LPC Hearing Alert 2/3/26! Despite the initial rejection of a developer's plan to build a 30-story tower on top of these four landmarked townhouses in Downtown Brooklyn, the developer has returned with a new, slightly-altered proposal that will come before the Landmarks Preservation Committee (LPC) on this Tuesday, February 3rd.

If you care about the preservation of these historic homes, we urge you to submit written testimony against the current plan. Testimony/comments are accepted until 12PM (noon) on Monday 2/2 (tomorrow) before this Tuesday's meeting. You can either submit them via this online form or email them to: testimony@lpc.nyc.gov.

Among our many objections to the new proposal include:

• The plans violate the intent of the townhomes’ original preservation agreement to protect the individual houses in their entirety. In fact, the current proposal significantly alters the interiors and landmarked entryway of 188, removing the stoop; and the plan also destroys rear sections and interiors of the other houses, rendering them mere Hollywood-set facades.
• The proposed high-rise remains highly prominent as seen from street level, overwhelming the 3-story townhouses. The looming, mid-block tower destroys the historic fabric of the homes and is drastically out of scale, not looking at the houses at all for historical context. 
• The plan does not honor the history of these homes, nor the reason for which they were saved in the first place: to commemorate the vibrant middle class neighborhood and its rich historical importance to the development of 19th-century Brooklyn. These historic and irreplaceable Duffield townhomes should be protected, restored and utilized as intended for the benefit of the neighborhood and not a private developer.

For more information about the history of the houses, you can read the original petition you signed.

Thanks for your support!

Downtown Brooklyn Community Association