After learning that the BP gas station on Houston Street had the potential to turn into a pricey condo development, we had what we believed would be our last gas fight, and mourned the loss of another neighborhood petrol purveyor. Turns out we should raise a glass of super unleaded to the Landmark's Preservation Commission: the gas station is part of a historic district!
As we've noted in the past, once a structure is deemed to be in a historic district, the process of altering or demolishing it becomes fraught with gobs of red tape. The Post writes that the owner of the BP station, Marcello Porcetti, needed city approval to install doors on a shed sitting on his property.
"Including the gas station to control the entrance to SoHo—that's just city planning, not landmarks," Mike Slattery, the senior VP for research at the REBNY, told the paper. “There’s no historic fabric and no SoHo character there. The gas station should have been left out and could have been left out, and it wasn’t.” What about the piece of gum stuck to the bathroom urinal that kind of looks like Jesus? Or Ye Olde Pump Handle That Requires You To Squeeze Extra Hard?
Apparently the designation hasn't stopped Porcetti's plans to scrap the gas station: he's hired architect Rich Cook to design a smaller glass office complex with retail on the ground floor (come onnnnnnn Build-A-Bear!). The city is expected to review the plans in the next few weeks.
