Some background information can be read from this web page.
September 20, 2006 -
Landmark Status; The Cathedral Close
There has been much interest in the issue of land use on The Close. Some background information can be read from this web page, including;
Columbia in Talks to Build at St. John
October 31, 2002
By DAVID W. DUNLAP
The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine and Columbia University are in discussions about developing the north end and southeast corner of the cathedral's 13-acre grounds in Morningside Heights.
New structures would appear on either side of the cathedral and its companion buildings and gardens, changing the character of the three-block enclave, called the Close. The trustees of the cathedral, which ran a deficit last year, see the development as a financial necessity. They also envision creating the modern equivalent of a medieval village, centered on the towers and pinnacles of a cathedral.
"This Close should have a life of its own," said Henry L. King, president of the cathedral trustees, chairman emeritus of the Columbia trustees and senior counsel at Davis Polk & Wardwell. "This is very important for the continued mission of the cathedral and the conservancy of the buildings that exist. With this development, we would have the ability to meet our budget."
For Columbia, perennially in need of more room, the prospect of "such a beautiful setting so close to our campus is enormously attractive," said Emily Lloyd, the executive vice president for administration, though she said it was too early to specify what might be built.
Even the tentative plans face a hurdle, however, because the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission may designate the entire Close as a landmark.
Hoping that the commission will exempt the potential development sites from consideration, the cathedral has agreed for the first time to accept landmark designation of the main building, still unfinished after 110 years but one of the city's leading attractions. In the past, the trustees have resisted the idea of landmark status for the cathedral on the grounds that it is not yet finished.
Development on the cathedral grounds is sure to be a contentious issue at a commission hearing on Nov. 12.
"Who would want to go to Salisbury Cathedral and think of Constable paintings with little office buildings instead of cows?" asked Robert E. Roistacher of the Morningside Heights Residents' Association. "The cathedral has been an environmental sanctuary in so many ways. I think it's incredibly regrettable that we lose any open space there."
Sherida E. Paulsen, the commission chairwoman, said yesterday that she had not seen the cathedral's full proposal and therefore could not comment on it.
Though development would not provide enough money to resume construction of the cathedral, it would establish the economic footing necessary for a future capital campaign. Last year, the Episcopal cathedral ran a deficit of $200,000 on an operating budget of $7 million, having suffered a serious fire in December, a sharp drop in visitors and the loss of revenues from its gift shop, which was gutted in the fire.
"If we don't have fiscal credibility, and the cathedral, even if beloved, is considered a black hole, we can't get the money to take care of it, let alone complete it," said the Very Rev. Dr. James A. Kowalski, dean of the cathedral. "People love the cathedral. People want things for the cathedral. They've got to deal with the fiscal issue."
Mr. King said that the development would be "consistent with the mission of the cathedral," whether for educational, residential or office use by nonprofit organizations. The designs would be architecturally compatible, he said. The sites would be leased, not sold.
Given the sometimes stormy history of institutional building in Morningside Heights, the cathedral's parcels have another attraction. "Unlike a lot of other projects," Mr. King said, "this doesn't require the tearing down of buildings or the displacement of people."
Columbia was one of three developers that replied to the cathedral's request for expressions of interest. The others were commercial concerns that Mr. King would not identify. They have not been eliminated from consideration, he said, but St. John will negotiate exclusively with Columbia for nine months.
Mr. Roistacher said that if the cathedral grounds had to be developed at all, Columbia might be preferable "because if it doesn't get its space needs met on that site, it will have to go someplace else" in the neighborhood.
Neither Mr. King nor Ms. Lloyd would estimate the development potential. In the zoning district that the cathedral occupies, a university may construct buildings with 6.5 times as much floor area as their lot size. But it is unclear how large the lots would be.
The trustees are opposed to landmark status for the former Leake & Watts Orphan Asylum, a large Greek Revival structure that predates the cathedral, and Mr. King said they hope the commission defers action on the other buildings around the grounds.
Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company
Landmark? Just Wait Till It's Finished
June 17, 2003
By DAVID W. DUNLAP
The news for most New Yorkers will probably be that as this day began, the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine was not a landmark.
Then again, given a pace of construction almost as medieval as the architecture - 111 years and counting - it seems safe to say that it will be a century or two before they put the finishing touches on the vast cathedral.
By day's end, however, the Landmarks Preservation Commission is expected to confer landmark status on a substantially unfinished structure for the first time, in an arrangement that would allow new buildings on the grounds, a prospect that worries neighbors and preservationists.
The commission will continue to consider but not yet designate other historical structures in the cathedral compound, bordered by Amsterdam Avenue and Morningside Drive, Cathedral Parkway and 113th Street.
Even three-fifths complete, the commission said, St. John the Divine is the largest church in the nation and the largest cathedral in the world. (The largest church in the world is the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast, which is not a cathedral.)
Only the exterior of St. John the Divine, the seat of the Episcopal bishop of New York, is to be considered as a landmark. By law, the commission cannot designate the interior of a religious sanctuary, even one that offers an experience akin to being in a dim and profoundly mysterious grove of Gothic sequoias.
Robert B. Tierney, the chairman of the commission, said yesterday that the designation would culminate the panel's "37-year quest to landmark the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, a building with a unique place in the architectural, social and cultural history of the city and the nation."
Should the cathedral trustees ever find themselves with enough money to resume construction, they would not necessarily be compelled to follow the existing French Gothic plans by Ralph Adams Cram, Mr. Tierney said.
But he dismissed as "too speculative" the question of whether the commission might one day approve a departure as radical as the glass-enclosed biosphere designed a decade ago by Santiago Calatrava to complete the cathedral's south arm, or transept.
Until recently, the cathedral's leaders had opposed landmark status. But last year, they agreed to cooperate with a designation that would preserve development potential at the north end and southeast corner of the grounds.
The cathedral trustees are negotiating with Columbia University to build on those sites. Designs would be reviewed by a committee that includes two members appointed by the landmarks chairman. New buildings would also be governed by legal controls on their placement, height, shape and bulk.
These controls would be "very protective of the cathedral" and other existing buildings "but nonetheless allow for development at a sufficient scale to support the cathedral's mission," Robert S. Davis of Bryan Cave, the law firm that represents the cathedral, said yesterday.
"And a very important part of the cathedral's mission," he said, "is the maintenance, preservation and restoration of its historic buildings."
Many preservationists had hoped the commission would designate the entire grounds, known as the Close. "It was all built as various parts of a larger whole, and the whole should be preserved," said Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council. "That just seems like rational preservation planning to me."
Among the notable structures on the Close are the Synod House, the Diocesan House, the Cathedral School and the 160-year-old Town Building, designed by Ithiel Town as part of the Leake & Watts Orphan Asylum, which preceded the cathedral on the land.
"The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is considered the crowning glory of the Morningside Heights neighborhood, which came to be known as `the Acropolis of the new world,' " reads a draft version of the landmark designation.
The cornerstone was laid in 1892 for a Romanesque-Gothic cathedral designed by Heins & LaFarge. In 1911, the trustees brought in Cram, America's foremost advocate of Gothic architecture, to finish the job. Still under construction, the 601-foot-long cathedral was far enough along to be dedicated on Nov. 30, 1941.
But work stopped abruptly a week later, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and did not begin again until 1979.
The south tower then began to rise toward its intended 300-foot height as journeymen from England trained local residents as stonecutters. But after it reached 200 feet, the money ran out.
A fire on Dec. 18, 2001, destroyed the gift shop, damaged the north transept and ravaged two tapestries. It seemed a crippling blow for a city staggered by the destruction of the World Trade Center.
But the cathedral managed to reopen - the smell of smoke still in the air - in time for a Christmas Eve service.
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
