The Landmarks Preservation Commission celebrated its own unofficial Queens Day October 26, discussing enough Queens buildings that, if they were all landmarked, the borough's landmark total would be 40 percent larger. One of the landmarks officially designated that day was the Grace Episcopal Church Memorial Hall, a 1912 Tudor Revival building (and the last un-landmarked component of its church complex). But it probably won't be part of the neighborhood's tally for long: the City Council's landmarks subcommittee voted to overturn the designation today, the Historic District Council's Simeon Bankoff tells us.
The decision comes after a West-Park-style campaign by the church's congregation, which argued that landmarking would be too costly for the non-profit despite its ability to sell development rights. There's still a chance that the decision could be reversed when the City Council's land use committee or the full Council vote on the issue in the next few weeks. Failing that, Mayor Bloomberg could overturn the Council's decision by taking the LPC's side. But such reversals are rare.
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