A Hidden Lower East Side

(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...

This first photo is of the damaged remains of what was Beth Hamedrash Hagodol on Norfolk between Grand  and Broome. The oldest Russian Orthodox Jewish congregation in the United States, and the first Eastern European one in NYC, the congregation bought the building that stood at 60-64 Norfolk in 1885, 35 years after its construction as the Norfolk Street Baptist Church. The building has been out of use since 2007, but the rumor is that its owners had wanted to develop the land into residential real-estate, and were frustrated with the limitations posed by the building’s Landmark status; in 2017 the building burnt down under suspicious circumstances, and stands in ruins now, presumably to be converted into condominiums.