A Tribute to West Siders Isidor & Ida Straus

Commemorating the 100th Anniversary 

of the Sinking of the Titanic:
The History of Straus Park and

Upper West Siders Isidor and Ida Straus

Sunday, April 15, 2012 at 2 p.m. at Straus Park

$12, free for LW! Members

Click here to RSVP or email us at landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org

Isidor and Ida Straus Memorial, Straus Park

On April 15, 1912, during its voyage from Southampton, England to New York City, the RMS Titanic sank to the depths of the Atlantic Ocean after colliding with an iceberg. The sinking of the Titanic took the lives of 1,514 people. In addition to familiar names such as Benjamin Guggenheim and John Jacob Astor IV, Upper West Siders Ida and Isidor Straus* (co-owner of Macy's) were among those who were lost in this tragic event.

Straus Park, located at 106th Street between Broadway and West End Avenue, serves as a memorial to Ida & Isidor Straus and also offers busy New Yorkers a quiet place to escape the hustle and bustle of the Upper West Side.

On April 15, 2012, the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, join Gilbert Tauber, an urban planner and historian, and Al Berr of Friends of Straus Park for a talk on the history of the area and Straus Park. Also joining us will be descendants of Ida and Isidor Straus who will talk about the history of the Strauses and the sinking of the Titanic.

Click here to read yesterday's New York Times article, "100 Years Ago, a Disaster Captivated the City," for more information on the sinking of the Titanic.

*Read more about Ida Straus in our 

Celebrating the Women of the Upper West Side email blast from May 2011.

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Other great LANDMARK WEST! events on the horizon - RSVP today!

LANDMARK WEST! Open House: Meet & Greet our Certificate of Appropriateness Committee
Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at 6 p.m.

"New York From the Air," an illustrated talk by architectural historian & NYC subway mapmaker John Tauranac

Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 6 p.m.

Preservation in the Papers: More news on Save St. Vincent de Paul

Sanctuary of St. Vincent de Paul

"A French Church Nears Its End, but Not Without a Contretemps"  

By David W. Dunlap, April 5, 2012, 6:16 pm

   

Tossing a gauntlet as he delivered an Easter sermon in 1841 to the people of New York, Charles Auguste Marie Joseph, the bishop of Nancy and Toul in France, demanded:

"In this great city, where the Irish and German Catholics have recoiled from no sacrifice to have their own churches and priests, how is it that the French, so famous for the faith of their fathers, alone remain indifferent?" he asked. "How, in fact, can this nationality be long preserved in a foreign land without the powerful bond of religion?"

That is exactly what some parishioners are asking today as the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York prepares to close the Church of St. Vincent de Paul at 123 West 23rd Street - the very church that emerged 170 years ago in response to the bishop's exhortation - and merge the French-speaking parish with the Church of St. Columba at 343 West 25th Street. No date has been set.

How will an unusually diverse body of Catholics from France, Belgium, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Switzerland, Togo and elsewhere maintain their connection with one another and with the mother church? What will keep them from dispersing, even if accommodated at St. Columba?

"The consequences are so grave, so overwhelming, they don't even want to hear about it," said Sylvestre Kouadio, a 51-year-old Ivorian taxi driver from the Bronx who directs the choir at St. Vincent. "The church has become a second home, a home away from home for Africans who speak French. This is the anchor." 

Click here for the full article and slide show at www.nytimes.com.  Please post your comments!  

Click here to visit "Save St. Vincent de Paul" and here to read LW's previous e-blast on this issue.

Spotlight on Education: Upper West Side-Inspired Poetry!

One of the ways in which LW! engages UWS elementary students to become more aware of the architecture in their neighborhood is through the exploration and creation of poetry. In our popular program Neighborhood Poetry, third-graders spend time outside to write down observations about their neighborhood. In a whole-class effort, these observations are later mixed together with their classmates' and arranged into different poems. Below, enjoy some examples from the spring of 2012!

P.S. 87 students wrote about the buildings on West 78th Street:

P.S. 199 students sat near the Eleanor Roosevelt statue at the corner of Riverside Park, looking at the buildings on 72nd Street and Riverside Drive: 

P.S. 145 students wrote about the West End Presbyterian Church on Amsterdam Avenue and 105th Street (on LW's Wish List):  

Join the Committee; Protect the Neighborhood!

The Tavern on the Green, in Central Park, soon to be restored
and modified with a glass pavilion.  An example of a recent preservation issue focused on
by our C of A Committee (learn more below!).

In landmarks preservation, designation is just the beginning!  Learn more about "on the ground" landmark stewardship and how YOU can participate in neighborhood preservation!

OPEN HOUSE: Get to know (and consider joining!)

the LW! Certificate of Appropriateness Committee

Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at 6 p.m.

Macaulay Honors College (35 West 67th Street)

Join us -- admission is FREE; wine and light snacks will be served 
CheeseSticks generously provided by John Wm. Macy's CheeseSticks  
Click here to RSVP or email us at landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org

Even the staunchest of preservationists knows that in vibrant communities, changes in the built environment are inevitable.  Landmarks are not frozen in time, and they depend on our constant stewardship for appropriate and sensitive maintenance and growth.

When owners of landmark buildings and sites wish to make changes, they need to apply to the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) for what's called a Certificate of Appropriateness (C of A).  LW's C of A Committee is an all-volunteer group that works with building owners and their architects, contractors and consultants to advise on design and protect the integrity of our constantly evolving neighborhood.  We welcome our friends and neighbors, architects, designers, historians, attorneys, real estate professionals ... anyone and everyone excited to volunteer their skills and expertise to the stewardship of the Upper West Side.

JOIN US on April 18th, meet current Committee members and others in the community who share your interest in neighborhood preservation! 

240 Columbus Avenue (then Victor's Cafe) at the time of its inclusion
in the Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District in 1990.

These meetings culminate in testimony -- directly inspired by the input from our Committee members -- before the LPC, the Public Design Commission, and other public agencies and forums.  We "win" some, we "lose" some, but we always succeed in raising awareness about the history of our West Side neighborhood.   

A recent preservation issue -- and success story! -- has been 240 Columbus Avenue (formerly Victor's Cafe), at West 71st Street.  Thanks to collaborative efforts with the family of Victor del Corral, founder of the pioneering West Side restaurant, Victor's Cafe, a noteworthy bas relief mural on the 71st Street facade was saved from demolition.  This important layer of West Side history -- when Columbus Avenue and 71st Street was a destination for Cuban expatriates in New York City -- can be experienced and appreciated by future generations.  A new restaurant, Cafe Tallulah, is expected to open this Summer.  Click here to read more about our C of A Committee's work on this project.

Another recent issue of our Committee has been the Tavern on the Green in Central Park (pictured at the top of this post).  As we testified before the LPC:

"With this transition, LANDMARK WEST! is pleased to see the building's restoration needs being addressed.  Over dozens of years, the footprint of the Tavern on the Green gradually increased to accommodate larger private parties and seat more guests. Slowly but surely, the historic Jacob Wrey Mould-designed core was swallowed up by expanded kitchen facilities to the West and South, along with additional dining areas encased in greenhouse-like glass on the South and, famously, to the East in the form of the Crystal Room. With the removal of these egregious additions, the Tavern on the Green can once again breathe. And, perhaps more importantly, the public can fully experience and appreciate its architectural beauty in the landscape."  Read more here.

The proposal was ultimately approved by the LPC and the Public Design Commission, and the glass box will soon rise in the U-shaped courtyard of the Tavern.  Click here to read more about our work on this project.

JOIN US on Wednesday, April 18th, at 6PM for our first ever C of A Open House! The C of A Open House will be an opportunity for friends and neighbors to learn more about design review process and its essential role at LANDMARK WEST!.

Stanford White: The original "starchitect"

This week marks New York Magazine's 2nd Annual Yesteryear Issue.  Many in the LW! office are already regular NY Mag readers, but an issue focused primarily on history, with glimpses of architecture to boot?  Count us in!

via New York Magazine

The subject of the magazine this week is scandal, New York City style.  And wouldn't you know it, the 1906 death of architect Stanford White, of the illustrious firm McKim, Mead & White, is among those scandals documented (read more here!).

via National Park Service

Though his high-profile personal life and death were the focus of what newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst's publications dubbed the "Trial of the Century", Stanford White's professional legacy is no less astounding.

According to NY Mag's Lee Siegel, "Stanford White just about single-handedly invented the American facade."  One such facade was that of the former IRT Powerhouse, an Upper West Side "landmark in waiting" on West 59th Street at Eleventh Avenue.  This monument to Beaux-Arts style architecture was recently named to the Preservation League of New York State's "Seven to Save" list of endangered places.

After you've sated your appetite for scandal with the magazine article, learn more about Stanford White's firm's masterful IRT Powerhouse on the Save the Powerhouse blog.  

To dig deeper into the history of the firm, we recommend the book Triumvirate: McKim Mead & White - Art, Architecture, Scandal, and Class in America's Gilded Age by Mosette Broderick, architectural historian and Director of the Urban Design and Architecture Studies program at New York University.

That's Our Arlene!: LW! President and Founder shares inside look at West 67th Street

As Elizabeth Harris writes, "It's all very upstairs, downstairs -- except that it's upside down."

In today's New York Times online, take a peek at a former maid's room on West 67th and learn a bit about these tiny spaces, courtesy LW! president and founder Arlene Simon.

For the full article, click here.

Preservation Across the Globe: Inspired reuse in Holland

Since LW's Program Coordinator Sarah Sher brought this to our attention, the ladies at LW! haven't been able to stop scrolling through the pictures and marveling in awe at this inspired adaptive reuse of a 13th-century church for a new bookstore.

Landmark-protected buildings are not frozen in amber, and the church-turned-bookstore, below, is a case in point.

From the blog My Modern Metropolis ...

Photo via

We've seen some breathtaking libraries in the past and this bookstore is no exception when it comes to innovative design.

Click here to read My Modern Metropolis' full post.

It Started as a Silly Tweet ...

... but the idea of architecture inspiring other modes of creativity is a fascinating one, worthy of more than 140 characters!

Earlier today, our friends and colleagues at the Historic Districts Council and the Historic Landmarks Preservation Center commemorated an architect dear to our LW! hearts: Edward Durell Stone.  

Stone designed the iconic mid-century masterpiece that was 2 Columbus Circle (for a refresher on the long saga of how we fought for, but lost, this would-be landmark, click here); he is responsible, of course, for another iconic Modernist edifice in New York City: the Museum of Modern Art.

So when HDC tweeted this to their followers ...

Edward Durell Stone House, 130 East 64th Street
(between Park and Lexington Avenues)

 

We couldn't help but respond in kind ...

In our office, the same open concrete block used by Stone is translated
into an interesting paper screen.

 

The newly-installed cultural medallion on Stone's personal residence will serve as a reminder to all who pass by "that history is about more than bricks and mortar, but what people accomplished under the city's roofs that truly matters".  Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, founder of the HLPC continues:

Not only do they help bring history alive, they're meant to remind people of how New York became as rich and vital, as energetic and dynamic as it is.  They're also meant to inspire you in your own life.

Stone's cement block clearly inspired an industrious LW! intern of years past, who made the screen that livens up our office.  What other examples do you know of architecture translating into another medium? We want to know!  Send us an email at landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org.

*LW! also covered the installation of a cultural medallion at 14 West 23rd Street in October, honoring the legacy of author Edith Wharton.

A Glimpse of Winters Past on the Upper West Side

With the first day of Spring less than a week away, we took a moment to remark on the utter lack of Winter to be had in New York this year.  Unlike "Snowmageddon" of years past, with days on end of snow boots, down jackets and gloves, we've had it pretty easy this year *knock on wood*.  So this post (an oldie but a goodie) from Ephemeral New York seemed like a fun -- and historically appropriate! -- way to remind ourselves of our weather luck this winter.

From Ephemeral New York: Huddling by the stove at the 72nd Street El ...
 

Berenice Abbott took this February 6th, 1936, photograph of subway riders warming up in the El station at 72nd Street and Columbus Avenue. El tracks lined Columbus from 1879 to 1940.

The paneled windows, wooden turnstiles, and decorative border along the interior wall are some rather old-fashioned touches for a public train station. And when was the last time you saw a pot-bellied stove in the subway? Gives the photo quite a homey feel.

Reliving "The Battle for Bryant Park"

Last week, the Historic Districts Council hosted its Annual Conference.  This year's theme was "The Great Outside", asking preservationists and architectural enthusiasts to consider the open space around our much-loved brick-and-mortar treasures.

LW! was there, tracking all the conference action via Twitter (#GreatOutsideConf -- our thumbs are still aching from all the documentation via iPhone!).  

The "The Great Outside" conference themes live on, in upcoming programming from our friends at HDC ... 

From the LW! archives, an R.O. Blechman-designed invitation
to honor Anthony M. Tung in 1988

 

The Battle of Bryant Park, 25 Years On

A Discussion with Anthony Tung

Thursday, March 8, 6:00pm 

Neighborhood Preservation Center

232 East 11th Street. Free!

Reservations required; please call (212) 614-9107 or contact hdc@hdc.org

Co-sponsored with the New York Preservation Archive Project 
and the Neighborhood Preservation Center 

On January 8, 1987, The New York Times reported: "A four-year-old plan to build a restaurant behind the New York Public Library has been dealt a surprising setback, with the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission warning that it would consider 'absolutely untenable' any structure that would make it difficult to view the library’s west facade." The author of the motion was Commissioner Anthony Tung.

Five days later, on Sunday, in "A Landmark of Misfeasance" the Times editorial board called for the replacement of every member of the Commission.

By Monday, Tony Tung had been sacked. But it took 18 turbulent months for the mayor to finally unseat him.

Marking the 25-year anniversary of this battle, which energized the entire preservation community, Anthony Tung will join Anthony C. Wood and Jeffrey Kroessler to re-examine the controversy of 25 years ago.  The discussion will examine how this episode affected the independence of the Landmarks Preservation Commission and relations between the preservation community and the commission, as well as the implications for the present.

Anthony Max Tung lectures internationally on historic preservation and has taught historic preservation at MIT and Columbia. He is the author of Preserving the World’s Great Cities: The Destruction and Renewal of the Historic Metropolis.

Anthony C. Wood is the founder of the New York Preservation Archives Project, Chair Emeritus of the Historic Districts Council, member of the Citizens Emergency Committee to Preserve Preservation, and advisor to preservationists across the city and state. He is the author of Preserving New York: Winning the Right to Protect a City’s Landmarks.

Jeffrey A. Kroessler is a longtime board member of HDC and member of the Citizens Emergency Committee to Preserve Preservation. He is the author of New York, Year by Year and The Greater New York Sports Chronology. He is an associate professor in the library at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Special thanks to Arlene Simon and LANDMARK WEST! for the invitation to the 1988 party honoring Anthony Tung  – at St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery (art by R.O. Blechman)