On September 30th, the NYC Economic Development Corporation issued a Request for Expressions of Interest to operate, program and maintain a community theater and public event space located in the Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center. (The East Harlem landmark building is named after the famed Puerto Rican poet whose commemorative stamp was recently celebrated in one of the community spaces in question.) EDC's action was not without controversy and drew immediate opposition from the current leaseholder. Though they will continue to maintain their own gallery and office space in the building, members of El Taller Boricua/Puerto Rican Workshop have vociferously contested the action and embarked on an ambitious petition and community outreach campaign. Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito has indicated her full support for EDC's plans, citing ongoing concerns about the lack of access to the community space.

Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center (Public School 72)

1680 Lexington Avenue
Built 1879-1882; Architect David I. Stagg
Redesigned by Raymond Plumey, 1993

Public School 72 was the work of David I. Stagg, whose career in public school architecture spanned more than half a century and who was Superintendent of Public School Buildings for the New York City Board of Education from 1872 to 1886. A rare and almost completely intact example of a late nineteenth century public school building in Manhattan, it was designed to meet the needs of a once densely populated immigrant neighborhood in East Harlem. The building, which displays the range of sharply articulated detailing and angular ornament characteristic of the neo Grec style, is an excellent example of that style as it was used in New York public school design during the late 1870s and 1880s. It is one of a few extant school buildings that represent a departure from the design vocabulary of the Italianate style which dominated school design from the late 1840s through the early 1870s. The building continued in use as a public school until 1975, when it was closed by the Board of Education. The building later housed classrooms for Touro College and offices for the East Harlem Council for Community Improvement. A complete renovation and restoration was commissioned by the city in the 1990s. The community use building was renamed the Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center and is currently managed by the NYC Economic Development Corporation.