The Bowery Alliance of Neighbors is planning a candlelight vigil tomorrow at 5:30pm in front of 35 Cooper Square. The endangered 1825 row house next to the hulking Cooper Square Hotel has been the focal point of the Lower East Side preservation movement for the past several weeks. Over the weekend, the Times filed a substantial piece on the controversy surrounding the building, which is the subject of a Department of Buildings “stop work order:”
Already scaffolding surrounds the building, and the black tiles of the roof are being torn away as the first step in making way for what preservationists suspect will be another hotel or high-rise condominiums. But not without a fight. In another of those classic New York struggles between the future and the past, steel and wood, high tech and quaint, forces have been lining up to protect 35 Cooper Square.
You can find more information on the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors’ web site. EV Grieve has extensive coverage of the preservation battle.
