☞ REVIVE: The Corn Exchange Building Today

It's been about a year since the DOB finished the emergency demolition of the top floors at the landmark Corn Exchange Building on East 125th Street and things have been getting worse for the building at Park Avenue.  In the past months, the formerly majestic Queen Anne and Romanesque building has just been collecting more garbage on the site along with some major graffiti as of recent. If anyone thought the site was an eyesore before, it currently is only getting worse so maybe the community clean up folks discussed from last week's post could do something at this corner of East Harlem: LINK

For those not familiar with the history of this building, the city sold the official NYC landmark for an insignificant amount to the previous owner who wanted to open a cooking school but lacked the $9 million in funds needed for restoration. After about 6 years of inaction from the said owner (full restoration was promised within a 3 year time period), the Supreme Court gave the city the right to take command of the building back in January of 2009: LINK.  By that point in time, overall conditions were not good and an emergency demolition of the top floors occurred during the latter half of 2009. When we last contacted the city agency involved with the case back in  February 2010, we were told new plans  had been proposed for what was left of the building but an appeals case has since blocked any progress. To see more on what the former restoration plans looked like, see our past post: LINK