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IN ROUND EIGHT OF ONE OF THE longest landmarks battles in the city's history, the owners of a key piece of land in the South Street Seaport historic district are coming before the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission this week.
In one corner are Paul and Seymour Milstein, the tough-as-nails brothers who own more than 8,000 apartments throughout the city and have tangled with preservationists in the past. They bought the trapezoidal property at 250 Water St. on the cheap in 1979 and, after failing to construct a massive office building on the site, want to create an even more gargantuan 32-story residential complex.
Historic integrity at issue
In the other corner are community leaders and preservationists. They say the design calls for a building so much larger than anything else in the area that it subverts the character of the historic district.
This is hardly a new confrontation. Over the past 13 years, Milstein Properties has brought ideas from four different architects before the commission. With the exception of one proposal, all were handily rejected. The exception was a 1991...