Skip to main content

UPDATE: Gotham Org. Reveal Plans for Beth Hamedrash Hagadol

(Beth Hamedrash Hagodol in May, 2017 - days after it was burnt down)


      Last week, after almost two years, plans for the remains of Beth Hamedrash Hagadol synagogue became public. The Gotham Organization, in partnership with the Chinese American Planning Council, who own the parking lot behind the synagogue and operate the Hong Ning Housing for the Elderly building (seen to the right of the synagogue in the photo above), revealed their dazzling new renderings for multiple glass high-rises at 60 Norfolk Street. 




    Two structures are proposed, a 30-story mixed-use building (the "Suffolk Building"), and a 16-story residence for seniors (the "Norfolk Building"), pledging up to 55% of the residential square-footage to affordable units. The Suffolk Building will house around 19,000sf of commercial real estate, as well as the new headquarters of the Chinese American Planning Council; and the Norfolk Building will provide almost 3,800sf of space for Beth Hamedrash Hagodol, to serve as a cultural heritage/research center and small synagogue –– with the express condition that BHH have the right to convert this space into office units at will.
      While multiple local news agencies have reported on these developments, only Bowery Boogie pointed out this option to turn over a site of Jewish heritage to office space, seemingly without restriction, as "rather curious". While this parcel of land was not a part of the original Seward Park Urban Renewal Area, and therefore was not included in the re-vamped Seward Park Mixed-Use Development Plan (also known as Essex Crossing), it seems clear to me that the development of the former Beth Hamedrash Hagodol synagogue in the wake of its destruction is another investment in the "mixed-use" remodeling of the Lower East Side. There is nothing curious about this to me –– in fact it may be one of the only transparent parts of this entire arrangement –– "mixed-use" development seems to me designed to appear like a dynamic approach to land-use when it is in fact only a sweet coating which allows for the massive re-zoning and re-appropriation of land. The priority here is obviously not maintaining a connection to the history of the oldest Russian Orthodox congregation in the United States, but securing a grasp on the swathes of luxury office and commercial real estate throughout the LES.
      This is clear in the other mysterious part of the Gotham Organizations' plan (officially "GO Broome Street Development"): the proposal describes an arrangement with the current owner of "Lot 95", the 5-story building on the corner of Suffolk and Grand, which will coordinate a "small commercial addition" alongside the development at the primary sites. This is a carefully orchestrated overhaul of the entire block if approved –– and they are only giving residents until March 8 to voice their concerns over these plans! If you live in the area and think that these plans should not only be more transparent, but earmark more if not all the residential space for affordable units, go to this website and send an email by clicking on the "comment" link.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NYCHA's "NextGen Neighborhood" Towers & the Fate of the "White House"

      In a previous post  I discussed the city's plan to demolish the LaGuardia Bathhouse building, one of the oldest public baths in NYC, an attempt in-part to save face in the wake of the recently unveiled plans to raise the East River Park. I anticipate similar news for the "White House", the former Rivington Street Public Baths, which sits squatly in the middle of the Baruch Houses, maybe a 15 minute walk from the LaGuardia Bathhouse building.        A short history: At 118 years old, the Baruch Bathhouse building is not only the oldest public bathhouse in the city, but also the first of its kind to be opened in New York. It's namesake, Dr. Simon Baruch, was an Eastern European Jew who moved to South Carolina in 1855 (at 15 years old) to live with, and work for, a wealthy German-Jewish family. After receiving his medical degree in 1862, Baruch served as a surgeon in the f*cking Confederate army (even treating soldiers for weeks after the defeat at Gettys
3 comments
Read more

Union of Orthodox Rabbis Building Bought and Emptied –– Artifacts Remain

      Wednesday afternoon, a childhood friend of mine –– whose family has been at their apartment on East Broadway since 1956 –– got in touch with me about what sounded like people clearing out the buildings next to his at 237 and 235 East Broadway (Sharis Adath Israel and the former home of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis respectively). When I arrived on the scene that same afternoon, the doors to 235 East Broadway were being shut and two Junklugger trucks were just pulling away from the curb, stacked with what looked like large amounts of furniture. East Broadway was littered with papers that had blown off the back of these trucks, and as I started to pick them up I saw that many of these documents represented records of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis, correspondence in Hebrew and Yiddish, newspaper clippings, pages from religious books, all of which dating back decades. I called Junkluggers and asked if they would be able to intercept any of these documents before they were inevitab
2 comments
Read more

Paper Bag Players Sign Disappears From 185 East Broadway

            After almost forty years, the simple block letter sign reading "Paper Bag Players" was taken out of the window at 185 East Broadway, almost a year after the building sold for 6.1 million dollars. Founded in 1958 (four years after the start of Joe Papp's "New York Shakespeare Festival", later Shakespeare in the Park, which first held productions at the nearby East River Amphitheater) the Paper Bag Players are a non-profit children's theater group which in many respects attempted to meld aspects of alternative theater with programming for children's education, arriving at 185 East Broadway around 1981. I called and spoke to somebody at Paper Bag Players a week ago and was told they had relocated uptown, having permanently left their space at 185 East Broadway after the building was sold.       I wish to speak briefly on the history of 185 East Broadway, but in doing so must include 183 and 187 East Broadway as well (to the right and left
2 comments
Read more