Fairway Apartments
Oct. 7, 2015 By Michael Florio
The City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) has scheduled hearings for nearly 100 backlogged properties, including two Jackson Heights buildings, the Old Calvary Cemetery Gatehouse and the iconic Pepsi Cola Sign in Long Island City.
The LPC will review 95 properties that have been under consideration to be landmarked, the majority for over 20 years, with some dating back to the 1960s. It has scheduled a hearing pertaining to the Queens sites on October 8.
The hearing will cover the Fairway Apartments on 34th Ave and the Spanish Towers on 75th Street, both in Jackson Heights. It will also include the Pepsi Cola Sign adjacent to the East River in LIC and the Old Calvary Cemetery Gatehouse. There are others, but they are located more in the eastern portion of the borough. (click link to see those properties)
The hearing will take place from 12:30 to 3 pm at the Landmarks Preservation Commission, 1 Centre Street, on the 9th Floor.
The Fairway Apartments, located at 76-09 34th Ave, was a complex built in 1937 and got its name from the golf course that once faced the building, according to the landmark application.
Joshua Tabatchnik designed the apartments in a Tudor style, fitting in with many of the Jackson Heights garden complexes of the 1910s and 1920s, according to the application.
The Spanish Towers, located at 34-30 to 34-52 75th Street, were built in 1927 and 1928. The buildings were designed in a similar style with similar materials as several buildings in the Historic District, according to the application.
Meanwhile, the Pepsi Cola Sign was built in 1936 and was located at the top of its manufacturing plant until it closed in 1999. It eventually wound up at its current position in Gantry Plaza State Park in 2009.
“The sign is considered to be an excellent example of the neon display technology which began to transform outdoor advertising in the 1920s,” the application reads.
“By virtue of its location, the Pepsi-Cola sign is one of the best-known examples of its type in New York City.”
Old Calvary Cemetery Gatehouse
Additionally, the LPC will be reviewing the Old Calvary Cemetery Gatehouse, a redbrick house built in 1892 located near the main entrance of the cemetery in Long Island City.
The graveyard is the final resting place for many prominent New Yorkers including Gov. Al Smith and Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. It was also featured in the classic 1972 mob film The Godfather.
The public is invited to attend tomorrow’s meeting and those interested in speaking will be given 3 minutes to state their views.
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One Comment
The picture you have captioned ‘The Spanish Towers’ is, in fact, of the Towers Apartment Buildings several blocks away. This is understandable, since the Historic Districts Council uses photos of The Towers Apartments instead of the Spanish Towers private homes on their website (http://www.6tocelebrate.org/site/spanish-tower-homes/). Hard to believe there will be an appropriate hearing when they can’t even get photos of the actual buildings they are evaluating.