Harlem's PS90 hasn't been on the market long and only has three units in contract, but Harlemites are already taking the gothicy school conversion as a model for another potential uptown project. Blog Harlem Bespoke reports on the apparently controversial P.S. 186, which was sold to the M.L. Wilson Boys and Girls Club of Harlem 23 years ago. The club originally promised to restore the building within three years and use 85 percent of it for non-profit uses. Twenty years later...there's a whole lotta nothing going on at the site, and the club wants to demolish the building and replace it with a high-rise.
At a lengthy community board meeting last night, residents urged the developer to keep the original building as part of the new design, a la PS90, but the architect for P.S. 186 says the property isn't salvageable. The Landmarks Preservation Commission is slated to discuss the building in January. That could complicate things, but not everyone minds: "One concerned community member complained having a building landmarked would cause constant approval delays and that P.S. 186 could stay there forever. The crowd erupted in applause upon hearing this." Will the building be axed or PS90'd? Check back: we're sure we haven't heard the last of it.
· Protect: Possible Landmark for P.S. 186 [Harlem Bespoke]
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