We strongly disagree with the Landmark Preservation Commission’s decision to arbitrarily reach back to an earlier stage in the Gansevoort Market district’s history to justify replacing existing low-rise market buildings with massive new construction.  Nonetheless, if the rationale is to return Gansevoort Street to its earlier configuration when it was  lined with tenements, then the new buildings at 60-68 and 74 Gansevoort must conform to the size of their tenement predecessors. 

We have found 30 Department of Buildings records stating that the heights of the previously existing tenements at 70-74 Gansevoort, 60-68 Gansevoort, and 54-56 Gansevoort Street were between 50 and 55 feet tall.   The two proposed new buildings are both significantly greater than this height.

Click on each record to enlarge it.  Note that old photos and the developer’s own diagrams show that the tenements at these addresses were all approximately the same height.

DOB New Buildings records for 70-74 and 60-68 Gansevoort: