Central Park West Skyline: Potential Futures

The urgent need to study Central Park West emerged out of a series of proposals to alter the avenue’s iconic skyline—the primary “face” the West Side presents to the rest of the city—and change the character of the parkside rowhouse midblocks.  These proposals included development schemes put forward by Congregation Shearith Israel and the New-York Historical Society (both Individual Landmarks also included in the Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District).

Architect and historian Robert A.M. Stern called buildings like these "…a chain of monumental gateways to the West Side…a testament to the low-scale Classical urbanism of the City Beautiful movement." (letter dated January 13, 1984)  

Community Board 7, former City Planning Commission General Counsel Norman Marcus, and zoning consultant Gerald George were indispensable advisors, together with the scores of individual donors who recognized the relevance of anticipating—and potentially shaping—development before it hits the pages of the New York Times.

Back in 2007 when this study began, LW! challenged the idea that our neighborhood was immune to overdevelopment merely as a result of extensive landmark designation and contextual zoning.  Clearly, through special permit and variance processes, developers could find ways to "unlock" the development potential of the Upper West Side. 

As midtown "mega-towers" begin their creep up the West Side and Mayor de Blasio pushes plans to raise height limits, the potential for inappropriate development along Central Park West is greater than ever.

Time is Running Out for NYC!

111 West 57th Street by SHoP Architects (under construction); one of 13 developments planned or in construction along Central Park South.  It is happening here... and everywhere!

Let's cut to the chase.

Please sign this petition, New Yorkers for a Human-Scale City, and please add your individual name, or your organization's* name, to the growing list of co-sponsors endorsing the petition.  The list is long because it strikes a chord in every neighborhood throughout all five boroughs of New York City.  

This petition may not be perfect.  What single, straightforward document on any complex issue is?  But it is the result of a broad-based coalition of often unheard voices on the unprecedented and focused assault on our neighborhoods, landmarks, small businesses, parks, playgrounds, sunshine, shadows, and quality of life.  The evidence of this assault is all around us, and exploding -- 100 story towers, plans to increase height limits all over NYC, attempts to gut our 50-year-old Landmarks Law, shedding civic institutions, closing libraries and schools, rising rents and public parkland giveaways -- all in the name of Mayor de Blasio's untenable "affordable housing" scheme.  

The real beneficiary = plain greed.

Let's park our collective cynicism -- what good will another petition do?  First, this isn't just another petition.  It is uniquely broad, multi-borough-based, and unusually direct and finger-pointing. No time for a massive group edit or letting the perfect be the enemy of the necessary.  Please sign now.  Tomorrow may be too late.  This petition provides space to add your personal comments -- fire away!

Finally, if not now, when?  We must focus, and press, and this petition is a good start.

Make sure to watch Bill Moyers powerful PBS program, The Long Dark Shadows of Plutocracy, shown Nov. 28, 2014.

*Neighborhood groups, block associations, community boards, etc!

If you find the petition asks for too much personal information, email us with your name and LANDMARK WEST! will make sure your support is registered.   

LANDMARK WEST!

45 West 67th Street

New York, NY 10023

212-496-8110

landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org

ABCs of Central Park, a Labor Day Tour for Kids

Labor Day morning in Central Park provided a special treat for about 25 Upper West Siders and their friends in the form of a tour by prolific author, sculptor, and Upper West Sider, G Augustine Lynas. The children ranged in age from 5 to 13 and were all enthusiastic participants in The ABCs of Central Park, the title of the book and tour. We met at 10am at the Obelisk, where “Lynas,” as he’s known to his friends (among whom LW counts itself), explained to the kids how he ended up finding and writing about the ABCs. Lynas was asked to create a Central Park chess set. He searched for a king of Central Park and decided on Frederick Law Olmstead, the original designer of the Park. The queen was trickier, but he found her in the form of the angel on Bethesda Fountain. So Lynas had his A for angel. B was, of course, for buildings and Bow Bridge, boats and baseball. C was for castle and carousel, and so it went, the letters and their representatives manifesting themselves along the way. At the next stop on our tour, Lynas showed the kids how he was able to discover, over the course of two years, all the letters of the alphabet as well as numbers 1 through 9 written in the branches of the trees. Finding the numbers and letters in the trees is considerably more challenging in the summer when the leaves obscure the branches, proving The ABCs of Central Park to be a great book for all seasons!

After stopping at the Marionette Theater, strolling through the Shakespeare Garden, and climbing in to Belvedere Castle, admiring views and details, hearing stories and history along the way, we came to the Great Lawn, the conclusion of our tour. Instead of concluding, Lynas took a variety of frisbees out of his backpack, and we all played until everyone had to move on to their Labor Day picnics.

Lynas did not focus on looming threats to the park (CENTRAL dARK) and the tour was very upbeat and in the moment. Everyone on the tour was re-infused with an appreciation for the beauty of Central Park and how very privileged we are to have such a resource at our disposal. It was a day the kids will not forget. When and if it comes time to protect Central Park, these kids will join the fight.

Rudie E. Hurwitz is the Youth Education Director at Landmark West! In addition to tours for kids like this one, she runs Keeping the Past for the Future, LW!'s architectural history and preservation in-classroom education program. KPF operates in public and private schools throughout the Upper West Side. Please direct any inquires to: rudiee@landmarkwest.org and look out for future blog posts about KPF's activities.