Veterans’ Group Calls for Review of Armory Renovation

A veterans’ group and the board of an Upper East Side co-op are calling for a more extensive environmental review of the renovation and redevelopment planned for the Seventh Regiment Armory on Park Avenue.In a recently filed suit, the Veterans of the Seventh Regiment and the East 67 Tenants Corporation representing residents of a luxury cooperative at 130 E. 67th St., are among those asking the state to order an Environmental Impact Statement of the state-approved project. This Article 78 filing is the latest chapter in the long battle for control of the historic 19th Armory, which is home to several large arts and antique shows, and boasts interior work by Stanford White, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and the Herter Brothers, among other celebrated 19th-century architects and designers.The Seventh Regiment Armory Conservancy – the nonprofit group, chosen by the state to oversee the redevelopment effort – wants to restore the water-damaged and visibly dilapidated building, open it to the public, and use the exhibition hall as a part-time, 1,500-seat performing arts venue, while continuing to host arts and antiques show. The project is expected to cost about $150 million, according to Conservancy estimates.The coalition behind the suit contends that the state has not adequately explored how the redevelopment at the Armory will affect quality-of-life on the Upper East Side – comparing the project to putting up a mega-store like a Home Depot or a Target at the site. By contrast, those who support the Conservancy’s vision say the lawsuit is a stall tactic by a group of veterans who prefer to use the Armory as their private club.“The people should own this building,”the president and CEO of the Conservancy, Rebecca Robertson, said.Ms. Robertson, the urban planner who spearheaded the redevelopment of Times Square in the 1990s, envisions a restored Armory as a neighborhood cultural center. But the veterans’ group, which says that the state has unfairly taken control of a building constructed with private funds, would rather see a more modest building restoration and the establishment of a museum of military history with a total cost around $30 million.Retired Colonel David Dalva, a leader of the 600-member Veterans of the 7th Regiment, said a military museum would be a more authentic use of the space. “The Conservancy plans will change how the building looks, and how it appeals to people,” Colonel Dalva said.The veterans’ group has filed several lawsuits against the state, during the last eight years.The most recent names the Conservancy, and Empire State Development Corporation, the state agency that approved transferring control of the Armory from the Division of Naval Affairs to the Conservancy. ESDC officials declined to comment yesterday.“There are many people who feel that what the Conservancy plans to do is wonderful,and will improve the quality of life here,” the chairman of the Upper East Side’s Community Board no. 8, David Liston, said. “There are also many people on the other side, who feel just as strongly that what the Conservancy proposes to do will create problems, and that those problems outweigh any potential benefits.”While the Conservancy has already completed an Environmental Assessment Statement, the regiment says that it is faulty and lacks the depth of a full impact statement. In an attempt to understand whether or not the project requires an EIS, which could take up to a year, the community board has asked the Conservancy to answer a list of questions about its business model and construction plans. “We’re trying to figure out what’s right,” he said. “We hope that either the Conservancy will agree to do more environmental tests, or that the Regiment will agree that the tests don’t need to be done. The Armory is a gem – a piece of our history, part of the character of the community. What everyone on both sides of the issue agree on is that it needs to be maintained and preserved.”Despite its efforts to facilitate a rapprochement, the board, a neighborhood forum, has no legal jurisdiction over the Armory’s fate.The board president of the 12-story co-op that signed onto the lawsuit, Rita Chu, said it did so to ensure it has the most extensive information about “how the project will affect our building and or neighborhood.”One building resident, Cassandra Harris, said she opposed any effort to delay the Conservancy’s plans for the Armory. “Now it’s not a cultural center – it’s a dump,” Ms. Harris, who has lived in the cooperative for 11 years, said. She said an Armory-based cultural arts center, would increase property values in the vicinity.But a 30-year resident of a nearby cooperative at 115 E. 67th St., Bruce Lee, said he believed that it would have the opposite effect on home values, because of the increased motor vehicle traffic it could bring. In addition, Mr. Lee, a writer who is also a petitioner in the Article 78 lawsuit, said that the Armory would be vying for the same scarce funds as the city’s long-established cultural institutions if it becomes a cultural center.“We don’t believe the Conservancy can make a go of it,”he said.”They can’t compete with Lincoln Center and with all the other performing arts centers.”The Conservancy’s executive vice president of external affairs, Lillian W. Silver, who is overseeing Conservancy fund-raising efforts, said that there are enough donor dollars to go around. “It’s not that we’re going to be taking money away from schools, or international charities,” she said. “The real New York philanthropic forces give broadly.” Ms. Silver said the Conservancy has already raised $55 million, of which $30 million came from a state grant, and the remainder from private donors.This summer, the Conservancy plans to restore and clean the building’s doors and entryway to give visitors a sense of the redevelopment project, expected to take about four years.

Veterans’ Group Calls for Review of Armory Renovation

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