Upcoming Events - September 2015

Dear Friends of LANDMARK WEST!:

We have some exciting events coming up here at LW! to get you through these dog days of summer. Here is a sampling of our programs taking place in September:

Learn the ABCs of Central Park with Gerald Lynas!

Central Park

Monday, September 7, 10:00am 

A great Labor Day activity for the whole family!

Through the alphabet and numbers, artist/author G. Augustine Lynas introduces youngsters to the wonder and beauty of New York's Central Park, a NYC Scenic Landmark. First, we will discover where Lynas found inspiration for his book The ABCs of Central Park, then we will use our own keen eyes to snap candid photos of what Lynas calls "alpha-branches" and "number-limbs!" Check out Lynas' book here and see some pictures from our last tour with Lynas here. 

$5 per person. To make a reservation, please email landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org or call (212) 496-8110.

Roberta Brandes Gratz Book Talk Celebrates Launch of 
We're Still Here Ya Bastards: How the People of New Orleans Rebuilt Their City

Book Culture, 450 Columbus Avenue (between 81st & 82nd) 
Wednesday, September 9, 6:30pm

Join LW! as we remember Hurricane Katrina (2005) and celebrate 10 years of steady urban regeneration in the historic city of New Orleans. Award-winning journalist, urban critic, and author Roberta Brandes Gratz will guide us through her newly released publication, We're Still Here Ya Bastards: How the People of New Orleans Rebuilt Their City. Gratz's book provides a powerful account of how community activists are leading their city's recovery. 

$15, $10 for LW! members. To make a reservation, please email landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org or call (212) 496-8110. Reservations also available through Eventbrite by clicking here.

An Architectural Walking Tour of Lincoln Center with architectural historian Thomas Mellins

Lincoln Center

Wednesday, September 30, 6:00pm

Join us as we explore Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts with Thomas Mellins, an architectural historian, independent curator, and author who has curated exhibitions for Jazz at Lincoln Center, the National Building Museum, the Yale School of Architecture, and many others. Mellins will lead us through the country's largest performing arts center, a space which represents the unity and talent of several prominent architects of the mid-20th century.  Then-starchitects Max Abramovitz, Pietro Belluschi, Gordon Bunshaft, Wallace Harrison, Eero Saarinen, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and Phillip Johnson collaborated to create a world-class center of the arts in Manhattan, defined by an overall aesthetic that synthesized Classicism and Modernism. The tour will also highlight the recent redevelopment project, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Lincoln Center is on LW!'s Wish List of landmark designation priorities, and it was determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.

$25, $15 for LW! members. To make a reservation, please email landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org or call (212) 496-8110. Reservations also available through Eventbrite by clicking here.

    

30th Anniversary! Help LW! pass on the torch in 2015!

June 2015

We're known for being obstinate.   
And we're known for being fighters.
This is no time to lose that reputation.

Dear Friends of LANDMARK WEST!:

…And now is no time to let your LW! membership lapse!  We need you more than ever.  If you’ve recently renewed or activated your 2015 membership (please call or email us to confirm), then you probably already understand why your involvement and support are so important.  If you haven’t renewed or become a member yet, please take two minutes and keep reading.

The quote above comes from Upper West Sider Roberta Brandes Gratz (journalist, urban critic, author,* and early LW! board member), who spoke out at a community meeting in 1983, when developers “rediscovered” the neighborhoods from 59^th to 110^th Street, between Central Park and Riverside Park.  Towers of unprecedented (for then) scale were planned for sites throughout the area.  “Mom & Pop” stores were pushed out.  Century-old buildings were demolished to make way for luxury housing.

Fortunately for the Upper West Side, there were Upper West Siders.  LW! was founded in 1985 and, true to our West-Sider reputation, we stood our ground… we organized… we advocated… and we succeeded in expanding such smart planning policies as zoning with contextual height limits and landmark and historic district protection that recognize the value of preserving existing neighborhood character and scale.

Thirty years ago, under the LW! banner, Upper West Siders reset the balance between preservation and development, public good and private interests, rich past and sustainable future.  Thirty years later, LW! continues to hold the line – day by day, building by building, block by block.

We won the landmark protection of over 3,000 sites, up from only 337 in 1985, securing the character and quality of our neighborhood.  We’ve set up award-winning partnerships with small businesses (our Retail Assistance Program) and schools (Keeping the Past for the Future children’s education program, which since 1999 has reached over 10,000 students and their teachers).  Through our email alerts and social media, we keep West Siders informed about issues and events that affect our lives (visit www.landmarkwest.org to get connected).  We act as the West Side’s “watchdog,” ever ready to spring from vigilance to activism (and often do so).

Those pressures from the 1980s never went away.  Developers have found ways around the laws.  Mayors and city agencies have been complicit.  The Upper West Side has changed, not always for the better. 

Now it’s 2015.  And we’re facing our biggest challenge yet.  HELP!

Just in the past six months:

• The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC, the mayoral agency charged with identifying and protecting our landmark buildings, interiors, and parks) announced that nearly 100 sites heard by the LPC for landmark designation would be removed from consideration.  Also, after delaying its vote on the proposed Riverside-West End Avenue Historic District Extension II for nearly four years, the LPC drastically reduced the district’s boundaries, eliminating protection for much of the west side of Broadway above 89^th Street.  Why?  Ask Mayor de Blasio and his appointed Landmarks Commissioners.
• City Council members (lobbied by the Real Estate Board of New York) introduced legislation that would severely curtail the LPC’s ability to designate landmarks in the future.
•  Mayor de Blasio announced sweeping citywide changes to zoning that would increase height limits on new buildings, with no study of how those changes would affect individual neighborhoods (like ours) that have worked for decades to try and protect character and scale.

Potential 80-story development, W. 66th Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue

• Thirteen(!) new “mega-towers” (exceeding 1,000 feet, the equivalent of 100 stories) are underway or in the planning stages – including one on West 66^th Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue – threatening to blight our skyline and cast shadows that will stretch across Central Park, New York’s great democratic open space, designated a Scenic Landmark in 1974.  Make sure to watch Bill Moyers’ powerful PBS program, “The Long, Dark Shadows of Plutocracy.”

• New breeds of development have emerged that manipulate existing outdated, or unenforced, regulations – for example, a planned building on West 96^th Street that will replace low-scale rowhouses and rise head-and-shoulders above its neighbors.

These issues and more are on LW’s Preservation Watch List, proof that there is still much work to be done to save the Upper West Side…by Upper West Siders and for Upper West Siders.

That’s where you come in.  It is only because of individual donors LIKE YOU that LW! is able to continue holding the line.  For thirty years, our work has produced a better neighborhood – a better city – but all of that could be erased in short order.  We need you to keep us strong.  Please renew your LW! (tax-deductible) membership today for as little as $25 (a mid-year special!). 

Thank you, as always, for your generosity and activism.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,


Arlene Simon                                              Kate Wood
Founder & President (1985-2015)                 President
Chair

P.S.      Membership has its benefits, such as discounts on walking tours, lectures and workshops.  Please make sure we have your email address to notify you about upcoming events!

*Roberta Brandes Gratz is the award-winning author of many books, including The Battle For Gotham: New York in the Shadow of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs and most recently WE'RE STILL HERE YA BASTARDS: How the People of New Orleans Rebuilt Their City.

In July, Learn the Art of Stonecutting

A Cut Above: The Stonecutter's Art 
in Architectural Ornament

A slide lecture by Michael Lynch

Tuesday, July 10 at 6 p.m. 

$15, $10 for LW! Members

Click here to RSVP or email landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org

Carved granite stoop at 24 West 71st Street.

Michael Lynch is a restoration architect and preservation engineer who specializes in the repair of historic buildings and structures. Growing up in the town of Marbletown in upstate New York, it was inevitable that Michael would develop a special interest in stone masonry and spend his career researching and documenting the work of the often anonymous stone cutters working in the 19th and early 20th centuries. His work on stone carving has been published in books and professional journals, and he lectures often on the subject.

Michael will explain how this work was executed and what to look for, as well as how to distinguish faux stone carving (that is, formed terra cotta or cast concrete) from 'the real thing.' The slide lecture will be illustrated with examples of work throughout New York, with an interactive "Where in your neighborhood?" quiz at the end.

For more information, please call 212-496-8110 or email landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org

A Stroll in the Park with Andrew Dolkart

Central Park Walking Tour with Andrew S. Dolkart Wednesday, June 20, 2012, at 6 p.m. $25, $15 for LW! Members Meeting Location TBA **SPACE IS LIMITED** Tickets must be purchased in advance Click here to RSVP or email landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org Central Park is the pleasure-ground of the chief city in a great republic. It has not been set aside by any privileged class for its own use and entertainment, but it is the creation of the whole people of the City of New York for their own enjoyment. ~ Clarence Cook, art critic, 1869*   Join LW! for a walking tour of the People's Park with Professor Andrew S. Dolkart, Director of the Historic Preservation Program at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation. *As quoted in Central Park's Scenic Landmark designation report. If you have any questions, call us at 212-496-8110.

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE: Behind the scenes tour of the American Folk Art Museum

Marino Auriti's "Encyclopedic Place of the World", via NYT

Explore 
"Jubilation | Rumination" 

with Senior Curator 

Stacy C. Hollander 

Wednesday, Mar. 14
6PM 

Reserve today!
Only 15 places available 

$35, Pre-Sale for LW! Members Only*

LANDMARK WEST! celebrates the relocation of the American Folk Art Museum, founded in 1961, to its new permanent home on the Upper West Side (2 Lincoln Square, Columbus Ave. at West 66th St.).

In the January 26, 2012 Arts section of The New York Times, Ken Johnson described "Jubilation | Rumination" as "a wonderful exhibition of works from the permanent collection" that "samples all varieties of artistic expression under the institution's purview, from traditional genres like portraits and quilts; sculptures made of bottle caps and similarly curious materials; and otherworldly fantasies drawn and painted by so-called Outsiders."

*LANDMARK WEST! members will get preference to purchase tickets until Monday, February 20, 2012 at close of business. Tickets will then become available to the general public. 

Email us (landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org) or call us (212-496-8110) to reserve your place on the tour, check on your membership status, or to become a member today!

ABOUT STACY C. HOLLANDER
Stacy C. Hollander is Senior Curator and Director of Exhibitions at the American Folk Art Museum. She was most recently project coordinator for "Infinite Variety: Three Hundred Years of Red and White Quilts" presented by the American Folk Art Museum at the Park Avenue Armory (2011). Hollander lectures and publishes widely and is a frequent contributor to scholarly magazines in the field. She was a presenter in the international conference "Folk Art and the Art Museum" organized by Tate Britain, Claverton Manor (Bath) and Compton Verney (2010). Hollander received her B.A. from Barnard College, Columbia University, and her M.A. in American folk art studies from New York University.