The 127-year-old Windermere, a Queen Anne-style three-building apartment complex in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, was built in 1881 to accommodate the city's growing middle class.The complex once attracted "new women", the first American generation of single, self-supporting women -- waitresses, nurses and teachers -- as tenants.
The Windermere is one of the few large apartment houses of its era left in New York City.
By the time city's Landmarks Preservation Commission granted the Windermere landmark status in June, 2005, it was a decaying wreck, a victim of demolition-by-neglect.
Eventually, in March, 2008, the LPC filed a lawsuit to force the Japanese owner, Toa Construction Co., Inc., to stabilize and repair the buildings.
Last week, Toa, after being hit with a record 1.1 million in civil penalties, bailed out.
The new owner, Windermere Properties LLC, has promised the court it will shore and brace the buildings and make other repairs by the end of September.
In a concurrent civil lawsuit, Toa was ordered to pay $2.6 in penalties to 6 former tenants of the Windermere who were evicted in 2007 after the New York City Fire Department found the building uninhabitable.
The article from AM NY:
http://weblogs.amny.com/entertainment/urbanite/blog/2009/05/windermere_tk.html
More from WNYC:
http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/132737
