[NYguy]

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/arts-an.../06/rizzoli-searches-new-home-demolition

Rizzoli searches for new home before demolition





By Abby Mitchell
February 6, 2014

Though the building’s owners, the LeFrak organization and the Vornado Realty Trust, have publicized their plans to demolish the building and two adjacent townhouses, they have not divulged their plans for what will come after. At present, there are no demolitions currently on order from the Department of Buildings.

In an interview with Spectator, Rizzoli New York publisher Charles Miers, CC ’81, said that there is not yet a firm schedule for the bookstore to vacate, but that it’s currently looking for a new location in Manhattan.

.....The building’s supporters have not given up. As of press time, a petition on Change.org to landmark the building had garnered over 12,751 signatures.

The fight for the building falls into a larger debate on development in Midtown East. Whatever replaces Rizzoli and its adjacent buildings will join a slew of high rises slated for construction on 57th street. In an op-ed in the New York Times, Kenneth Jackson, Columbia professor and president emeritus of the New-York Historical Society, argued that this change should be seen positively, and that excessive landmarking impedes growth.

“While the historic preservation achievements of the past half century have been remarkable, the local effort has moved well beyond its original purpose. Landmark designation now covers more than 31,000 properties across the city,” he wrote. “Its goal seems to be to preserve anything that will maintain the streetscape, whether or not the individual structures have significance. Entire blocks are frozen on the logic that the first buildings ever put there are also the best that could ever be imagined there.”

http://nycitylens.com/2014/02/an-iconic-bookstore-facing-demolition-fights-to-survive/

An Iconic Bookstore Facing Demolition Fights to Survive
Rizzoli could be torn down for a luxury high-rise. Signers of an online petition are howling in protest


February 6, 2014
by Lucia De Stefani

Rizzoli Bookstore may be old and elegant, but it is not going down without a fight.

The bookseller – housed in a beautiful six-story townhouse at 31 West 57th - is facing eviction from its home of almost 30 years. The structure’s owners are planning to tear it down in favor of a luxury high-rise, on a street already becoming known as Billionaires’ Row.

An online petition initiated by a group calling itself Save Rizzoli Bookstore, which includes Rizzoli staff members, is collecting a passionate outpouring from friends and patrons of the store. The aim is to get the New York City Landmark Commission to reconsider and designate the building as a landmark, blocking the development.

In two weeks, more than 10,000 patrons have signed the petition. The number was up to 12,879 by Thursday afternoon, and many signers left comments. “The Rizzoli Bookstore is the most beautiful bookstore in NYC, it should be preserved and not demolished,” says a man from Canada. “The building is beautiful and perfect home for a fantastic bookstore,” adds a lady from New York. “This is one of New York’s very beautiful buildings,” writes a woman from Sidney, Australia.

The owners of the building, the LeFrak real estate family and Vornado Realty Trust, have a big plan in mind: another luxury high-rise on a street that is becoming known for them. A spokesman from Vornado Realty Trust declined to comment about the project and requests for comment to LeFrak have not yet been returned. New construction sites are not new to West 57th Street. Its proximity to Fifth Avenue and the view of Central Park makes it, indeed, the perfect location for new luxury buildings. A “Billionaires’ Row,” as described in The New York Times, seems to be the future for this neighborhood.