On, Oct. 1, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation submitted a detailed proposal to the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission for the landmarking of the Far West Village and waterfront. Shown above, Andrew Berman, G.V.S.H.P.’s executive director, presented the proposal in binder form. As a result of the recent agreement to preserve the West Village Houses as affordable housing, they were removed from the Society’s earlier version of the landmarking proposal. It’s thought that the West Village Houses are fairly “safe” as a result of the deal, Berman said. However, elsewhere, two projects may move quickly and result in the loss of important historic buildings, G.V.S.H.P. notes: 163 Charles St., an 1829 house, and 70 Bethune St., a former 1919 Nabisco factory, now Superior Ink. The proposed district includes about 108 buildings and the street beds/patterns of two streets — Weehawken St. and Charles Ln. — on all or parts of a little over a dozen blocks. On a related front, in another effort to protect the area from new development, Berman reports “things are moving with the city with trying to put together a possible rezoning plan” for the Far West Side to institute new lower caps on building heights.
