Former Landmarks says LPC "Turned Its Back" on 2 Columbus Circle

Former Landmarks Commissioner Outraged that LPC "Turned Its Back" on 2 Columbus Circle

Anthony M. Tung , a member of the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) from 1979 to 1988, recently fired off a letter to current LPC Chair Robert B. Tierney, stating:

"Simply, in the 26 years of my involvement in preservation matters, beginning with my appointment as a commissioner by Mayor Edward I. Koch in 1979, I have never seen the commission turn its back on such a widely supported and substantive argument for a hearing."

Mr. Tung, an international preservation scholar and author of Preserving the World's Great Cities: The Destruction and Renewal of the Historic Metropolis , also pointed out that " the collective scholarly knowledge of those who defend Two Columbus Circle is far in excess of any equitable test for calendaring. In fact, a sizable percentage of the protected structures of New York, several thousand buildings, fail to have had been as thoroughly validated upon designation." (To read a full copy of his letter, click here.)

Are these architects, historians, planners, professors, critics, and engineers all blind, he muses, or is the LPC being arbitrary and capricious?

Mr. Tung has received no response as yet to his August 30, 2004, letter. Further evidence that the LPC intends to continue ignoring the public in order to facilitate a multi-million dollar institutional development that will destroy the very heritage our Landmarks Law was designed to protect. Is this democracy? Not in our book. Your elected officials need to hear from YOU - again! Urge them to take immediate action to make sure 2 Columbus Circle receives a public hearing before the LPC!

NYC Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg,http://nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html, 212-788-2460 (fax)

NYC Council Member Gale A. Brewer,gale.brewer@council.nyc.ny.us, 212-513-7717 (fax)

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer,http://schumer.senate.gov/webform.html, 212-486-7693 (fax)

U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton,http://clinton.senate.gov/email_form.html, 202-228-0282 (fax)

U.S. Congressman Jerrold Nadler,http://www.house.gov/nadler/emailform.shtml, 212-367-7356 (fax)

NYS Senator Liz Krueger,liz@lizkrueger.com, 518-426-6874 (fax)

NYS Assemblyman Richard Gottfried,gottfrr@assembly.state.ny.us, 212-243-2035 (fax)

ALSO VERY IMPORTANT:

NYC Council William Perkins,perkins@council.nyc.ny.us, 212-442-2732 (fax)

U.S. Congressman Charles Rangel,http://www.house.gov/writerep/, 202-225-0816 (fax)

NYS Senator Tom Duane,DUANE@senate.state.ny.us, 212-564-1003 (fax)

NYS Assemblyman Scott Stringer,Scott@scottStringer.com, 212-873-6520(fax)

Make sure to send a copy of your letter to LANDMARK WEST! landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org, F: 212-875-0209.

City Approves Sale of 2 Columbus Circle

Dog-Day Decision Debacle: Manhattan Borough Board Votes to Sell 2 Columbus Circle

Let's start with the good news. Back in June, we set a summer goal to reach 1,000 names on the list of people urging the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission to schedule a public hearing for 2 Columbus Circle. Last week, we surpassed that goal! Notably, Council Member Bill Perkins* signed on in support of a Landmarks hearing, and his representative at yesterday's Manhattan Borough Board meeting tried to persuade the Board to postpone its vote on the sale of the building until such a hearing could be scheduled, or at least until after Labor Day, when more New Yorkers could participate in the Board's decision-making process.

Now, let's face the bad news. The Manhattan Borough Board voted to approve the sale of 2 Columbus Circle to the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), meaning that plans to destroy the building are closer than ever to becoming a reality.

Even worse, Borough President C. Virginia Fields's refusal to postpone the Board's vote suggests the low value placed on public participation in the review process. Disregarding the objections of over 100 individuals who signed on to a letter protesting the scheduling of this meeting in the dog days of summer, days before the arrival of the Republican National Convention, when many New Yorkers have longstanding plans to be away, the Board plowed ahead...so recklessly that it appears they failed to comply with the State Open Meetings Law. Most Board members sent staff proxies - indeed, Fields herself was not even there - with marching orders to follow the lead of Council Member Gale Brewer, in whose district 2 Columbus Circle is located and who announced her support for the Museum's destructive plans earlier this month. A pre-formulated resolution in favor of the sale was passed with no amendments. It was, sadly, business as usual.

Is the Lollipop Building licked? Not on your life. There has been no final decision on the lawsuit LW! and others filed to halt the sale, and the City has committed enough missteps to justify more legal action. Stay tuned...

*Other elected officials who signed on to support a public Landmarks hearing include: NYS Senator Tom Duane, NYS Assemblyman Scott Stringer, and former NYC Council Member Ronnie Eldridge. Only Council Member Perkins has a vote on the Manhattan Borough Board.

2 Columbus Circle: City Poised to Approve Sale

August Dog Days Sneak Attack: City Set to Decide on Sale of 2 Columbus Circle

After a year of unexplained delays, the City is poised to give final approval to the sale of 2 Columbus Circle. On August 24, at 8:30 AM, the Manhattan Borough Board will convene to authorize a plan that will utterly destroy Edward Durell Stone's original 1964 design, which leading preservationists at the city, state, and national levels all agree deserves at least an open, public hearing to determine its merits for landmark status. To date, over 1000 individuals and organizations have signed on to urge the NYC Landmarks Commission to schedule this hearing. Our pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

2 Columbus Circle deserves the chance for survival that a fair and due process is supposed to provide. The message we've received - loud and clear - has been, "Due process be damned!"

If this sounds extreme, just remember - common NYC political wisdom has it that scheduling a hearing on a major public issue during the last week of August is a deliberate effort to avoid meaningful public participation. Many community supporters of preserving 2 Columbus Circle are not able to attend Tuesday's meeting (the second to last week before Labor Day, the week before the Republican Convention takes over NYC). Those of us who are in town feel strongly that we should not dignify this farcical meeting with our presence. Therefore, we plan to send down a single spokesperson to read the statement below. As one of the 1000 advocates for 2 Columbus Circle to receive the due process it deserves, please email us and let us know that you would like to co-sign this statement.

In unity, there's strength! Please contact us immediately: landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org or 212-496-8110.

2 Columbus Circle: And Still the Fight Goes On

Court Denies City's Attempt to Rush Judgment on 2 Columbus Circle

Late last week, the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court preliminarily rejected efforts by the City to rush the legal process that could decide the future of 2 Columbus Circle. Under court rules,Landmark West! and colleagues, who filed suit last November contesting the building's sale because an inadequate environmental review neglected to identify it as a significant historic resource, have until early 2005 to file our appeal. As of now, that schedule still holds. And we fully intend to file.

The City's Friday morning sneak attack is the merely the latest in a series of maneuvers to derail the swelling campaign to preserve Edward Durell Stone's famous 1964 design. Last week, the Economic Development Corporation notified the Manhattan Borough President's office that it would seek an August 19 hearing before the Borough Board, a last step in transferring ownership of the site to the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD). Mid-August hearings are a classic political gambit to squeeze through decisions that would otherwise engender huge public debate. An attorney representing MAD told a state judge that the Museum had been stymied in its efforts to raise funds due to the possibility of LW's obtaining a reversal in its suit. She said that two pledges in excess of $1 million had already been withdrawn.

Meanwhile, support for ensuring that 2 Columbus Circle receives the public Landmarks hearing it deserves is stronger than ever. The National Trust for Historic Preservation , the Preservation League of New York State , the Historic Districts Council , DOCOMOMO , the Municipal Art Society, the New York Landmarks Conservancy , Robert A.M. Stern, Tom Wolfe, Senator Tom Duane, Chuck Close, Frank Stella, Jonathan Adler, Barry Bergdoll, Jeffrey Bilhuber, Michael Bruno, Andrew Cogan, Frank De Biasi, Joan K. Davidson, Todd Eberle, Michael Formica, Françoise Gilot-Salk, Milton Glaser, Bob Hiemstra, Mary Anne Hunting, Barbara Jakobson, Reed & Delphine Krakoff, Gene Meyer, the Very Rev. James Parks Morton, Carlos Mota, Liz O'Brien, James Zemaitis, Alan Rosenberg, Jill Rudnick, Michael Sorkin, Ken Smith, Alan Wanzenberg, Hicks Stone and Edward Durell Stone, Jr. The list goes on. Way on.

MAD and the City would like for this whole issue to just go away, but it won't. The eyes of the nation are on them.

And if you've read this far, you might as well keep reading. Don't miss this week's issue of the West Side Spirit and Christopher Moore's front page coverage of the continuing battle for the future of 2 Columbus Circle. To read it, click here.

2 Columbus Circle: In Style

Preservationists in Style, Museums in the Doghouse

Some of you may have caught the New York Times' coverage of the June 29 cocktail party and auction to benefit the Save 2 Columbus Circle Fund . This swank affair, which raised over $50,000 to support our ongoing campaign to preserve Edward Durell Stone's unique 1964 building, inspired three separate features in the July 4edition. Between Anemona Hartocollis's "tongue-in-chic" piece, "Preservationist Chic: What Would Tom Wolfe Do?," which captured the front page of the City Section, to Bill Cunningham's photographs of party-goersin the Sunday Styles section, we were covered from head to toe.

Meanwhile, we continue to build a roster of names - the Silent Majority - of people who support a public hearing before the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. ***If you believe that 2 Columbus Circle deserves at least a hearing to decide whether it merits protection as an official NYC Landmark, simply reply "YES!" to this e-mail.*** We will publish the names soon but, for now, trust us when we say that you'll be in excellent company. (If you would like a copy of the list in formation, please let us know!)

But enough of the boldface spin. Michael Kimmelman's July 11 Times article, "New York's Bizarre Museum Moment," is required reading for anyone who cares about the future of 2 Columbus Circle, or indeed our city's cultural institutions.If you missed it, it is still available here.

Kimmelman's chilling indictment of NYC museums and their "identity crises" suggests a diagnosis for the malady afflicting the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD),the would-be occupant of 2 Columbus Circle,driving them to eradicate rather than restore an irreplaceable work of mid-century Modernism. According to Kimmelman, "many of the most important museums in New York...are grappling with identity, and some of them have clearly begun to lose track of their priorities," heedlessly disposing of valuable artworks and using fashionable architects du jour to expand their buildings. Museums, he writes, "still set standards of aesthetic quality... To do so, however they must attend to one profound obligation: to cherish and preserve culture for posterity."

Both MAD and the Landmarks Commission fall short by Kimmelman's way of reckoning, and ours. What about Mayor Bloomberg?

Two Columbus Circle: Do the Wright Thing

According to yesterday's New York Times ("Guggenheim Reviving Its Main Asset: Itself" by Carol Vogel - see it here), architect Frank Lloyd Wright's iconic, once-controversial design forthe Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (Fifth Avenue at 88th Street) is about to get a "facelift."

Don't panic! Unlike Edward Durell Stone's 2 Columbus Circle , the Guggenheim is a designated NYC Landmark. Moreover, Guggenheim director Thomas Krens says, "The care and preservation of the Frank Lloyd Wright building has been a priority for us." A board member calls the structure "the most important piece of art in the collection."

Like 2 Columbus Circle, the Guggenheim attracted huge crowds and much controversy over its design when it opened in 1959. Like 2 Columbus Circle, the Guggenheim needs a little TLC (as do most half-century-old buildings). Like 2 Columbus Circle, the Guggenheim is a provocative building designed by a mid-century Modern master specifically to house a museum - therefore, like 2 Columbus Circle, the structure is almost windowless.

In a statement calling for the preservation of 2 Columbus Circle, architect and historian Robert A.M. Stern wrote: "No one will disagree that Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum is a masterpiece, though a highly idiosyncratic one to say the least....[T]here was a strong, mutually acknowledged kinship between Frank Lloyd Wright and Edward Durell Stone, whom many thought was the master's leading disciple. Ed Stone was a very important architect and that the Gallery of Modern Art is one of his masterworks. The value of Stone's work is only now coming to be re-appreciated."

***Go to www.save2columbus.org and click on "Get Involved" to send Mayor Bloomberg, the Landmarks Preservation Commission, and the Museum of Arts and Design email "postcards" telling them to do the Wright thing ! Where there's a will, there's a way!

Two Columbus Circle - The Next Ladies Mile?

More headlines for the Lollipop Building (a.k.a. 2 Columbus Circle)!

In her article in yesterday's New York Times (see below), columnist Joyce Purnick took her second shot at architect Edward DurellStone's plucky, portholed building . She portrays the structure's would-be destroyer, the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), as the victim of lawsuits and public outcry that may ultimately scare them away. Preservationists, she suggests, would have blood on their hands.

MAD's lack of vision for 2 Columbus Circlehas always beendisturbing. Even more astonishing is Purnick's short - or selective - memory. Does she forget the 1986 New York Times editorial that championed the preservation efforts of a small group called the Drive to Protect the Ladies' Mile, calling them "the best friends a neighborhood can have"? Back then, the Real Estate Board of NY responded swiftly with a letter to the Timeseditor claiming that creating the Ladies' Mile Historic District would have a "chilling effect" on renovations in the area. Today, Ladies' Mile is one of the city's most vibrant shopping districts - its historic architecture still happily intact, proving that time and rational consideration are often the friends of preservation and revitalization.

In short,Ladies' Milehas come full circle. Mayor Bloomberg and his landmarks commission would do New York a huge service by giving 2 Columbus Circle the chance to follow suit.

Don't let Purnick have the last word! We're writing letters to the Times editor, and so should you! Give them a piece of your mind by e-mailing letters@nytimes.com . Then, visit www.save2columbus.org and also send your message to Mayor Bloomberg, Landmarks chair Robert B. Tierney, and MAD director Holly Hotchner. Only asmall number of New Yorkers care about saving 2 Columbus Circle? Prove them wrong!

To read the Joyce Purnick article, click here.