Letting a Mighty Nave at St. John the Divine's Breathe, in Full View of a Neighborhood

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Michael KimmelmanI

A construction site for two 15-story apartment towers
that would block this view of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine

NEW YORK---Workers are digging the foundation for a twin-towered apartment building that will obscure the great flying buttresses and stained-glass windows of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in Morningside Heights. Preservationists, neighbors and architects are justly up in arms. Like other religious institutions today, the cathedral struggles with yawning deficits while trying to protect programs to serve the poor and the city. With an 11-plus-acre campus to play with, its trustees several years ago contracted with a developer to erect a 20-story apartment building on the property’s southeast corner at 110th Street, tucked well away from the church. Completed in 2008, it yields the church some $2 million a year in fees from the developer under a 99-year lease. [link]