‘Masonic Hall wins award, plans for upgrades’

    

Hoffman Architects + Engineers

Our beloved Masonic Hall is making news.

The headquarters of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York, located on Twenty-Third Street in Manhattan, is a winner of the Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award for 2024. The New York Landmarks Conservancy’s 34th annual awards night on April 10 was a sell-out with 600 attendees at the Plaza. Masonic Hall was among fifteen properties honored with the Conservancy’s top honor for preservation.

The improvements to the building included replacement of the roof and repair of the building façade, all completed last year. Just speaking as a nobody, it was great to see, at last, the removal of the scaffolding that had enveloped our home for so many years.

Also newsworthy is the Masonic Hall and Home Trustees’ recent decision to convert 71 West 23rd Street from Class B office space to Class A. This will be a big undertaking, as the differences between B and A are substantial. Class A spaces are prized and command premium prices per square foot.

For those who do not understand, Masonic Hall actually is two buildings. Our lodges meet in the building fronted on Twenty-Fourth Street. The Twenty-Third Street property is where many commercial tenants lease their office spaces. With extensive capital improvements, rents will increase sharply, and I have to assume a fancier character of rental client will replace our current neighbors. The point of it all is to create capital to develop Masonic Care Communities around the state. (There had been a few other plans under review, including turning our godsend parking lot into either office space or 460 apartments, but these were shelved.)

I think it’s amazing how a building nearing its 115th birthday can be improved and kept relevant in the Manhattan cityscape.