By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — Plans to build a 13-story mosque and community center near Ground Zero were given a boost Wednesday night when Community Board 1 said the current building at the site wasn't architecturally significant enough to landmark.
Opponents of the Cordoba Initiative's plan to build their $100 million center at 45-47 Park Place had been pushing to have the 152-year-old building landmarked as a way to thwart the proposed Ground Zero mosque.
The Cordoba Initiative still has several hurdles to clear despite Wednesday's advisory vote.
The city Landmarks Commission is holding a hearing on the building next Tuesday. If the city Landmarks Preservation Commission agrees with the CB1 Landmarks Committee’s advisory vote, it will clear the path for the Cordoba Initiative to build the mosque.
Because of the sensitivity of the project, which has drawn strong objections from some 9/11 family members, the leaders of CB1’s Landmarks Committee spent more time researching this building than they ever have for any other application, said Bruce Ehrmann, co-chairman of the committee.
The five-story Italianate Renaissance-style warehouse first caught local preservationists’ attention in the 1980s, and they fought for it to be included in a TriBeCa historic district. But while the city held a hearing on the building in 1989, the Landmarks Commission never took any action, so the building has been in limbo since then.
Roger Byrom, chairman of the Landmarks Committee, said that while he would have liked to see the building included in a historic district, it does not have enough distinctive historical features to “rise to the level of an individual New York City landmark.”
Still, Byrom urged the Cordoba Initiative to preserve the historic cast-iron and stone facade, perhaps by carefully deconstructing it and then reincorporating elements into the future design.
On 9/11, landing gear from one of the planes crashed through the building’s roof and heavily damaged the interior, but the exterior is largely intact.
Also Wednesday night, the board’s Financial District Committee voted not to revisit their previous support of the secular aspects of the Cordoba project. A handful of board members had wanted the community board to withdraw its opinion of the project altogether, but they did not prevail.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing about the building will be held at 904 Lexington Ave. on July 13 at 2 p.m.
