Clemente Soto Velez Center Wins Landmarks Conservancy Award
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The building is not only an architectural anchor on the Lower East Side, but one for the arts as well. Clemente Soto Velez at Suffolk Street is a bastion of creativity that offers classes, theatrical performances, and even the annual Halloween haunted house. For its efforts in preserving the former public school, PS 160, the New York Landmarks Conservancy is bestowing the highest honor. The Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award. Last night was the official reception to mark the occasion.
According to the press release:
The Moses Awards recognize individuals, organizations, architects, craftspeople and building owners for their extraordinary contributions to preserving our City.
Their work has saved some 2,000 buildings across the city and state, helping preserve the beauty of New York for future generations.
The building was constructed at 107 Suffolk Street in 1898 by the Board of Education of New York, and was designed in a Dutch Neo-Gothic style. Its function as a school ended in the seventies, and the premises briefly became home to Solidaridad Humana, community-based, bilingual education center. CSV wouldn’t arrive until 1993.
For the last few years, it sat beneath a shroud of netting and scaffolding, receiving repairs and a facelift. We now see it in all its glory.