BEST RESTORATION 2015: CORN EXCHANGE BUILDING

The Best Restoration in Harlem for 2015 took about 3 decades to accomplish but the Corn Exchange Building on 125th Street by Park Avenue has now been reborn in all of its architectural glory.  As many might remember, the Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival building had been taken over by the government because of tax foreclosure in the 70s but had been slowly deteriorating for many years until a fire in the 90s burned down the roof.  There was a bit of hope about 14 years ago when the site was sold to a none profit that ended alienating a lot of developers and could not deliver on the timeline need to finish up the building. By 2009, the several more floors were dismantled because of instability issues and it looked like a lost cause for man.  Some action finally took place when the city reclaimed the local landmark and passed it off to a seasoned developer who immediately started on getting plans approved for a complete restoration.

On Easter Weekend of 2015, the formerly lost building rose up complete again and is now a shining example of how efforts to restore historic pieces of the neighborhood can actually be affective if the right partners are paired up.  More on the Corn Exchange Building can be found in our past post: LINK