LANDMARK WEST! seeks volunteers to help us maintain our website, http://www.landmarkwest.org. The site that brought you the 2 Columbus Circle "Shame Cam" and much more is a vital tool in our efforts to preserve the architectural heritage of Manhattan's Upper West Side and communicate with the public about current issues affecting the shape of our city.
If you have web-design skills to lend to a really good cause, please contact us today (landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org) A resume and links to any sites you have worked on will be very helpful. Thank you!
Preserving the best of the Upper West Side's neighborhood character and architectural heritage.
Friday, January 20, 2006
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Congregation Shearith Israel
Landmarks Commission Close to Final Vote on Congregation Shearith Israel Proposal
Thanks to those of you who attended today's public meeting and/or expressed your concern through letters and emails to the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) regarding Congregation Shearith Israel's proposal to construct a 124' tall building (the equivalent of 12 stories) at 8 West 70th Street, adjacent to the Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue and in the Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District.
The LPC did not vote today.* However, the commissioners offered detailed feedback on several aspects of the design, including the height of the penthouses set back above the approximately 95' streetwall. While their comments were generally supportive of the overall bulk of the building, more than one commissioner referred to the stacked penthouse levels (which would make the building the tallest building on the mostly brownstone midblock of West 70th Street) as inappropriate "wedding cake" tiers that should be minimized or eliminated. The result would be what equals a 9- to 10-story building, still basically 3 to 4 stories taller than the contextual, low-rise zoning allows on this site.
The Congregation argues that its design is for a "transitional" building (a concept they claim is from the LPC itself). But, there is no transitional provision in either the LPC's 1990 historic district report or the 1984 contextual zoning for the area. In fact, the historic district designation and zoning were created precisely to keep this kind of development from happening. The adjacent 9-story streetwall building at 18 West 70th Street, built in 1927 before zoning and historic district protection (before there was even a Landmarks Law), is an anomaly. Its height would never be allowed today, and it cannot be used to justify any more out-of-scale buildings on the block.
*The record will remain open for a limited time. LPC Chair Robert Tierney committed to distribute to each commissioner copies of community responses to the current proposal. So, please continue to let the LPC know where you stand on this inappropriate "transitional" building. Email: comments@lpc.nyc.gov; Fax: 212-669-7955; Address: 1 Centre Street, 9th Floor, NYC 10007.
Thanks to those of you who attended today's public meeting and/or expressed your concern through letters and emails to the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) regarding Congregation Shearith Israel's proposal to construct a 124' tall building (the equivalent of 12 stories) at 8 West 70th Street, adjacent to the Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue and in the Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District.
The LPC did not vote today.* However, the commissioners offered detailed feedback on several aspects of the design, including the height of the penthouses set back above the approximately 95' streetwall. While their comments were generally supportive of the overall bulk of the building, more than one commissioner referred to the stacked penthouse levels (which would make the building the tallest building on the mostly brownstone midblock of West 70th Street) as inappropriate "wedding cake" tiers that should be minimized or eliminated. The result would be what equals a 9- to 10-story building, still basically 3 to 4 stories taller than the contextual, low-rise zoning allows on this site.
The Congregation argues that its design is for a "transitional" building (a concept they claim is from the LPC itself). But, there is no transitional provision in either the LPC's 1990 historic district report or the 1984 contextual zoning for the area. In fact, the historic district designation and zoning were created precisely to keep this kind of development from happening. The adjacent 9-story streetwall building at 18 West 70th Street, built in 1927 before zoning and historic district protection (before there was even a Landmarks Law), is an anomaly. Its height would never be allowed today, and it cannot be used to justify any more out-of-scale buildings on the block.
*The record will remain open for a limited time. LPC Chair Robert Tierney committed to distribute to each commissioner copies of community responses to the current proposal. So, please continue to let the LPC know where you stand on this inappropriate "transitional" building. Email: comments@lpc.nyc.gov; Fax: 212-669-7955; Address: 1 Centre Street, 9th Floor, NYC 10007.
Friday, January 13, 2006
Tierney Confirmation Hearing
Calling all preservationists! Nearly two weeks into his second term, Mayor Bloomberg has made the single most critical decision for the future of our city’s historic neighborhoods. That is to re-appoint Robert B. Tierney as Chair of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). Tierney’s confirmation hearing will take place on Wednesday, January 18, at 11:00 AM before the City Council’s Rules, Privileges & Elections Committee (City Hall, 2nd Floor).
Please plan to attend! Your presence will demonstrate how much preservationists care about who is chosen to lead the agency – the only agency – with the mandate to protect our most beloved landmarks in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. No public testimony will be taken on the 18th, but please contact your local council member and urge them to attend and ask questions (for contact information, go to http://www.gothamgazette.com/city/index.php). If you would like your own questions submitted to committee chair Leroy G. Comrie (Queens), please send them to us at landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org and we will pass them on.
Please underscore your concern about the LPC’s dire need to improve its processes for…
a) deciding which buildings and neighborhoods do and do not get public designation hearings,
b) collaborating with organizations and individual citizens working to preserve their communities,
c) interacting with the City Council and other city agencies to promote landmark designation and protection,
…as well as addressing the broad range of complaints that many of you raised at an unprecedented three oversight hearings that you attended over the past 18 months. Remember, at the end of 2005, over 60 organizations were so frustrated that they (you!) had endorsed changing the Landmarks Law itself. Those problems have not gone away. The responsibility for those problems rests squarely on Tierney’s shoulders. It’s up to us preservationists to hold him accountable.
See you on the 18th.
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
IMPORTANT PUBLIC MEETINGS: New Buildings on the Upper West Side
Important Public Meetings on New Construction in the Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District
At least two new buildings are under consideration for construction in Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District. It isn't every day that the community has the exciting opportunity to participate in shaping the physical appearance of our neighborhood on such a scale. So, please, mark your calendars and make your voice heard!
Thursday, January 12, 7:00 PM - Community Board 7 will hold a joint meeting of its Parks & Preservation and Land Use Committees regarding an application to construct a new 172', 15-story building at 120 W. 72nd Street (on the south side of the block between Columbus Avenue and Broadway). Please attend and hear presentations by the architect (BKSK Architects) and development team. Public testimony will be heard so that CB7 can give its recommendations to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. Location: American Bible Society, 1865 Broadway (@61st Street).
Tuesday, January 17, morning (exact time tba) - The NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) will hold a public meeting regarding the application to construct a new 124', 10-story building at 8 W. 70th Street adjacent to the Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue (Congregation Shearith Israel, an Individual Landmark). The LPC may take action at this point in a decades-long effort to protect the landmark synagogue and its predominantly low-rise context from out-of-scale development that would set a negative precedent for historic neighborhoods throughout the city. Location: LPC Hearing Room, Municipal Building, 1 Centre Street, 9th Floor. No public testimony will be heard on Jan. 17, but a large presence in the hearing room is absolutely vital to ensure the commissioners recognize the concerns shared by historic communities. This may be our last chance to have input on this proposal - please send emails/faxes to LPC Chair Robert B. Tierney today! Email: comments@lpc.nyc.gov, Fax: 212-669-7955. (Please send copies to us at landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org.)
Remember: A new building in one historic district impacts every historic district. New construction is not a question of "if" but "when", and every project sets the tone for future change. Help make sure that each change is for the better!
At least two new buildings are under consideration for construction in Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District. It isn't every day that the community has the exciting opportunity to participate in shaping the physical appearance of our neighborhood on such a scale. So, please, mark your calendars and make your voice heard!
Thursday, January 12, 7:00 PM - Community Board 7 will hold a joint meeting of its Parks & Preservation and Land Use Committees regarding an application to construct a new 172', 15-story building at 120 W. 72nd Street (on the south side of the block between Columbus Avenue and Broadway). Please attend and hear presentations by the architect (BKSK Architects) and development team. Public testimony will be heard so that CB7 can give its recommendations to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. Location: American Bible Society, 1865 Broadway (@61st Street).
Tuesday, January 17, morning (exact time tba) - The NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) will hold a public meeting regarding the application to construct a new 124', 10-story building at 8 W. 70th Street adjacent to the Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue (Congregation Shearith Israel, an Individual Landmark). The LPC may take action at this point in a decades-long effort to protect the landmark synagogue and its predominantly low-rise context from out-of-scale development that would set a negative precedent for historic neighborhoods throughout the city. Location: LPC Hearing Room, Municipal Building, 1 Centre Street, 9th Floor. No public testimony will be heard on Jan. 17, but a large presence in the hearing room is absolutely vital to ensure the commissioners recognize the concerns shared by historic communities. This may be our last chance to have input on this proposal - please send emails/faxes to LPC Chair Robert B. Tierney today! Email: comments@lpc.nyc.gov, Fax: 212-669-7955. (Please send copies to us at landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org.)
Remember: A new building in one historic district impacts every historic district. New construction is not a question of "if" but "when", and every project sets the tone for future change. Help make sure that each change is for the better!
Monday, January 9, 2006
2 Columbus Circle: The Secret History and Historical Censorship
Fight Historical Censorship! If you have something to say about 2 Columbus Circle, say it now. It’s not too late to save Edward Durell Stone’s 1964 façade, which behind the scaffolding remains largely intact. Go to the end of this message for action steps. But first...
New inspiration comes from Herbert Muschamp’s not-to-be-missed 3-page (yes, 3 pages!) piece on 2 Columbus Circle in Sunday’s New York Times (“The Secret History of 2 Columbus Circle,” NYT 1/8/06, Arts & Leisure pp. 1, 34-35). The full article is available at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/08/arts/design/08musc.html?ex=1137474000&en=f0da2e2563a3acc2&ei=5070 Below is a recap (or a sneak preview, in case you laid the story aside to savor later)…
And on the heels of Muschamp’s story is one by New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff in today’s paper (Arts Section, page 1). Both critics tackle the timely issue of historical censorship. Writing about the young activists vying to preserve the endangered 1970s Palace of the Republic in Berlin, Ouroussoff writes, “Like the preservationists struggling to save 2 Columbus Circle in New York or late-Soviet landmarks in Moscow, they are fighting those who insist on pitting history against modernity, people who would seek to smooth over historical contradictions in favor of a more simplistic narrative.” Full article available at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/09/arts/design/09pala.html.
Excerpts from “The Secret History of 2 Columbus Circle ” by Herbert Muschamp:
“ The city may not know what to make of 2 Columbus Circle, but a generation of gay New Yorkers always did. And our verdict is the one that matters.”
“Henry Geldzahler, lacy underwear, swanky taste, Singapore slings. These are a few of the memories that didn’t get to be recollected at the public hearings that weren’t held to debate the value of 2 Columbus Circle…”
“Two Columbus Circle has been called a queer building many times over the years….No other building more fully embodied the emerging value of queerness in the New York of its day. If the Landmarks Commission could miss this significance, then it is reasonable to conclude that many dots in that chapter of the city’s social history have yet to be connected.”
“A building does not have to be an important work of architecture to become a first-rate landmark. Landmarks are not created by architects. They are fashioned by those who encounter them after they are built. The essential feature of a landmark is not its design, but the place it holds in a city’s memory.”
“The gay audience, excluded by society, has an organic relationship to artifacts that have been rejected by society’s tastemakers.”
“[The Landmarks Commission] has refused to expand the definition of history to include the lives and times of living people, especially still-suspect ones….An agency established to enlarge our awareness of history was now in the business of condoning its erasure.”
“Though it’s often overlooked, artists like Piero della Francesca, Botticelli and Vermeer were lost and forgotten before they were rediscovered as the immortals they are usually taken for today. Their example gives me hope that one day New Yorkers will rediscover the Landmarks Preservation Commission and bring it back from the inconsequence to which the politicians have consigned it.”
*******************************************************************
Fight Historical Censorship! Make your voice heard today! (And please make sure to send copies to landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org.)
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, 212-788-3000 (City Hall “bullpen”), fax: 212-788-2460
Robert B. Tierney, Chair, NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, phone: 212-669-7888, fax: 212-669-7955, rtierney@lpc.nyc.gov
The New York Times, letters@nytimes.com
New inspiration comes from Herbert Muschamp’s not-to-be-missed 3-page (yes, 3 pages!) piece on 2 Columbus Circle in Sunday’s New York Times (“The Secret History of 2 Columbus Circle,” NYT 1/8/06, Arts & Leisure pp. 1, 34-35). The full article is available at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/08/arts/design/08musc.html?ex=1137474000&en=f0da2e2563a3acc2&ei=5070 Below is a recap (or a sneak preview, in case you laid the story aside to savor later)…
And on the heels of Muschamp’s story is one by New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff in today’s paper (Arts Section, page 1). Both critics tackle the timely issue of historical censorship. Writing about the young activists vying to preserve the endangered 1970s Palace of the Republic in Berlin, Ouroussoff writes, “Like the preservationists struggling to save 2 Columbus Circle in New York or late-Soviet landmarks in Moscow, they are fighting those who insist on pitting history against modernity, people who would seek to smooth over historical contradictions in favor of a more simplistic narrative.” Full article available at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/09/arts/design/09pala.html.
Excerpts from “The Secret History of 2 Columbus Circle ” by Herbert Muschamp:
“ The city may not know what to make of 2 Columbus Circle, but a generation of gay New Yorkers always did. And our verdict is the one that matters.”
“Henry Geldzahler, lacy underwear, swanky taste, Singapore slings. These are a few of the memories that didn’t get to be recollected at the public hearings that weren’t held to debate the value of 2 Columbus Circle…”
“Two Columbus Circle has been called a queer building many times over the years….No other building more fully embodied the emerging value of queerness in the New York of its day. If the Landmarks Commission could miss this significance, then it is reasonable to conclude that many dots in that chapter of the city’s social history have yet to be connected.”
“A building does not have to be an important work of architecture to become a first-rate landmark. Landmarks are not created by architects. They are fashioned by those who encounter them after they are built. The essential feature of a landmark is not its design, but the place it holds in a city’s memory.”
“The gay audience, excluded by society, has an organic relationship to artifacts that have been rejected by society’s tastemakers.”
“[The Landmarks Commission] has refused to expand the definition of history to include the lives and times of living people, especially still-suspect ones….An agency established to enlarge our awareness of history was now in the business of condoning its erasure.”
“Though it’s often overlooked, artists like Piero della Francesca, Botticelli and Vermeer were lost and forgotten before they were rediscovered as the immortals they are usually taken for today. Their example gives me hope that one day New Yorkers will rediscover the Landmarks Preservation Commission and bring it back from the inconsequence to which the politicians have consigned it.”
*******************************************************************
Fight Historical Censorship! Make your voice heard today! (And please make sure to send copies to landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org.)
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, 212-788-3000 (City Hall “bullpen”), fax: 212-788-2460
Robert B. Tierney, Chair, NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, phone: 212-669-7888, fax: 212-669-7955, rtierney@lpc.nyc.gov
The New York Times, letters@nytimes.com
Friday, November 18, 2005
Intro. 705: It's Up to City Council
Spotlight on the City Council to Preserve New York's Most Endangered Historic Buildings
Thanks to all who contributed to the tremendous turnout at last Monday's City Council hearing regarding Intro. 705, the "Landmarks Hearing" bill. The seats in the large Council Chambers were filled with frustrated preservationists from every borough, the vast majority of whom testified in support of this legislation to strengthen New York's Landmarks Law and expand the ability of the public to participate in the designation hearing process. Their heartfelt testimony was echoed in New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff's milestone article, "Turning Up the Heat on a Landmarks Agency" (11/14/05, pE1, attached in case you missed it), which cited the imminent destruction of 2 Columbus Circle and other examples as evidence that "what is needed is a ruthless analysis of the landmark designation process." Also see Frances Morrone's piece in today's New York Sun (copy pasted below). "There's something rotten at the core of the Big Apple," he writes.
The ball is now in the City Council's court. And we all must continue to play an active role. The Landmarks Subcommittee adjourned Monday's hearing without taking a vote (a quorum of committee members was not present). Please help get the message out about how Intro. 705 will help to preserve our historic neighborhoods from relentless development. Email/ fax/call Council Speaker Gifford Miller today! Tell him that his support is key to getting this bill passed before the end of 2005 so that more buildings in your community are not lost - without even being heard by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Both Speaker Miller and Intro. 705 sponsor Council Member Bill Perkins will leave office next month. If passed before their term expires, this bill could be the most important legacy they leave for the future shape of our city.
New York City Council Speaker Gifford Miller
miller@council.nyc.ny.us
Phone: (212) 535-5554
Fax: (212) 535-6098
City Hall, NYC 10007
Also, email the members of the Landmarks Subcommittee and Land Use Committee as well as your local council member (go to www.nyccouncil.info for contact information). Send them copies of your testimony and/or a personal note making sure they know that the future of New York's most beloved, endangered buildings and neighborhoods rests in their hands!
Melinda Katz (Chair, Land Use) - katz@council.nyc.ny.us
Simcha Felder (Chair, Landmarks Subcommittee) - felder@council.nyc.ny.us
Charles Barron (Landmarks Subcommittee) - barron@council.nyc.ny.us
Leroy G. Comrie, Jr. (Landmarks Subcommittee) - comrie@council.nyc.ny.us
G. Oliver Koppell (Landmarks Subcommittee) - koppell@council.nyc.ny.us
James S. Oddo (Landmarks Subcommittee) - oddo@council.nyc.ny.us
Annabel Palma (Landmarks Subcommittee) - palma@council.nyc.ny.us
Bill Perkins (Landmarks Subcommittee) - perkins@council.nyc.ny.us
Tony Avella (Land Use Committee) - avella@council.nyc.ny.us
Maria Baez (Land Use Committee) - baez@council.nyc.ny.us
Erik Martin Dilan (Land Use Committee) - dilan@council.nyc.ny.us
Vincent J. Gentile (Land Use Committee) - gentile@council.nyc.ny.us
Eric N. Gioia (Land Use Committee) - gioia@council.nyc.ny.us
Andrew J. Lanza (Land Use Committee) - lanza@council.nyc.ny.us
Miguel Martinez (Land Use Committee) - martinez@council.nyc.ny.us
Michael E. McMahon (Land Use Committee) - mcmahon@council.nyc.ny.us
Hiram Monserrate (Land Use Committee) - monserrate@council.nyc.ny.us
Michael C. Nelson (Land Use Committee) - nelson@council.nyc.ny.us
Christine C. Quinn (Land Use Committee) - quinn@council.nyc.ny.us
Joel Rivera (Land Use Committee) - rivera@council.nyc.ny.us
James Sanders, Jr. (Land Use Committee) - sanders@council.nyc.ny.us
Larry B. Seabrook (Land Use Committee) - seabrook@council.nyc.ny.us
Albert Vann (Land Use Committee) - vann@council.nyc.ny.us
Thanks to all who contributed to the tremendous turnout at last Monday's City Council hearing regarding Intro. 705, the "Landmarks Hearing" bill. The seats in the large Council Chambers were filled with frustrated preservationists from every borough, the vast majority of whom testified in support of this legislation to strengthen New York's Landmarks Law and expand the ability of the public to participate in the designation hearing process. Their heartfelt testimony was echoed in New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff's milestone article, "Turning Up the Heat on a Landmarks Agency" (11/14/05, pE1, attached in case you missed it), which cited the imminent destruction of 2 Columbus Circle and other examples as evidence that "what is needed is a ruthless analysis of the landmark designation process." Also see Frances Morrone's piece in today's New York Sun (copy pasted below). "There's something rotten at the core of the Big Apple," he writes.
The ball is now in the City Council's court. And we all must continue to play an active role. The Landmarks Subcommittee adjourned Monday's hearing without taking a vote (a quorum of committee members was not present). Please help get the message out about how Intro. 705 will help to preserve our historic neighborhoods from relentless development. Email/ fax/call Council Speaker Gifford Miller today! Tell him that his support is key to getting this bill passed before the end of 2005 so that more buildings in your community are not lost - without even being heard by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Both Speaker Miller and Intro. 705 sponsor Council Member Bill Perkins will leave office next month. If passed before their term expires, this bill could be the most important legacy they leave for the future shape of our city.
New York City Council Speaker Gifford Miller
miller@council.nyc.ny.us
Phone: (212) 535-5554
Fax: (212) 535-6098
City Hall, NYC 10007
Also, email the members of the Landmarks Subcommittee and Land Use Committee as well as your local council member (go to www.nyccouncil.info for contact information). Send them copies of your testimony and/or a personal note making sure they know that the future of New York's most beloved, endangered buildings and neighborhoods rests in their hands!
Melinda Katz (Chair, Land Use) - katz@council.nyc.ny.us
Simcha Felder (Chair, Landmarks Subcommittee) - felder@council.nyc.ny.us
Charles Barron (Landmarks Subcommittee) - barron@council.nyc.ny.us
Leroy G. Comrie, Jr. (Landmarks Subcommittee) - comrie@council.nyc.ny.us
G. Oliver Koppell (Landmarks Subcommittee) - koppell@council.nyc.ny.us
James S. Oddo (Landmarks Subcommittee) - oddo@council.nyc.ny.us
Annabel Palma (Landmarks Subcommittee) - palma@council.nyc.ny.us
Bill Perkins (Landmarks Subcommittee) - perkins@council.nyc.ny.us
Tony Avella (Land Use Committee) - avella@council.nyc.ny.us
Maria Baez (Land Use Committee) - baez@council.nyc.ny.us
Erik Martin Dilan (Land Use Committee) - dilan@council.nyc.ny.us
Vincent J. Gentile (Land Use Committee) - gentile@council.nyc.ny.us
Eric N. Gioia (Land Use Committee) - gioia@council.nyc.ny.us
Andrew J. Lanza (Land Use Committee) - lanza@council.nyc.ny.us
Miguel Martinez (Land Use Committee) - martinez@council.nyc.ny.us
Michael E. McMahon (Land Use Committee) - mcmahon@council.nyc.ny.us
Hiram Monserrate (Land Use Committee) - monserrate@council.nyc.ny.us
Michael C. Nelson (Land Use Committee) - nelson@council.nyc.ny.us
Christine C. Quinn (Land Use Committee) - quinn@council.nyc.ny.us
Joel Rivera (Land Use Committee) - rivera@council.nyc.ny.us
James Sanders, Jr. (Land Use Committee) - sanders@council.nyc.ny.us
Larry B. Seabrook (Land Use Committee) - seabrook@council.nyc.ny.us
Albert Vann (Land Use Committee) - vann@council.nyc.ny.us
Monday, November 14, 2005
Critical Public Hearing Today at City Hall
Is "business as usual" at the Landmarks Preservation Commission threatening to destroy your neighborhood? Then, by all means, speak out! Today is your opportunity - join fellow preservationists at City Hall starting at 11 AM for a public hearing on Intro. 705 (the "Landmarks Hearing" bill). And if you had any doubt about the magnitude of this hearing, check out today's New York Times...
Critic's Notebook
Turning Up the Heat on a Landmarks Agency
By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF
Published: November 14, 2005
Someone has stolen one of my buildings! That was the panicked reaction of Beverly Moss Spatt, then the chairwoman of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, after the cast-iron facades of a building by James Bogardus were spirited away from a downtown lot in 1974. The 1849 facades, supposedly protected by official landmark status, had been disassembled and stored for eventual relocation at another site. But thieves broke into the lot and sold most of them off as scrap metal.
Three decades later, Ms. Spatt, now retired, is one of the people fighting to save 2 Columbus Circle, a 1965 building by Edward Durell Stone, in one of the biggest preservation uproars in a generation. But this time it is the commission itself that seems to have been hijacked.
Once considered the most powerful agency of its kind, the commission has lost the confidence of many mainstream preservationists by repeatedly refusing to hold a public hearing on the building's fate. At the urging of those preservation advocates, a city councilman, Bill Perkins, has introduced a bill that could force the commission to hold public hearings on potential landmarks. The implication is that the commission cannot always be trusted to protect the public interest.
The bill, which is to come before a City Council subcommittee that meets at 11 this morning, would require a public hearing on any building that has been determined eligible for listing on the state register of historic places. It would also allow the City Council to demand such a public hearing in a majority vote.
The bill probably comes too late to save 2 Columbus Circle, where scaffolding began to rise this month. (The building has been sold to the Museum of Arts and Design, which plans to remake the interior and clad its white marble Venetian-style façade in terra-cotta tiles.) The aim is rather to ensure that similar debacles can be averted in the future.
But the bill does not specifically address the sad reality that the commission no longer seems willing to fulfill its role as a defender of the city's architectural legacy. This is not solely the fault of its chairman, Robert B. Tierney, on whom much of the controversy has focused. It has to do with a subtle but crucial shift in how the commission does business. Founded in 1965 in response to the tragic razing of Penn Station two years earlier, the Landmarks Preservation Commission has traditionally been made up of independent voices with deep roots in the preservation community.
The commission's power to protect a building in virtual perpetuity - and its willingness to use that power - made it the most powerful such agency in the United States. Its chairmen were often willing to stand up to the mayor when they felt a principle was at stake.
The gradual shift away from those convictions had its seeds in the fiscal crisis of the mid-1970's, which spurred the rise of public-private partnerships with developers. Developers gained increasing power over how the city was shaped. Playing on the public's fear, many politicians argued that the only alternative was a descent into blight and crime.
That attitude reached its apogee during the Giuliani administration, which often appointed commission members more for their political ties than for their records as advocates for architecture. Jennifer Raab, the commission's chairwoman from 1994 to 2001, was a real estate lawyer who had worked as a campaign aide on Rudolph W. Giuliani's staff. Mr. Tierney, a appointment by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, is a former lobbyist with deeper political ties than preservation experience.
The shift toward political expediency has been aggravated by soaring real estate prices in almost every corner of the city. Significant but little-noticed works of architecture that are now standing on valuable land, making them that much more vulnerable to demolition. Among the buildings preservationists are worried most about these days are the 1964 New York State Pavilion, designed by Philip Johnson, in Queens, and the Domino Sugar plant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, from the 1890's. Neither building has yet to receive a hearing by the Landmarks Commission.
If passed, the Perkins bill would shift the balance of power somewhat. Requiring the commission to hold a public hearing on any building that is being considered for the state historical register would at least prevent travesties like the commission's stonewalling on 2 Columbus Circle. And it would add a dose of transparency to the commission's decision-making process.
But in the long run, what is needed is a ruthless analysis of the landmark designation process. The commission's research staff has been cut in half over the last decade because of budget reductions. This makes it difficult for the commission to identify buildings that deserve consideration. And if the bill succeeds, the commission's workload is certain to expand.
Of course, more City Council input would not necessarily help the preservationist cause. The council has its own political agenda. It recently overturned the commission's decision to grant landmark status to the 1969 Jamaica Savings Bank in Queens, and preservationists fear that it intends to do the same to the Austin, Nichols & Co. Warehouse, a 1915 building in Williamsburg, designed by Cass Gilbert, in a council vote scheduled for Nov. 22. The vast structure, admired for its Egyptian Revival motifs, stands on the site of a proposed residential waterfront development; the local city councilman, David Yassky, has already declared that the building doesn't merit landmark protection.
The only hope to be derived from this struggle is that the fate of 2 Columbus Circle will harden the resolve of a younger generation of preservation advocates who are less willing to accept the status quo. The drive to save 2 Columbus Circle, after all, was led by Landmark West, founded in 1985 and led by Kate Wood, rather than more established institutions like the Municipal Art Society, which opposes the Perkins bill.
This new generation of advocates seems eager to discuss what parts of our city's heritage deserve protection, and they have clearly not hesitated to lead the charge against an inexorable political process, filing one legal appeal after another to save Edward Durell Stone's building. Vanquished on that front as the scaffolding went up this month at Columbus Circle, Landmark West set up a streaming Webcast of the building titled "Shame Cam" (landmarkwest.org/webcam/javlw.html).
Not everyone, it seems, is satisfied with business as usual.
Critic's Notebook
Turning Up the Heat on a Landmarks Agency
By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF
Published: November 14, 2005
Someone has stolen one of my buildings! That was the panicked reaction of Beverly Moss Spatt, then the chairwoman of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, after the cast-iron facades of a building by James Bogardus were spirited away from a downtown lot in 1974. The 1849 facades, supposedly protected by official landmark status, had been disassembled and stored for eventual relocation at another site. But thieves broke into the lot and sold most of them off as scrap metal.
Three decades later, Ms. Spatt, now retired, is one of the people fighting to save 2 Columbus Circle, a 1965 building by Edward Durell Stone, in one of the biggest preservation uproars in a generation. But this time it is the commission itself that seems to have been hijacked.
Once considered the most powerful agency of its kind, the commission has lost the confidence of many mainstream preservationists by repeatedly refusing to hold a public hearing on the building's fate. At the urging of those preservation advocates, a city councilman, Bill Perkins, has introduced a bill that could force the commission to hold public hearings on potential landmarks. The implication is that the commission cannot always be trusted to protect the public interest.
The bill, which is to come before a City Council subcommittee that meets at 11 this morning, would require a public hearing on any building that has been determined eligible for listing on the state register of historic places. It would also allow the City Council to demand such a public hearing in a majority vote.
The bill probably comes too late to save 2 Columbus Circle, where scaffolding began to rise this month. (The building has been sold to the Museum of Arts and Design, which plans to remake the interior and clad its white marble Venetian-style façade in terra-cotta tiles.) The aim is rather to ensure that similar debacles can be averted in the future.
But the bill does not specifically address the sad reality that the commission no longer seems willing to fulfill its role as a defender of the city's architectural legacy. This is not solely the fault of its chairman, Robert B. Tierney, on whom much of the controversy has focused. It has to do with a subtle but crucial shift in how the commission does business. Founded in 1965 in response to the tragic razing of Penn Station two years earlier, the Landmarks Preservation Commission has traditionally been made up of independent voices with deep roots in the preservation community.
The commission's power to protect a building in virtual perpetuity - and its willingness to use that power - made it the most powerful such agency in the United States. Its chairmen were often willing to stand up to the mayor when they felt a principle was at stake.
The gradual shift away from those convictions had its seeds in the fiscal crisis of the mid-1970's, which spurred the rise of public-private partnerships with developers. Developers gained increasing power over how the city was shaped. Playing on the public's fear, many politicians argued that the only alternative was a descent into blight and crime.
That attitude reached its apogee during the Giuliani administration, which often appointed commission members more for their political ties than for their records as advocates for architecture. Jennifer Raab, the commission's chairwoman from 1994 to 2001, was a real estate lawyer who had worked as a campaign aide on Rudolph W. Giuliani's staff. Mr. Tierney, a appointment by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, is a former lobbyist with deeper political ties than preservation experience.
The shift toward political expediency has been aggravated by soaring real estate prices in almost every corner of the city. Significant but little-noticed works of architecture that are now standing on valuable land, making them that much more vulnerable to demolition. Among the buildings preservationists are worried most about these days are the 1964 New York State Pavilion, designed by Philip Johnson, in Queens, and the Domino Sugar plant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, from the 1890's. Neither building has yet to receive a hearing by the Landmarks Commission.
If passed, the Perkins bill would shift the balance of power somewhat. Requiring the commission to hold a public hearing on any building that is being considered for the state historical register would at least prevent travesties like the commission's stonewalling on 2 Columbus Circle. And it would add a dose of transparency to the commission's decision-making process.
But in the long run, what is needed is a ruthless analysis of the landmark designation process. The commission's research staff has been cut in half over the last decade because of budget reductions. This makes it difficult for the commission to identify buildings that deserve consideration. And if the bill succeeds, the commission's workload is certain to expand.
Of course, more City Council input would not necessarily help the preservationist cause. The council has its own political agenda. It recently overturned the commission's decision to grant landmark status to the 1969 Jamaica Savings Bank in Queens, and preservationists fear that it intends to do the same to the Austin, Nichols & Co. Warehouse, a 1915 building in Williamsburg, designed by Cass Gilbert, in a council vote scheduled for Nov. 22. The vast structure, admired for its Egyptian Revival motifs, stands on the site of a proposed residential waterfront development; the local city councilman, David Yassky, has already declared that the building doesn't merit landmark protection.
The only hope to be derived from this struggle is that the fate of 2 Columbus Circle will harden the resolve of a younger generation of preservation advocates who are less willing to accept the status quo. The drive to save 2 Columbus Circle, after all, was led by Landmark West, founded in 1985 and led by Kate Wood, rather than more established institutions like the Municipal Art Society, which opposes the Perkins bill.
This new generation of advocates seems eager to discuss what parts of our city's heritage deserve protection, and they have clearly not hesitated to lead the charge against an inexorable political process, filing one legal appeal after another to save Edward Durell Stone's building. Vanquished on that front as the scaffolding went up this month at Columbus Circle, Landmark West set up a streaming Webcast of the building titled "Shame Cam" (landmarkwest.org/webcam/javlw.html).
Not everyone, it seems, is satisfied with business as usual.
Friday, November 11, 2005
Critical Mass Needed to Pass "Landmarks Hearing" Bill
Preservationists UNITE! Important Opportunity to Demonstrate Strength of New York's Preservation Community
Crucial Public Hearing on Landmarks Bill - Don't Be Overlooked, Make Your Voice Heard!
**Please pass this email on to your neighbors and fellow preservationists!**
On Monday, November 14, starting at 11:00 AM at City Hall (the Committee Room adjacent to the main Council chambers) the City Council's Landmarks Subcommittee will hold a public hearing on Intro. 705, the "Landmarks Hearing" bill. This legislation responds to outcry from communities in all five boroughs who have lost, or may lose, buildings due to the Landmarks Preservation Commission's (LPC's) failure to hold public designation hearings. Enough is enough - it's time to stem the tide. Unless we act now, how many more buildings will be doomed through LPC inaction?
Meanwhile, keep your eyes on the 2 Columbus Circle "Shame Cam" (go to www.landmarkwest.org). Now that the election is over, the destruction has begun. Scaffolding continues to go up, and marble chunks begin to fall. Your support of Intro. 705 can help stop this from happening again and again. The time is now!
The text of Intro 705 is available online (http://www.nyccouncil.info/issues/intros_act.cfm?intro=Int%200705%2D2005.) Below is the list of organizations (over 50) that have endorsed this legislation as members of the "Citizens for a Responsive Landmarks Law." Also below is a list of council members that have signed on to the bill as co-sponsors - is your council member on this list? If not, please call, email or fax them to show your support for passing this law - and soon! (A complete list of council members, their districts and contact information is available at www.nyccouncil.info.) Landmarks Subcommittee Chair Simcha Felder (felder@council.nyc.ny.us) and Land Use Chair Melinda Katz (katz@council.nyc.ny.us) are particularly key. Attached is a sample letter for inspiration.
Numbers matter. Even if you don't plan to speak, please plan to attend on Monday, 11/14 at 11:00 AM at City Hall.
Citizens for a Responsive Landmarks Law
MULTIBOROUGH
Art Deco Society of New York
Brownstone Revival Coalition
DOCOMOMO US—NY/Tri-State Chapter
The Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct
Four Boroughs Neighborhood Preservation Alliance
Historic Districts Council
Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America
Modern Architecuture Working Group
The Roebling Chapter, Society for Industrial Archeology, Inc.
Society for the Architecture of the City
Women’s City Club of New York
BRONX
Riverdale Historic District
Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct
BROOKLYN
Bay Ridge Conservancy
Clinton Hill Association
Council Member Vincent Gentile's Preservation Committee
Crown Heights North Association
Ditmas Park Association
Ditmas Park West Neighborhood Association
Fort Greene Association
Prospect Park South Association
Senator Street Historic District
Society for Clinton Hill
Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities
MANHATTAN
10th and Stuyvesant Streets Block Association
Association of Neighbors on the Upper East Side
CIVITAS
Clinton Special District Coalition
Coalition for a Livable West Side
Committee for Environmentally Sound Development
Community Board 9
Defenders of the Historic Upper East Side
The Drive to Protect the Ladies’ Mile District
East 78th Street Block Assoc. Park/Lex>East Harlem Historical Organization
The East Village Community Coalition
Flatiron Alliance
Gramercy Neighborhood Associates
Greenwich Village Community Task Force
Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
Hamilton Heights- West Harlem Community Preservation Organization
Harlem Preservation Foundation
Historic Neighborhood Enhancement Alliance
The HDFC Council
LANDMARK WEST!
Manhattan-Ville Heritage Society
Murray Hill Neighborhood Association
NoHo Neighborhood Association
Roosevelt Island Historical Society
St. Agnes Apartments Board
Stuyvesant Park Neighborhood Assoc.
Tribeca Community Association
Turtle Bay Association
Union Square Community Coalition
West 15th Street 200 Block Association
West 45th Street Block Association
West 122nd Street Block Association
WestSide Heights Citizens League
QUEENS
Beachside Bungalow Preservation Association
Douglaston Little Neck Historical Society
Jackson Heights Beautification Group
Jackson Heights Garden City Society
Kew Gardens Hills Civic Association
Parkway Village Historical Society
Richmond Hill Historical Society
Queens Civic Congress
STATEN ISLAND
North Shore Waterfront Greenbelt
Preservation League of Staten Island
West Brighton Restoration Society
INTRO. 705 CITY COUNCIL CO-SPONSORS: Is your council member on this list?
BRONX
Larry B. Seabrook
Annabel Palma
G. Oliver Koppel
BROOKLYN
Charles Barron
Bill de Blasio
Yvette D. Clark
Lewis A. Fidler
Vincent J. Gentile
Letitia James
Kendall Stewart
David Yassky
MANHATTAN
Gale A. Brewer
Alan J. Gerson
Robert Jackson
Margarita Lopez
Eva Moskowitz
Bill Perkins
Philip Reed
QUEENS
Joseph P. Addabo ,Jr.
James F. Gennaro
John C. Liu R>James Sanders, Jr.
BOROUGH HISTORIANS
Ron Schweiger (Brooklyn)
Stanley Cogan (Queens)
Richard Dickenson (Staten Island)
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Pressure Mounts on LPC to Hold Hearings
In the City Council and in the court of public opinion, pressure is mounting on the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to hold public hearings on the buildings that matter most to New Yorkers.
Yesterday, NY City Council Member Bill Perkins introduced a “Landmarks Hearing” bill (Intro 705) to help ensure that historic buildings and districts that earn support from a majority of council members for consideration or that meet the eligibility criteria for the NY State Register of Historic Places receive fair, open, democratic designation hearings before the LPC. (See below to learn how you can help get this law passed, and visit the New York City Council's website to read the text of Intro 705 at http://www.nyccouncil.info/issues/intros_act.cfm?intro=Int%200705%2D2005). The intent of the “Landmarks Hearing” bill is to stem the tide of worthy buildings that are overlooked for hearings by the LPC without explanation to the public. Cases in point include St.Thomas the Apostle Church in Harlem, the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, the Richmond Hill district in Queens, and the (now sadly lost) Dorothy Day Cottage in Staten Island.
Meanwhile, expert support continues to grow for the LPC to hold a public hearing on 2 Columbus Circle, reports David W. Dunlap in today’s New York Times (“For 2 Columbus Circle, a Growing Fan Club," 8/18/05, pB3, link to article below). No less an authority than Vincent Scully, the Sterling professor emeritus of art history at Yale University and one of the world’s most esteemed scholars of 20-century American architecture, wrote an August 14 letter to LPC Chair Robert B. Tierney (who has claimed taking an undergraduate course with Scully 40 years ago as his principal architectural education). Scully instructs his former student, “Something rather wonderful has occurred, by which [2 Columbus Circle], rarely anyone’s favorite building in the past, is looking better every day. Its own integrity, its uniqueness, the indomitable determination to make a point that produced it, are come to the fore and are powerfully affecting the way we see it.” The full text of the letter is available on LW’s website at NT>http://www.landmarkwest.org/advocacy/ad_02/ScullytoTierney050814.pdf
Link to David Dunlap's New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/18/nyregion/18blocks.html
As further evidence of “the redemptive power that the passage of time holds for once-ugly ducklings,” Dunlap also cites the newly expressed support of several former landmarks commissioners (William E. Davis, Sarah Bradford Landau, Stephen M. Raphael and Mildred F. Schmertz), who recently called on Tierney to schedule a hearing for 2 Columbus Circle, joining Gene A. Norman and Beverly Moss Spatt (both former chairs) and Anthony M. Tung, whose support has been on record for nearly a year. Former commissioner Jack Freeman also supports a hearing, and former LPC Chair David F.M. Todd has stated his hope that a hearing would "strengthen the Landmarks Law."
2 Columbus Circle is just one prominent example of the LPC's lack of responsiveness to the public and the need for immediate action to remedy this threat to our city's heritage. HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN DO:
1) Contact your local council member(s) urging them to sign on as a co-sponsor of Intro 705, the "Landmarks Hearing" bill. A list of council members, their districts and contact information is available at www.nyccouncil.info.
2) Join "Citizens for a Responsive Landmarks Law," the coalition in formation to advocate for Intro 705. Reply to this email with permission to use your and/or your organization's name in connection with this initiative.
3) Email/call/fax Mayor Bloomberg. Urge him to break the wall of silence and call for a public hearing for 2 Columbus Circle today! Email: go to http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html and type your message in the space provided. Phone: 212-788-3000, Fax: (212) 788-2460. We appreciate receiving blind copies of your letters - please send to landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org.
See our website for additional updates - www.landmarkwest.org.
Yesterday, NY City Council Member Bill Perkins introduced a “Landmarks Hearing” bill (Intro 705) to help ensure that historic buildings and districts that earn support from a majority of council members for consideration or that meet the eligibility criteria for the NY State Register of Historic Places receive fair, open, democratic designation hearings before the LPC. (See below to learn how you can help get this law passed, and visit the New York City Council's website to read the text of Intro 705 at http://www.nyccouncil.info/issues/intros_act.cfm?intro=Int%200705%2D2005). The intent of the “Landmarks Hearing” bill is to stem the tide of worthy buildings that are overlooked for hearings by the LPC without explanation to the public. Cases in point include St.Thomas the Apostle Church in Harlem, the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, the Richmond Hill district in Queens, and the (now sadly lost) Dorothy Day Cottage in Staten Island.
Meanwhile, expert support continues to grow for the LPC to hold a public hearing on 2 Columbus Circle, reports David W. Dunlap in today’s New York Times (“For 2 Columbus Circle, a Growing Fan Club," 8/18/05, pB3, link to article below). No less an authority than Vincent Scully, the Sterling professor emeritus of art history at Yale University and one of the world’s most esteemed scholars of 20-century American architecture, wrote an August 14 letter to LPC Chair Robert B. Tierney (who has claimed taking an undergraduate course with Scully 40 years ago as his principal architectural education). Scully instructs his former student, “Something rather wonderful has occurred, by which [2 Columbus Circle], rarely anyone’s favorite building in the past, is looking better every day. Its own integrity, its uniqueness, the indomitable determination to make a point that produced it, are come to the fore and are powerfully affecting the way we see it.” The full text of the letter is available on LW’s website at NT>http://www.landmarkwest.org/advocacy/ad_02/ScullytoTierney050814.pdf
Link to David Dunlap's New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/18/nyregion/18blocks.html
As further evidence of “the redemptive power that the passage of time holds for once-ugly ducklings,” Dunlap also cites the newly expressed support of several former landmarks commissioners (William E. Davis, Sarah Bradford Landau, Stephen M. Raphael and Mildred F. Schmertz), who recently called on Tierney to schedule a hearing for 2 Columbus Circle, joining Gene A. Norman and Beverly Moss Spatt (both former chairs) and Anthony M. Tung, whose support has been on record for nearly a year. Former commissioner Jack Freeman also supports a hearing, and former LPC Chair David F.M. Todd has stated his hope that a hearing would "strengthen the Landmarks Law."
2 Columbus Circle is just one prominent example of the LPC's lack of responsiveness to the public and the need for immediate action to remedy this threat to our city's heritage. HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN DO:
1) Contact your local council member(s) urging them to sign on as a co-sponsor of Intro 705, the "Landmarks Hearing" bill. A list of council members, their districts and contact information is available at www.nyccouncil.info.
2) Join "Citizens for a Responsive Landmarks Law," the coalition in formation to advocate for Intro 705. Reply to this email with permission to use your and/or your organization's name in connection with this initiative.
3) Email/call/fax Mayor Bloomberg. Urge him to break the wall of silence and call for a public hearing for 2 Columbus Circle today! Email: go to http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html and type your message in the space provided. Phone: 212-788-3000, Fax: (212) 788-2460. We appreciate receiving blind copies of your letters - please send to landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org.
See our website for additional updates - www.landmarkwest.org.
Tuesday, August 9, 2005
Landmarks Commission Stirs on 2 Columbus Circle
"The debate over whether 2 Columbus Circle merits consideration as an official landmark is playing out on the Landmarks Preservation Commission itself," reports David W. Dunlap in today's New York Times ("Unanimity on a Building is a Facade, Insiders Say," 8/9/05, pB3, link to full text below). At long last! Recent rumblings suggest that the discussion about the future of 2 Columbus Circle may finally be taking place where it belongs, among the current 11 members of the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC).
Dunlap writes that a letter from Landmarks Commissioner Roberta Brandes Gratz to the editor of the Times (printed 8/6/05, pA13, se August 8th entry below) "suggested that at least some of the 11 commissioners favor a public hearing, as did telephone interviews yesterday with several members."
Link to Dunlap's article: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/09/nyregion/09circle.html
Reading tea leaves is not our specialty, but one can only hope this news augurs well for 2 Columbus Circle and, more importantly, for the wisdom, integrity and independence of the LPC itself. An LPC spokesperson states that Chair Robert B. Tierney is "not inclined to revisit this question." Why not, if former Chair Sherida E. Paulsen's claim that 19 commissioners since 1996 exercised their "professional judgment" that 2 Columbus Circle fails the test for a hearing turns out to be untrue?
Ask Mayor Bloomberg! Call, e-mail, fax him today to let him know that in new Yorkers' minds this is definitely not a closed case. Contact information below:
Mayor Michael R. BloombergE-mail: go to http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html and type your message in the space provided
Phone: 212-788-3000
Fax: 212-788-2460
We appreciate receiving blind copies of your letters - please send them to landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org
Dunlap writes that a letter from Landmarks Commissioner Roberta Brandes Gratz to the editor of the Times (printed 8/6/05, pA13, se August 8th entry below) "suggested that at least some of the 11 commissioners favor a public hearing, as did telephone interviews yesterday with several members."
Link to Dunlap's article: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/09/nyregion/09circle.html
Reading tea leaves is not our specialty, but one can only hope this news augurs well for 2 Columbus Circle and, more importantly, for the wisdom, integrity and independence of the LPC itself. An LPC spokesperson states that Chair Robert B. Tierney is "not inclined to revisit this question." Why not, if former Chair Sherida E. Paulsen's claim that 19 commissioners since 1996 exercised their "professional judgment" that 2 Columbus Circle fails the test for a hearing turns out to be untrue?
Ask Mayor Bloomberg! Call, e-mail, fax him today to let him know that in new Yorkers' minds this is definitely not a closed case. Contact information below:
Mayor Michael R. BloombergE-mail: go to http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html and type your message in the space provided
Phone: 212-788-3000
Fax: 212-788-2460
We appreciate receiving blind copies of your letters - please send them to landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org
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