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Bid to Save 'Historic' Former Home of Beastie Boy Rejected by City

By Andrea Swalec | July 11, 2012 11:27am
The Beastie Boys' Adam Horovitz (at left)
The Beastie Boys' Adam Horovitz (at left)
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AP Photo/Stephen Chernin

SOHO — The Landmarks Preservation Commission has shot down a last-ditch effort by a Downtown preservation group to ward off the imminent demolition of a building that has stood on Spring Street since 1824 — saying the structure that was once home to Beastie Boy Adam "Ad- Rock" Horovitz isn't historic enough to warrant landmark status. 

Days after the executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation urged the LPC chair to landmark 186 Spring St., between Thompson and Sullivan streets, to prevent it from being demolished by a developer, the LPC ruled that the building is too far gone from its original form to be saved.

"After a careful evaluation and site visit, we’ve determined that 186 Spring St. doesn’t rise to the level of an individual landmark," an LPC spokeswoman said in a statement Tuesday. "Though the building retains its original gable roof and some of its brickwork, few original details remain on the ground floor, windowsills and other attributes."

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation urged the city landmarks commission to landmark 186 Spring St. between Thompson and Sullivan Streets to prevent it from being demolished by a developer.
The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation urged the city landmarks commission to landmark 186 Spring St. between Thompson and Sullivan Streets to prevent it from being demolished by a developer.
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DNAinfo/Andrea Swalec

The executive director of GVSHP, Andrew Berman, argued that the building is an important holdover from the Federal-style homes erected in the first quarter of the 19th century.

"The loss of this rare, nearly 190-year-old survivor would be yet another blow to the integrity and historic character of this neighborhood," Berman wrote In a letter sent last week.

The city Department of Buildings approved a permit July 2 allowing Canadian developer Stephane Bolvin to raze the building he bought from Horovitz in April for $5.5 million, city records show. 

Bolvin, whose lawyer did not immediately return a request for comment, bought the adjacent building at 182 Spring St. for $10.1 million in April 2011, property records show. 

Bolvin is now planning a seven-story mixed-use development there that will have two floors of retail, three single-floor apartments and a duplex penthouse, according to the website of Bolvin's company Nordica SoHo.

When Bolvin bought 186 Spring St., he told The Real Deal that he planned to use the building for "personal use," not combine it with the project next door. 

Since 2006, GVSHP has lobbied the LPC for landmark status for a proposed South Village Historic District roughly bound by West Fourth Street, Sixth Avenue, LaGuardia Place and Watts Street. 

The area is under consideration for future review by the LPC, the spokeswoman said, but is "not an immediate priority because of the many other historic districts [the Commission is] pursuing throughout the city."