www.nytimes.com/2003/07/09/nyregion/09BUIL.html -> query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F00E2DB123DF93AA35754C0A9659C8B63
Bloomberg compared it yesterday, 110 Livingston Street was more than a location or a shorthand name for the institution it housed, the city's Board of Education. It symbolized a state of mind, a failed system that was at once imperious and impervious. Now the days are numbered for the few administrators who remain in the old headquarters building in Downtown Brooklyn. The city announced yesterday that it was selling the building for more than $45 million to a developer for conversion into high-end condominiums, with a theater for arts groups on its main floor. To dramatize a clear break with the past, Mayor Bloomberg, who won control of the city's school system last year and moved its headquarters next to City Hall, slapped a red ''SOLD'' sign across the building's front door yesterday. Walentas, whose company, Two Trees Management, was instrumental in developing the Dumbo section of the Brooklyn waterfront. Andrew Alpern, an architectural historian, said he would not be surprised if the building's developers ended up choosing a new address for it, possibly one on Boerum Place, its cross street. Walentas said yesterday that he had no intention of changing the address, which might involve moving the main entrance off Livingston Street. New Yorkers seem to thrive on unsavory associations, or forget them. Most chess players in Washington Square Park probably do not know or care that the area was once the site of public hangings. The killing of Paul Castellano, the Gambino family crime boss, outside Sparks Steak House has not kept carnivores from the restaurant. The Triangle Shirtwaist Company building, which caught fire 92 years ago, killing 146, is a landmark housing science laboratories for New York University. And the Dakota apartment house, on Central Park West, is still one of the city's most elegant addresses, even after it was featured in the horror film ''Rosemary's Baby'' and after one of its most famous residents, John Lennon, was shot to death outside. Rob Polner, a co-author of ''New York Notorious: A Borough-by-Borough Tour of the City's Most Infamous Crime Scenes'' (Crown, 1992), said that in his experience even the city's most notorious addresses got new leases on life. The building was not always known for overflowing ''in'' and ''out'' trays. Designed by the firm of McKim, Mead & White, it opened in 1926 as a luxurious headquarters for the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. It had 200 dormitory rooms, a ballroom, bowling alleys, Turkish baths and a swimming pool. Walentas, the developer, said he planned to build 245 condominiums in the building, which has 12 stories, not counting a small garret. On the main floor, the old Hall of the Board of Education will become a theater for local arts groups. And the building will get an underground garage with 225 parking spaces. Walentas said apartments would sell for around $500,000. The facade, which is not listed as a landmark but is imposing in design and pedigree, will be preserved. Alper, the president of the city's Economic Development Corporation, said that he expected to sign a contract in October and to close the sale in January, and that construction was expected to begin soon afterward. Walentas all expressed confidence that the sale would be completed. Condominiums in 110 Livingston Street would help bridge Brooklyn's thriving residential areas on the periphery of its downtown, from Brooklyn Heights, on the opposite side of Court Street, to Boerum Hill and Cobble Hill, across Atlantic Avenue. Although the city is selling 110 Livingston Street and has moved about 600 education officials to the Department of Education's headquarters in the Tweed Courthouse, behind City Hall, several hundred education administrators will continue to work in Downtown Brooklyn in two other city buildings. But officials of the Bloomberg administration clearly relished the symbolism of the sale.
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