Save These NYC Gems

Am NY has posted it’s fourth annual feature on “crumbling NYC gems that deserve a second chance.”

Two buildings of note (which are surprisingly both designated NYC landmarks):

The Coignet Stone Building, which sits in solitude on the corner of 3rd Street & 3rd Avenue, and was made a landmark in 2006. The building was  once the headquarters of the Brooklyn Improvement Company, which was founded by Edwin Litchfield, and which was responsible for the development of the Gowanus Canal and the area which surrounds it.

We’ve always loved this building. Last summer we we driving by it in a terrential rainstorm, and a couple had taken refuge under the canopy and was kissing atop the stoop. All you could see were their legs and the umbrella. It was a little burst of sunshine peaking through, reminding us of simpler times in Brooklyn.

187 Seventh Avenue, which sits seemingly-abandoned and blighted at the corner of 2nd Street, and has come to be known by locals as the “House of Whimsy”. Just a few years ago, the City passed the “Demolition by Neglect Bill”, which allows the Landmarks Commission to sue owners who leave their properties to rot, forcing them to make repairs. We’ll see what happens in this case.

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