Last October HODINKEE featured a guest editorial from Mr. Troy Torrison, board member of the Tribeca Trust, describing the struggle (and lawsuit) to save a landmark clock in New York City. The clock in question is perched atop the New York Life Insurance Company's former headquarters at 346 Broadway in Lower Manhattan, which is being converted to "luxury condominium residences." The clock tower contains valuable square footage occupied by a large mechanical movement that the developers wanted to remove. They argued that the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission should not be able to grant landmark status to a mechanical clock movement, but Justice Kotler of the New York State Supreme Court disagreed.
A recent New York Times article discusses the decision by Justice Kotler in detail, laying out her arguments: "There can be no dispute that the internal mechanism by which the clock operates is a significant portion of the clock itself and if the commission can issue a violation for its removal or alteration, the Legislature intended to give the commission the power to compel the owner to maintain the clock’s mechanical operation."
Congratulations to the opponents of the clock tower conversion: Marvin Schneider (New York City’s clock master), Forest Markowitz, Save America’s Clocks, the Historic Districts Council and the Tribeca Trust.
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