The cast-iron architecture in SoHo is beautiful. Would different zoning change the way the district looks?

• Zoning Guidebook FAQ

A historic district designation largely protects SoHo’s architectural character. In 1973, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated a rough rectangle between West Broadway and Houston, Crosby, and Canal Streets as the ‘SoHo Cast-Iron Historic District.’ The report explaining the designation described that the area was chosen for “the unique collection of cast-iron structures located within the District” and that “the District contains some of the City’s most interesting extant examples of brick, stone and mixed iron-and-masonry commercial construction of the post-Civil War period.”

New development is permitted to occur on vacant lots but must be done with the approval of the LPC and generally completed in context and scale of the surrounding buildings.