Prelude to Preservation 2030

Hopefully you've marked your calendar for Preservation 2030, the annual conference sponsored by Historic Districts Council, taking place the weekend of March 7-9, 2008 (for more information about registering, visit www.hdc.org. The following pre-conference talks touch on timely topics of interest.

Thursday, February 28, 2008
Preservation, Planning & Aesthetic Regulation in New York City
6:30pm, Parish Hall, St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, 131 East 10th Street at 2nd Avenue, Manhattan

This program is co-sponsored by Pratt Institute's Graduate Historic Preservation Program.

There are many areas of New York City that possess unique amenities but do not meet the criteria defined in the Landmarks Law for designation. Because of decisions made during the 1961 revision of the New York City Zoning Resolution, planning practice here largely does not deal with or regulate the aesthetics of place - the color, scale or type of building materials,which so affect the visual feel of a neighborhood. Arguably, the time has come to craft a different model, in which aesthetic concerns are central to neighborhood planning efforts. What framework for neighborhood planning can be devised to focus attention on the built environment as inevitable changes take hold within the public realm?

The panel discussion, moderated by Carol Clark, Adjunct Associate Professor, Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning andPreservation, will feature Sarah Kelly, Executive Director, Boston Preservation Alliance; Christopher J. Ise, Principal Planner, Providence,R.I.; Mark Ginsberg, FAIA, Partner, Curtis & Ginsberg Architects LLP; Julia Vitullo-Martin, Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute; and Eric Allison, Coordinator of the Historic Preservation Graduate Program at Pratt Institute.

Thursday, March 6, 2008
A History of Population in New York City

6:30pm, Parish Hall, St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, 131 East 10th Streetat 2nd Avenue, Manhattan

According to PlaNYC 2030, New York City's population is expected to grow byone million people within the next 25 years. However significant, this isnot the first population boom our city will have endured. Since it first wasestablished as a center of the Dutch fur trade New York has been no strangerto growing populations and the commensurate physical growing pains. Thislecture will examine two eras that saw sudden influxes of new residents, thefactors that motivated these large-scale migrations, and the city's attemptsto accommodate these new arrivals.

Noted architectural historian and New York Sun columnist Francis Morrone will discuss the turn of the 20th century, a period during which New York City gained more than two million new residents in approximately twenty years. Dr. Jeffrey Kroessler, author of New York, Year by Year, will examine the post-WWII expansion in urban areas throughout the five boroughs.