Apartments with views overlooking the park sell for as much as $88 million and the penthouse at One57 is projected (read: hoping) to be sell for $115 million. But The Times raised an interesting question: What about the residence at the north end? Read More

By Matt Chaban 3/22/12 8:44pm

Accidents

Inspectors explore the accident. (Rob Bennet/WSJ)

Condolences, but No Culpability, After Columbia Building Collapse in Harlem

Following today’s warehouse collapse in Manhattanville that killed a construction worker, Columbia University released a statement expressing its sympathies for the family.

“First and foremost, our hearts go out to the family, friends and co-workers of the construction worker who was killed in this tragic incident, and our thoughts remain with the two other workers who were injured this morning and their loved ones,” the university said in a brief statement.

The building was being taken down to make way for a public plaza that is part of the university’s second phase, which remains years away. The scheduling of the construction work was not immediately clear—why demolish now to leave vacant for later. Read More