Tin Pan Alley in Danger

[kec]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 9:53am

Has anyone here heard about this?
New Yorkers Trying to Save Tin Pan Alley

[Paul W. Thompson]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 10:26am

Yes, it was in the New York Times yesterday, and I think I had seen something a few months back. This is extremely important! Hopefully the buildings can be saved and rescued from not only the wrecking ball but from obscurity as well.

[DrewBill]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 11:32am

Honestly, the former "Tin Pan Alley" is a pretty squalid stretch of real estate these days. (I used to work nearby.) And the music business has long since moved away.

While I'm all for saving significant and historic architecture, I'm not convinced this is worth saving. While the music and legacy that came out of that part of the city are important and should not be forgotten, the actual buildings that made up Tin Pan Alley are nothing special. In fact, I would pretty much categorize them as eyesores.

And ironically, having this group of buildings officially designated as landmarks would almost certainly result in their further decline -- once a building achieves landmark status, there are many, many legal restrictions placed on how the buildings can be used and/or renovated in the future. Most developers who might be interested in the area would be scared away by the additional costs and legal headaches involved in working on landmarked structures.

So in the end, the buildings most likely never get fully restored, the neighborhood remains sketchy, and everybody loses.

[son_of_a_gunn_25]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 11:44am

Updated On: 4/3/10 at 11:44 AM

[Paul W. Thompson]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 12:16pm

Gunn, you are exactly right. Great idea!

There are challenges, of course, and headaches, but saving them is a first step to turning the block into something better than it is now.

[DrewBill]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 12:46pm

A museum is a lovely idea, but not a realistic one. Unless of course you happen to have ... I don't know ... maybe close to a billion dollars in your pocket to make it happen?

Think about it for a second: the buildings are currently privately owned and house a variety of small businesses. You would have to buy what amounts to most of a New York City block, and somehow get the current tenants out. (Just because they become "landmarks" doesn't mean they would be owned by the city or state.)

The buildings are in a serious state of disrepair, so I imagine any renovation would require nearly gutting the buildings, saving only the exteriors and any parts deemed "historic." That pretty much means the structures would be re-built from the ground up.

Add to that the costs of creating a museum in the space, and a collection that people would actually want to see/hear. And the operational costs of maintaining that museum in an area of Manhattan that's not particularly tourist-friendly.

It all adds up to a lot of money. And in these economic times, I doubt there would be little, if any, support from government, or even private sources. Like I said, a lovely idea, but not likely to ever happen.

Updated On: 11/11/08 at 12:46 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 3:39pm

When the CBS Building was built at 52nd Street and 6th Avenue, they tore down most of the brownstones that once formed "Swing Street," the bars and restaurants that started out in the 1920s as speakeasies during Prohibition, then became the nightclubs that saw the early performances of Billie Holliday and Lena Horne and the birth of Be-Bop.

Those brownstones are no more because the real-estate value of those buildings is astronomically higher than a 5-story building could ever command.

It's sad that Tin Pan Alley will disappear as Swing Street did.

Thank the gods and goddesses of the theater that our Broadway theaters are protected as landmarks.

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