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Landmarks
44 Union Square East, Tammany Hall, application for interior, transparent LED displays set back from second floor windows and doors
At the regularly scheduled monthly Community Board Five meeting on Thursday, April 13, 2023, the following resolution passed with a vote of 31 in favor; 0 opposed; 0 abstaining:
WHEREAS, The applicant proposes the installation of interior, transparent LED displays (Displays) in the 2nd floor windows and doors of 44 Union Square East aka Tammany Hall (Building); and
WHEREAS, The Building is a 1929 Colonial Revival style building with a red brick façade and white granite, designed by architects Thomson, Holmes & Converse and Charles B. Meyers, to evoke the "days of early American architecture" (according to the 1928 Real Estate Record); and
WHEREAS, The Building also has a significant cultural history since it was the headquarters of the "infamous" Democratic political machine known as "Tammany Hall" from 1929 to 1943, and thereafter, continued to be a center of the political and arts communities, housing first the international Ladies Garment Workers Union, then an Off-Broadway theater and the New York Film Academy, and currently offices and retail businesses including PETCO on the second floor; and
WHEREAS, Union Square has been designated a National Historic Landmark by the Federal government; and
WHEREAS, The Building was identified by the NYC Department of City Planning as a "significant building" in the Union Square Special Zoning District; and
WHEREAS, The Building is adjacent to the East 17th Street/Irving Place Historic District which begins on the east side of the Building; and
WHEREAS, The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Building as an Individual Landmark on October 29, 2013, and
WHEREAS, Community Board Five recommended denial of an application to install a large, modern, non-contextual glass tortoise shell shaped dome rooftop addition (Non-contextual Rooftop Addition) on the Building in December 2014 which was subsequently approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission and thereafter installed; and
WHEREAS, The applicant proposes the installation of the aforementioned Displays which are set back 18" from each of the second floor windows and doors; and
WHEREAS, The Displays are a new technology that has never been used in Manhattan or the City of New York; and
WHEREAS, The Displays will be visible in all of the second floor windows and doors when activated; and
WHEREAS, The Displays will illuminate animated commercial advertising thru the windows and doors when activated; and
WHEREAS, There are no restrictions on the hours of activation; and
WHEREAS, The Displays are not contextual, harmonious, or appropriate for the Building and its surroundings including the East 17th Street/Irving Place Historic District and Union Square;
WHEREAS, Furthermore, the Displays in combination with the previously installed Non-contextual Rooftop Addition will establish an undesirable precedent for individual landmarks and historic districts in Community Board Five; therefore be it
RESOLVED, Community Board Five recommends denial of the application to install interior, transparent LED commercial advertising displays in the second floor row of windows and doors of 44 Union Square East (aka Tammany Hall).