Westbeth hearing:
A dozen people spoke at the Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing Tuesday morning in support of landmark designation of Westbeth, the artists residence that was converted in 1970 from a group of 13 connected industrial buildings where Bell Laboratories had its home. Elected officials, including Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Borough President Scott Stringer, Assemblymember Deborah Glick and state Senator Tom Duane, submitted testimony, followed by Steven Neil, director of the Westbeth residential complex on West and Bethune Sts., and Carol Feinman, a member of the Westbeth board of directors. Members of the Westbeth Artists Residence Association, including George Cominskie, Jesse McNabb and Mae Gambel, also spoke. Preservationists also gave comments, including Cristabel Gough, of the Society for the Architecture of the City; Elizabeth Solomon, of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation; Nadezhda Williams, of the Historic Districts Council; and Doris Diether, Community Board 2 Landmarks Committee chairperson. No one spoke in opposition to landmark designation. L.P.C. Chairperson Robert Tierney closed the Jan. 12 hearing but did not indicate when the commission would vote on the designation.
Poetic birthday:
Sarah Zenis blew out the candles at her 95th birthday celebration Tuesday afternoon, above right, with her fellow poet Mitch Cohen, at the Greenwich House Senior Center’s poetry workshop. A lively group of senior poets paid tribute in prose and verse to Zenis, who has led the workshop “Poetry for You and Me” for 17 years. Workshop poet George Spencer read his sonnet for the occasion that concludes, “O she’s having a wild celebration;/the guests, crème de la crème of her nation/of painters and poets, of brush and the line,/one thousand friends of Sarah the Divine/out-dancing the d/j, finishing the buffet. /Sarah’s next party’s next year to the day.”
