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Fears of Collapse for Tilting Landmark
The agency took those actions after a Nov. 30 inspection found that the building, at 287 Broadway, was leaning nine inches to the south. With work stopped, the developer, the John Buck Company of Chicago, erected a temporary wooden structure to shore the exposed south wall of the building. The new tower would wrap around the landmark, from 285 Broadway to 57 Reade Street. Late last month the building remained empty and the work halted as the Department of Buildings reviewed the developer’s permanent shore plans to replace the wooden beams with steel and “demonstrate that they will proceed with the utmost care,” according to a DOB spokeswoman. The fate of 287 Broadway remains uncertain, according to Kenneth Dubow, the property manager for the owner, Century Realty. He said it is “possible” that the building’s problems cannot be fixed and all or part of the structure may not be saved. His engineers, he said, “are casting doubt on whether it’s feasible to jack up the building and get rid of the tilt.” “Cast iron is difficult to deal with,” Dubow added. Monitors measuring the building’s movement give inconsistent readings, Dubow said. “The city is very cognizant of the [situation] and monitoring it closely.”
The DOB would have to declare the building “an immediate threat to public safety” in order for the Landmarks Preservation Commission to allow the building to come down, said Landmarks spokeswoman Lisi de Bourbon. That would be “extremely rare,” she said. “Something can always be done to make a building habitable.” Dubow said the building has three residential units. Not knowing when, or if, the residents can return, he said, “they are all very upset. We feel horrible for them.” “I’m homeless,” Cora Cohen, an artist, said when reached by phone. But she and another tenant, artist Matthias Leutrum, would not talk about their situations. Cohen said they were too “overwhelmed” to speak to a reporter. Four commercial tenants occupy the building’s ground floor. “I feel very depressed,” said Luis Guaman, 46, owner of a shoe store in the building. Not only has he missed a peak season for business, he said, but he worries about his four workers who have been unemployed during the holidays. “It is like I have had my hands cut off,” he said.
“I’m very concerned about the building,” Ljahnicky, an architect, said. “It wasn’t in good shape to begin with.” Last January, building inspectors halted demolition on the second floor of the building, citing the lack of a permit and hazardous conditions. The landlord, Century Realty, is owned by the Gindi family, whose holdings include a number of Tribeca buildings as well as the department store Century 21. The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated 287 Broadway as a landmark in 1988, noting that it is one of the city’s few surviving examples of cast iron Italianate and French Second Empire architecture. The building is striking, with its high mansard roof and large, arched windows separated by Ionic columns. The DOB’s Kate Lindquist said in an e-mail that the owners’ engineers reported that the building was leaning four inches, due to settlement, before excavation began. Afterwards, she said, monitors showed the building had tilted another three to four inches. Calls to the developer, the John Buck Company, were not returned.
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