IMPORTANT UPDATE: Community Board 7 has postponed its public meeting on Congregation Shearith
When it's complete? Hasn't Shearith
Preserving the best of the Upper West Side's neighborhood character and architectural heritage.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Shearith Israel's Application Incomplete: Public Meeting Postponed
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Presenting P.S. 166's Exquisite Neighborhood Model
As part of the Keeping the Past for the Future curriculum, 2nd graders studied their immediate neighborhood and environment with a LW! educator, learning about the various building types, architectural elements, and businesses that form part of the exciting Upper West Side community. Students’ models on display include police stations, banks, grocery stores, brownstones, schools, and libraries. The students completed the project under the guidance of P.S. 166 classroom teachers Julie Stone and Carmen Cardona, and LW! Director of Education Elyse Newman.
Be sure to stop by Council Member Gale Brewer’s district office to see this beautiful and detailed student model firsthand! LANDMARK WEST! would like to thank Council Member Brewer for hosting the exhibition and for her continued support for Keeping the Past for the Future.
~
Keeping the Past for the Future (now in its 10th year!) is designed to foster within our city’s young people, primarily in grades 1 to 5, a strong sense of engagement, ownership, and responsibility toward their community through learning about the built environment and its history. Through its interdisciplinary and hands-on activities, Keeping the Past for the Future supports literacy, mathematical ability, analytic thinking, problem solving and creative thinking. Meanwhile, the program emphasizes the important role of historic preservation in sustaining the quality of life of our community for present and future generations. During the 2006-2007 school year, KPF reached over 1,000 students in 40 classrooms and 8 schools on the Upper West Side—and at no cost to public schools. If you would like Keeping the Past for the Future to be a part of your child’s education, contact your school principal or parent coordinator
and tell them!
To learn more about Keeping the Past for the Future, visit www.landmarkwest.org/education, or email elysenewman@landmarkwest.org.
*P.S. 166 was designated an individual New York City Landmark in 2000. It was designed by Charles B.J. Snyder and completed in 1898.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Shearith Israel Back in Play
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Landmarks Budget Emergency
AT RISK: The Landmarks Preservation Commission and Historic Buildings and Neighborhoods Throughout NYC!
Unless YOU act right now, the already minuscule budget of the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) -- the only city agency with the authority to protect
The City Council, now entering final budget negotiations, must hear from you. Immediately. Email/call/fax your local council member and members of the budget negotiating team TODAY. See contact information below.
Frustrated with the LPC? Their slowness to respond? The ever-quickening pace of development, eating away at the character of our communities? It will only get worse, unless the LPC has the resources it needs to carry out its vital mission. Landmark West! is part of a broad coalition advocating for a $1 million increase in the LPC budget on top of its current budget of just over $4 million -- a modest amount of money that could make a world of difference in the LPC's ability to protect the buildings and neighborhoods that matter to the people of our city. ACT NOW! Contact the Council, and forward this message to friends and colleagues.
Who is your council person? Go to http://www.cmap.
Who are the council members on the budget negotiating team?
Quinn quinn@council.nyc.ny.us; F: (212) 564-7347; T: (212) 564-7757
Brewer
Garodnick
Baez
Comrie
Dilan
McMahon
Rivera
Dickens
Fidler
DiBlasio
Gallagher
Oddo
Arroyo
Reyna
Weprin
Katz
At-large members
Seabrook
Sears
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
June 21 Walking Tour with Andrew Dolkart
Please join LANDMARK WEST! and friends for
Vernacular Architecture of the
Upper
A Walking Tour with Andrew Scott Dolkart
Thursday, June 21, 2007 (rain or shine)
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
~
Meet at Strangers’ Gate (east side of Central Park West at
~
The Upper West Side is literally filled with vernacular architecture, referring to buildings and streetscapes that, while they may not have been designed by
~
Together, these builders – often recent immigrants – adapted popular architectural forms to the demands of a dense city. Their deep influence on
“Make Music
~
Andrew Scott Dolkart is an architectural historian, writer, the James Marston Fitch Associate Professor of Historic Preservation at
~
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Come Learn about Efforts to Improve the Landmarks Preservation Process!
A special invitation to all friends of LANDMARK WEST! and historic preservation
RSVP by May29!
the Citizens Emergency Committee to Preserve Preservation
A restored 1880s Renaissance Revival rowhouse in the heart of the
Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District
Wednesday, May 30, 2007, 6-8 PM
RSVP by May 29 to citizens@savelpc.org or 212-380-8612. $25 per person
Wine and light food will be served.
**Come join in a chorus of the CECPP preservation anthem (visit YouTube for a preview)!**
Door prize for a lucky preservationist!
The Citizens Emergency Committee to Preserve Preservation (CECPP) will discuss current efforts
to make sure
The challenge is to get the Landmarks Preservation Commission increased funding, operational transparency and political independence to do its job better so that beloved buildings and neighborhoods all over the City can be preserved.
What This Means:
*More staff to designate more landmarks and historic districts and to safeguard them against inappropriate changes*
*Fair and balanced consideration of community input*
*Making sure Landmarks Commissioners are qualified and free from political influence*
For more information about CECPP’s campaign, please visit www.savelpc.org
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Come Learn about Efforts to Improve the Landmarks Preservation Process!
A special invitation to all friends of LANDMARK WEST! and historic preservation
Please join us!
the Citizens Emergency Committee to Preserve Preservation
A restored 1880s Renaissance Revival rowhouse in the heart of the
Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District
Wednesday, May 30, 2007, 6-8 PM
RSVP by May 29 to citizens@savelpc.org or 212-380-8612. $25 per person
Wine and light food will be served.
**Come join in a chorus of the CECPP preservation anthem (visit YouTube for a preview)!**
Door prize for a lucky preservationist!
The Citizens Emergency Committee to Preserve Preservation (CECPP) will discuss current efforts
to make sure
The challenge is to get the Landmarks Preservation Commission increased funding, operational transparency and political independence to do its job better so that beloved buildings and neighborhoods all over the City can be preserved.
What This Means:
*More staff to designate more landmarks and historic districts and to safeguard them against inappropriate changes*
*Fair and balanced consideration of community input*
*Making sure Landmarks Commissioners are qualified and free from political influence*
For more information about CECPP’s campaign, please visit www.savelpc.org
Friday, May 4, 2007
‘New Preservationists' Make Their Mark on the City
Staff Reporter of the Sun
May 2, 2007
Surrender the image of a preservationist as a crabby, older person with a park view to protect.
Preservationist Seri Worden, 30, grew up in Brandon, Fla., shopping at big-box stores such as Target and eating at strip mall chains like Bennigan's. Now, as the executive director of the Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts, she is fighting to save the Upper East Side's low- and mid-rise landscape, and to extend the neighborhood's landmark districts.
Ms. Worden is part of a cadre of under-40 professionals who came of age during a time of tremendous suburban sprawl, but grew up to lead some of this city's most high-profile preservation groups. These vocal "new preservationists" have positioned themselves at the center of many of the city's recent battles over building proposals, including those at 980 Madison Ave., the New York Historical Society on Central Park West, and the campus of the General Theological Seminary in Chelsea.
These new preservationists are regulars at community board and Landmarks Preservation Commission meetings. There, they can often be found touting the architectural merits of a structure built a generation before they were born, or opposing a glassy residential high-rise in a landmark district — cases some developers and change advocates have called obstructionist.
"If they're not reasonable, they can hold back certain developments and certain changes that are necessary to adjust to the 21st century," the developer who hopes to build atop an Upper East Side gallery at 980 Madison Ave., Aby Rosen, said.
All but one member of the Landmarks Preservation Commission in January said they would not support Mr. Rosen's proposal to erect a 22-story cylindrical glass tower above 980 Madison Ave., and sent the developer back to the drawing board. Some of the new preservationists, such as Ms. Worden, say they were drawn to the field, in part, because of their aversion to the sprawling quality of their hometowns. "When I go home to Florida, you have the same strip-mall every two miles," Ms. Worden said. "There doesn't seem like there's a chance for an individual store or restaurant that isn't a chain to exist. Every time I go anywhere like that, I'm so happy I do what I do." Others grew up in and around New York, and have been inspired by the extent of change to New York's cityscape over the decades, and the rapidity of that change — particularly amid the development boom that has given rise to a slew of luxury condominium towers. The executive director of Landmarks West, Kate Wood, 33, said she learned the value of preservation from her parents, who were constantly working to maintain their early 20th century home in Princeton, N.J. "For me, it just seemed normal — you live in a place and you take care of it," she said. Ms. Wood been a vocal opponent of the New York Historical Society's exterior renovation plan — approved last week by the landmarks commission. Ms. Wood repeatedly called the renovation a guise for a residential high-rise project that she said would mar Central Park West's historic skyline. Her organization was at the center of a battle to preserve the Edward Durrell Stone building at 2 Columbus Circle — but failed after a long and loud campaign that lured in the likes of author Tom Wolfe. There are also practical reasons why so many young people are leading the city's professional preservation pack: 60-plus hour weeks and mid-five-figure salaries that infrequently exceed $50,000, Internal Revenue Service filings show. "Every day, it's a David versus Goliath battle," the executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, Andrew Berman, said. "You really have to have fire in your belly to be willing to take on that position." Still, the availability of jobs in preservation, even relatively low-paying ones, is emblematic of how the field of preservation — long the domain of tireless volunteers such as Christabel Gough and Whitney North Seymour Jr. — has been professionalized, and formalized. Since Columbia University first started its graduate historic preservation program 42 years ago, many other institutions of higher education have followed suit. Younger preservationists have "grown up in a world where preservation is legitimized through legal statues and ordinances," the administrative director of Columbia's urban planning and historic preservation programs, Janet Foster, said. Ms. Foster said many of the new preservationists are concerned not only with preserving the city's 19th- and early 20th-century architecture, but also with "keeping representation from all periods in history, because if you weren't born until 1970, 1969 is ancient history." Case in point is the white brick 1950 apartment house that the Friends of the Upper East Side Historic District favors designating as a landmark. The new preservationists, and those who support their work, see their job as protecting the historic architecture that makes New York distinctive and charming. For that reason, the Brooklyn-bred director of the Historic Districts Council, Simeon Bankoff, 36, calls himself and his fellow preservationists "professional New Yorkers." "I do think my generation has a great appreciation for the kinds of quirky buildings and beautiful buildings that make New York unique," a fellow with the Municipal Arts Society of New York City, Lisa Kersavage, 37, said. "I live in Carroll Gardens, and I see all these young people starting trendy restaurants and bars there — and they are almost universally respectful of the buildings they move into." Given the perceived generational interest, some preservation groups are making an effort to attract young, committed volunteers. Last week, the Waterfront Preservation Alliance of Greenpoint and Williamsburg brought together about 100 mostly young adults for a benefit at a Brooklyn bar. "I don't think having an appreciation for history knows an age boundary," a 30-year-old alliance volunteer, Alice Rich, said.
 |
Konrad Fiedler |
'New preservationists' outside the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. Back row, left to right: Andrew Berman, Lisa Kersavage, Alice Rich, Simeon Bankoff. Front row, left to right: Kate Wood, Seri Worden, Melissa Baldock. |
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
PRESERVATION ALERT: Preservation Lobby Day is Wed., May 9
LANDMARK WEST! is working with a coalition of over 30 groups (please see list below) to co-sponsor the First Annual NYC Preservation Lobby Day on Wednesday, May 9, 2007. A press conference will take place on the steps of City Hall at 12:00 noon. Please join us!
Together in a unified voice, we are urging the City Council to increase the budget of the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) by $1 million (from its current, miniscule level of only $4.3 million). Why? Please see the attached Fact Sheet and bullet points below (prepared by the Citizens Emergency Committee to Preserve Preservation).
The City Council and Mayor Bloomberg need to hear from preservationists! Please show your support for helping the LPC get the resources it needs to do its job of protecting the historic places that matter most to New Yorkers by taking the following actions:
1) Call your council member (or one of their staff member). (Find contact information at www.nyccouncil.info.) Let them know that you, as one of their constituents, support additional funding for the LPC.
2) Schedule an appointment to meet with your council member. If possible, set up a time between 9:00 AM and 12:00 noon on Wednesday, May 9. Bring colleagues and neighbors with you - in unity, there's strength! For purposes of coordination, let us know if you get an appointment by emailing landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org.
3) Invite your council member to join us at the press conference. May 9, 12:00 noon, on the steps of City Hall.
4) Send an email or fax stating your support for additional funding, especially if you aren't able to schedule an appointment to see your council member (please cc. landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org).
Lack of Resources (from www.savelpc.org, Citizens Emergency Committee to Preserve Preservation)
The Landmarks Preservation Commission is one of the smallest city agencies in
- The Commission’s budget has shrunk by 35% since 1990, in constant dollars
- The Commission’s staff has decreased by 25% since 1990. Over this same time period, the number of applications to repair or modify landmarks (which the Commission regulates) has more than doubled, to 9,000 per year;
- The Commission has just 52 staff members who watch over more than 22,000 landmarks throughout the five boroughs; only 3 of which are charged with enforcing the landmarks law
- The Commission’s share of the city budget has shrunk by 52% since 1990. It now occupies just .007% of the entire city budget
- Since 1990, the Commission has increased the revenue it generates for the city from just $10,000 per year to more than $1 million per year. It now raises nearly 1/3 of its agency budget, yet the city continues to deny the Commission the funding and staff it needs
Organizations In Support of Increasing the LPC Budget By $1 Million
American
Boerum Hill Association
Citizens Emergency Committee to Preserve Preservation
Cobble Hill Association
Defenders of the Historic
DUMBO Neighborhood Association
The Drive to Protect the Ladies' Mile District
Four Borough Neighborhood Preservation
Friends of the
Historic Districts Council
The Historic Neighborhood Enhancement
Landmark West!
Municipal Art Society
Park Slope Civic Council
Preservation League of
Society for the Architecture of the City
Women's City Club of
List in formation
If you are affiliated with an organization whose name does not appear above, please email landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org to sign on!
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
N-Y Historical Society Scales Back
