A Feast for the Eyes :: More photos from Sunday's event

Sincere thanks to photographer Henrik Olund for capturing the truly magical spirit of Landmark Feast.  More photos to come!

West-Park to host film screening in October

Last month, LW! staffers dove head first into the mind boggling and totally engaging world of the psychological play "The Tenant", an experiential theater production by the Woodshed Collective, taking place at the landmarked West-Park Presbyterian Church.

Seeing the church filled with audience members, scampering up and down five floors of the parish house as they followed the action of the players, was truly spectacular and speaks both to the community's desire to see the church again bustling with action, and to the potential for the landmark church's adaptive reuse.  

Following "The Tenant", West-Park played host to another theater troupe, the Dark Lady Players and next month the church will open its doors to the community as it hosts a two-part film screening and discussion series.  These events are a terrific opportunity to meet the people behind West-Park's rebirth and to see for yourself the wonderful church interior.

The congregation of West-Park Presbyterian Church invites you ...

The Center at West-Park invites you to join us as we engage the complex subject of forgiveness through a two-part film screening and three-session discussion group series.

In Forgiveness: A Time to Love & A Time To Hate, award-winning film maker Helen Whitney elegantly and fearlessly tackles these issues in her two part documentary, offering a compelling range of intimate and powerful stories: from personal betrayal to reconciliation—global and local—in the wake of tragedy.

The Center will show part one of Whitney’s film on Tuesday, October 4, and part two on Tuesday, October 11th, both at 7:30PM. Helen Whitney will be present for Q&A at the October 11th showing.

An opportunity to address the multi-faceted topic of forgiveness in the context of community will take place on three subsequent Tuesday evenings—October 18th, 25th, and November 1st, from 7:30 to 9PM. Chaplain and spiritual retreat leader Eleanor Harrison Bregman will facilitate three small group discussions based on the film. Session one focuses on formulating our own working definitions and varied meanings of forgiveness. The “mechanics” and process of forgiveness are the themes for the second session. The final session considers the experience of seeking forgiveness, granted or withheld, including self-forgiveness.

Film showings: No advance registration or ticketing required.
Film admission: Suggested donation $10 at the door (more if you can, less if you can’t).
Discussion groups: Space is limited. Registration either at the door or in advance (preferred):
$10 for one group; $25 for all three. Go to http://forgiveness.eventzilla.net/ to register or click below.

Venue for film and discussion groups:

The Center at West Park
West Park Church, 165 West 86th Street, NYC 10024
At the corner of Amsterdam Avenue at 86th Street
212.362.4890

Scenes from the Feast :: Celebrating life's essentials on the Upper West Side

Yesterday marked the inaugural Landmark Feast, an Upper West Side dining event like none other.  Gathering with hundreds of our friends, new and old, LW! toasted and tasted on the Arthur Ross Terrace at the American Museum of Natural History as the sun set over the landmark Beresford Apartments nearby.  Then, against the illuminated backdrop of the Museum's planetarium, we, along with co-sponsors Friends of Roosevelt Park and our evening's hosts Outstanding in the Field, dined on the epicurean creations of some of the West Side's most talented chefs.  This was Landmark Feast!

From the event's launch at 4PM until the last guest departed the Terrace, LW's Cristiana Peña and a host of event attendees documented the festivities via Twitter.  Sharing pictures and musings alike, their tweeting opened Landmark Feast to all who followed the #LandmarkFeast hashtag.  Below are photos of the evening shared by participating chefs (Damian Sansonetti of Bar Boulud and Johnny Iuzzini of Jean-Georges), fellow West Side neighborhood organizations (Columbus Avenue BID), event supporters (67 Wine & Spirits), and more.  Enjoy!  And if you have more photos to share, send them in to cristianapena@landmarkwest.org.  We'll add them to the album!

"Getting ready for tonight's event with Landmark West and Outstanding in the Field"
via @DSansonetti

Outside the Museum's Powerhouse, site of our pre-dinner cocktails and tastings
via @UntappedAlley and @untappedcities

The planetarium beside the Arthur Ross Terrace as backdrop for Landmark Feast
via @UntappedAlley and @untappedcities

"Looks amazing; this picture doesn't do it justice"
via @eecookiesny

Inside the Museum's Powerhouse, where guests enjoy the cocktails and seasonal samplings
via @UntappedAlley and @untappedcities

via @wkoellhoffer

“Recipe serving up jersey corn soup with crab and New York cheddar muffins"
via @melissa_ful of @67Wine

"It's heirlooms galore! Tuscan Panzanella Salad from Cesca Enoteca"
via @NewTasteUWS

“The all-star local spirits for cocktails at Landmark Feast!” 
via @melissa_ful of @67Wine

Heirloom tomato frozen custard with sweet corn syrup from Shake Shack
via @westsiderag

Nice Matin serves lamb sausage
via @westsiderag

“Incredible how this works for cocktail hour:
Tortellini in Brodo by Caffe Storico - New-York Historical Society"
via @melissa_ful of @67Wine

"If Mondrian made pancetta; @Gastroarte is rockin'!"
via @NewTasteUWS

Gastroarte's Chef Jesus Nuñez
via @westsiderag

"What 62 lbs of avocado look like; about to be Guacamole en Molcajete"
via @NewTasteUWS

"You thought it couldn't get any better? Pumpkin whoopie pie dipped in dark Godiva"
via @eecookiesny

300 guests + 1 long table = Landmark Feast magic
via @UntappedAlley and @untappedcities

"Getting ready for tonites event with Landmark West and Outstanding in the Field"
via @DSansonetti

"Pre-dinner excitement. Love how we can 'walk-through' the outdoor kitchen"
via @melissa_ful of @67Wine

"Dinner placement. Lovely sage"
via @melissa_ful of @67Wine

"Landmark Feast with 67 Wine and Fox Run Vineyards"
via @1Grl2WneGlasses

Behind the scenes in the outdoor kitchen: "Plate up, Dovetail"
via @DSansonetti

"Unbelievable night! Can't wait until next year"
via @billtelepan

Bar Boulud lamb dinner
via @DSansonetti

"Dry Riesling 2010 pairing perfectly with salad Nicoise"
via @1Grl2WneGlasses

Jean-Georges pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini's creations await delivery to the dinner table
via @Johnny_Iuzzini

Fun at the Festival: LW! at weekend street fair

REPORT from the FIELD

By Cristiana Peña

This past weekend brought the annual Columbus Avenue Festival to the Upper West Side.  Events like this are right up LW's alley -- it gives us the opportunity to escape the four walls of our office and mix and mingle (out on beautiful Columbus Avenue, no less) with folks who value and love the neighborhood as much as we do.

LW's Sarah Sher has the table set, tote in hand ... she's ready to talk about landmarks!

This year, I was joined by our newly minted Program Coordinator Sarah Sher and our graduate intern Kate Gilmore (no stranger to this blog).  We shared information about ongoing advocacy work, such as the West-Park Presbyterian Church, distributed copies of our latest Map Newsletter, and generally made merry.

And for the first time in a long time, we had stuff to sell!  For a modest donation ($3, $20 and many denominations in between!), visitors to the LW! table walked away with a historic map of a Manhattan neighborhood, or a "vintage" copy of a Harper's Weekly article, or an artistic representation of Grand Central Terminal, or one of many other odds and ends.  The map and photo sale was a big hit and we heard lots of encouragement (both at the fair later via Twitter) from folks as to planning other opportunities to sell these pieces of the past.

Our good friend Brendan walks away with his own Bromley map of northern Manhattan.
Thanks for all your support, Mr. Shera!

Kate, Cristiana and Sarah with a sample of one of the hundreds (literally!) of maps
available at Sunday's street fair.

But it wasn't all work on Sunday.  Kate G. made sure to peruse the other stalls and visit our friends at Soutine Bakery (Kate's a regular).  The tasty treats they had out for the festival has us dreaming of what Soutine Bakery and owner Madge Rosenberg have planned for Landmark Feast (coming this Sunday!).  Excited to see (and taste!) for ourselves.

Soutine Bakery tempts passersby on Sunday.

To all who swung by to say hi (@westsiderag, @NewTasteUWS and many others!), thank you!

History to Hang on Your Wall

This weekend, let's make a deal!

This Sunday, September 18th, is the annual Columbus Avenue Festival, sponsored by the West Manhattan Chamber of Commerce.  LANDMARK WEST! will be there!  The street fair is a great opportunity for us to share information about our historic neighborhood, make new friends, and hear -- directly from you -- just what you LOVE about the West Side.

                 WHEN:  Sunday, Sept. 18th, 12PM/noon to ... whenever!
               WHERE:  Northeast corner of Columbus Avenue at West 67th Street
                                  (if for any reason we have to relocate,
                                   just look for us as you stroll the Avenue!)

And this year, we're adding something new to our traditional roster of street fair assignments.  In addition to handing out copies of our latest Map Newsletter and helping folks sign up for our informative emails, we've got stuff to sell!

What kind of stuff, you ask?  All manner of "vintage" prints and photos!  For a modest contribution -- four dollars, twenty five cents, make us an offer! -- you can walk away the proud new owner of images like this one:

That's just the beginning.  We asked our summer interns Ingrid and Zack to help us give the blogosphere a sneak peek at the not-at-all-particular collection of images that awaits ...

We have to agree with the interns, the image on the left is TOO GOOD.  What are they looking at?  What's happening behind the camera?!?!  Tell us what you think at the street fair!

And these are only the beginning.  We'll post a few more samples before Sunday, but they'll hardly be a dent in terms of our large collection.  So meander along Columbus Avenue this Sunday and visit us at West 67th Street!

With summer's end, a farewell to interns! (2 of 2)

With Summer 2011 unofficially behind us, we're bidding farewell to the LW! interns who have helped so much over the past few months. Scroll down for Ingrid's final post, and click here for last week's adieu to Zack!

After two months interning for LW!, Ingrid leaves us to begin her senior year at Brooklyn's Williamsburg High School for Architecture and Design. Always eager for new projects, Ingrid helped out in many different ways this summer. Below, she shares her thoughts about her summer at LW!.

The whole team at LANDMARK WEST! is great. From my first day here to this day I have been welcomed. You learn new things every day here, and if you don't understand something you can always ask for help. I guarantee someone will be over your shoulder ready to help and to make sure you understand everything step by step. Some things I have worked on include: going to the Municipal Archives for 1940s tax photos, taking pictures of buildings for the online buildings database on the LW! website, attending a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Amsterdam Houses, going to the Landmarks Preservation Commission to hear testimony about changes to Cherry Hill in Central Park, and last but not least walking the streets of the Upper West Side checking to see if every Historic District had the terra cotta street signs letting people know that they are in a Historic District. You have to love the Upper West Side of Manhattan and all of the beauty that's out there waiting to be discovered.

Everybody that works here is very nice and always has a smile on their face. Most of the times it's really quiet because everyone is working hard on their own projects. But when we do start a conversation, or at office meetings, there can be two to three different conversations happening at the same time. You can hear us laughing and ejoying each others' company. After two months of working here it's going to be hard for me to say goodbye! It was a really great opportunity, and I consider myself lucky. What I learned this summer and will continue learning will help me in the near future. So for my last works I would like to say "Thank You!" to the best co-workers!

 

With summer's end, a farewell to interns! (1 of 2)

All good things must come to an end!  With the summer days coming to an end (Fall will officially be here in less than a month!), we're looking back and saying thanks to those who pitched in and made Summer 2011 a memorable one!

We bid adieu to one of our dedicated interns, Zack Bunin.  Introduced to us via his mother, a stalwart supporter, frequent volunteer and real estate broker.  Zack has helped us on so many projects, be it general administrative tasks or helping us to prep for upcoming events like the Columbus Avenue Street Fair later this month.  Working with Zack, year after year -- indeed, this was his third summer with us! -- is always a pleasure.  Below, Zack shares a few words of introduction and reflection:

I am working toward a Math and Economics double major with philosophy and art on the side at the University of Rochester. During my freshman and sophomore years I have learned of the theory of the free market and studied the statistics behind the rhetoric. For the past three summers I have done work at LW!.

A different sort of theory runs here: a sort of communal flavor. It exists regardless of buildings or profits. It is defined by and forms the environment for a complex community. Landmark West! is an idea that has given me the insight to look beyond a façade and into the community.

This aside, the staff is friendly. I have attended meetings and tried some of the self cook lunches on those special occasions. These summer days have been hot but this basement office is always pleasant yet focused.

This Little Light of Mine

By Intern Kate G. 


Whenever you hear about Central Park, a 843 acre urban oasis, the names that immediately come to mind are Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. And rightly so, since they are the designers/brains behind the Greensward Plan, Central Park's original master plan. 

Greensward Plan

But since Vaux & Olmsted's masterwork was completed in 1873, the park has continued to evolve. Central Park as we know it today is made up of layers of change as the park deteriorated and then was progressively restored in the late 1970s and 1980s.One person who played a key role in the 1980s park restoration was architect Gerald Allen. During the late 1970s, Allen was brought on by Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, the founder of the Central Park Conservancy, as part of the restoration team.

He literally shed light on the park! Allen, a New York architect that received a Masters at Yale, and Kent Bloomer, a Yale architecture professor, designed the light fixtures found throughout Central Park. As highlighted in a New York Times article published in August 1983, the key design question was whether the new fixtures, called luminaires, should be contemporary or historical. 

Photo Credit: Kent Bloomer Studio

Over a period of nine months, Allen and Bloomer worked with the Department of Parks and Recreation's General Services and the Landmarks Preservation Commission to refine the design. Upon approval, Elizabeth Barlow Rogers noted, the LPC review strengthened the design and "the light ...with its leaves and little seeds, is energetic and graceful. It satisfies all the practical optical requirements. I think it's very successful." These beautiful light fixtures are found throughout the park.

Photo Credit: Kent Bloomer Studio

Gerald Allen's work can also be experienced at the Cherry Hill Concourse (overlooking the Lake near West 72nd Street and Central Park West), which has lately been the subject of significant debate and is scheduled to be demolished and reconstructed this Fall 2011. As sited in Landmark West!'s testimony at the Design Commission, "Just as Central Park is a compelling example of New York City's historical palimpsest--that is, the tradition of the past accommodating the present-Cherry Hill is an archetypal example of the Park's evolution over the decades." Cherry Hill is representative of a key layer in the rich history of Central Park.  



With two such significant contributions to the design of Central Park, shedding some light on Gerald Allen's role in the long, ever-evolving history of Central Park is our pleasure!

*Gerald Allen is the co-author of The Place of Houses

Diggin' Up the Dirt on Central Park's Past

REPORT from the FIELD
By Debi and intern Kate G.

This morning we visited the Institute for the Exploration of Seneca Village History’s Open House in Central Park.  The students' presentations were fascinating and ranged from the description of different nails found during the excavation, to the public's general knowledge of Seneca Village.  The entire Open House was a great reminder that no matter where you are in New York City, there are layers of history right beneath your feet!

Seneca Village Open House visitors learn about site findings, such as
19th Century "Tupperware" from students.

In the 1850s, Seneca Village, a thriving community with a population of nearly 300 people, existed on land between 81st and 89th Streets. This predominantly African American community was evicted and their land was taken through the right of eminent domain to make way for the construction of Central Park.

Victor A. Luna, a senior at City College, researched gender economics at Seneca Village.

This summer, the Institute (led by co-directors Cynthia Copeland, Nan Rothschild and Diana Wall) along with a crew of summer interns, conducted an archaeological excavation at the former site of Seneca Village. The Open House showcased the students' research and hosted walking tours of the site. Click here to see the New York Times' recent profile of the Institute's work.

The Seneca Village team excavated portions of a house built on the site.
Here, a visitor examines photos of what lies beneath.  The orange tape outlines
the foundations of the home.

Shakespearean Theater Comes to Life at West-Park

Last week, we wrote about the Woodshed Collective's run of "The Tenant" at West-Park Presbyterian Church.  The LW! staff is excitedly looking forward to experiencing this site-specific production for ourselves at this evening's show -- stay tuned for our musings in the coming days!

There are still plenty of opportunities to take in experiential theater on the West Side post-Woodshed, thanks to West-Park!  The church and its congregation continue the long history of supporting the theater and providing a venue for artistic expression with the Dark Lady Players' production of "Shakespeare's Gospel Parodies".  As with "The Tenant", this show is free to the public!  So read on to learn more about the troupe, the show and dates to mark on your calendar!

From the Dark Lady Players

West-Park Presbyterian Church
Hosts NYC’s Experimental Shakespeare Company

Beginning August 24th West Park is hosting the Woodshed Collective for their sold out, site-specific production of The Tenant which runs on Wednesdays-Saturday. In parallel West-Park is also hosting the experimental theater group the Dark Lady Players for their production of Shakespeare’s Gospel Parodies; A Medieval Mystery Tour. The production uses the sets that Woodshed has built and runs from 11 to 25 September, at 4:00 Sunday and 7:00 Monday-Tuesday. Tickets are free and available at the door on a first come first served basis.

West Park has a long association with Shakespeare, having previously been the home of the Riverside Shakespeare Company, having a 50 seat balcony theater dedicated by Joe Papp, and being the home of the 'Shakespeare Center,’ and the 'Shakespeare Project’ in the 1980s. It was where the Royal Shakespeare company did their first US residency. More recently it has been the venue for Shakespeare performances by the York Shakespeare company taking advantage of the building’s unique acoustics.

The Dark Lady Players perform the allegorical levels of Shakespeare’s plays showing that plays these are religious parodies. The Shakespeare plays contain 14 resurrections, 12 Apocalypses, 5 Virgin Mary Allegories, 3,000 additional religious references, a variety of Christ figures and were written using 14 different translations of the Bible. And yet none of the plays end in Paradise. Why do the Marys (Juliet, Ophelia, Desdemona) die before giving birth to the savior? Why are the Messiah figures (Laertes, Shylock, Bottom/Pyramus) defeated? These parodies resemble those in Jewish/Marrano literature and suggest that the author of the plays may not have been William Shakespeare but England’s only Jewish poet of the time.This was the subject of a cover article last summer in Reform Judaism magazine.

Shakespeare’s Gospel Parodies is a tour of key events from the life of Jesus as represented in parody in the plays, all based on reputable scholarship. The audience will walk from one scene to another around the building, under the guidance of docents, as if the scenes were living speaking pictures in a museum. The director is Jenny Greeman, the dramaturg John Hudson. After the performance on Sunday 18 September there will be a talkback with West Side clergy to discuss some of the implications. The production is partially funded by the Alliance of Resident Theaters-NY Nancy Quinn Fund. For more details visit www.facebook.com/darkladyplayers or email Darkladyplayers@aol.com