Old, Massive, Illustrious and Somehow Overlooked

"Its delicate Renaissance-style exterior could just as well have clothed an opera house, although the five colossal stacks gave it away." 

Photo: New York City Municipal Archives, via NY Times

Preservation groups are circling the deliciously decorated Con Ed powerhouse at 11th Avenue and 59th Street, as the 1904 structure, designed by Stanford White, nudges up for a third time to landmark designation. At the same time, a similar grand structure sits alone without fuss or bother, just working hard in elegant industrial simplicity ...

Click here to read the full article by Christopher Gray, in which he looks both at the West Side's IRT Powerhouse and, across the island, at an East River contemporary.

A Stroll in the Park with Andrew Dolkart

Central Park Walking Tour with Andrew S. Dolkart Wednesday, June 20, 2012, at 6 p.m. $25, $15 for LW! Members Meeting Location TBA **SPACE IS LIMITED** Tickets must be purchased in advance Click here to RSVP or email landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org Central Park is the pleasure-ground of the chief city in a great republic. It has not been set aside by any privileged class for its own use and entertainment, but it is the creation of the whole people of the City of New York for their own enjoyment. ~ Clarence Cook, art critic, 1869*   Join LW! for a walking tour of the People's Park with Professor Andrew S. Dolkart, Director of the Historic Preservation Program at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation. *As quoted in Central Park's Scenic Landmark designation report. If you have any questions, call us at 212-496-8110.

At the Dakota Apartments, Hands-On Learning for First Graders

Education is central to LANDMARK WEST's mission, especially our award-winning youth education program, Keeping the Past for the Future (KPF), and its accompanying student workbook, "My Preservation Journal".

KPF teaches students to look at their surroundings and learn about architecture, history and community.  First-grade students from the Anderson School did just that as Dir. of Education Debi Germann led them to the famed Dakota Apartments (1 West 72nd Street at Central Park West).  Students sketched the building's detailing, such as the fantastical ironwork by Samuel Yellin, who also designed the intricate metal work at the Central Savings Bank (now Apple Bank for Savings, an Individual Landmark designated in 1975).

Students from the Anderson School sketching
the Samuel Yellin-designed ironwork at the Dakota Apartments.

If you're a parent with children who attend school on the Upper West Side and want to help introduce KPF into your child's classroom and school, let us know!  Call our Dir. of Education, Debi Germann, at (212) 496-8110 or email her at debigermann@landmarkwest.org.  Get page-by-page interactive preview of "My Preservation Journal" here.

Stay tuned to the LW! blog for updates on KPF in West Side classrooms and other education activities (follow the "Education" label, linked here!).

For more information and photographs of the Dakota Apartments, the Central Savings Bank, and many more of the West Side's architectural treasures, download our FREE iPhone walking tour app!

LW's First-Ever Bicycling Tour!

Guest post by LW! Intern Ali K.

LW's Sarah S. and Guide Josef Szende
at Columbus Circle

What better way to celebrate Bike Month and welcome the summer weather than with a bike tour? This past Saturday, LANDMARK WEST! cruised the Upper West Side with bicycle enthusiast Josef Szende, exploring historic railway, subway and greenway sites and structures.

Beginning at the McKim, Mead and White IRT Powerhouse, we rolled through Riverside Park and along the Hudson River Railroad to 96th Street IRT Substation. From here, we enjoyed Central Park, the currently car-free haven for cyclists, jogger and leisurely wanderers. Along the way, Szende shared his knowledge of the recent updates to cycling infrastructure in the Upper West Side, making it easier and safer for everyone to enjoy our beautiful parks, streetscapes and historic architecture!

Szende discussing the development of the Route 9A Reconstruction Project,
making Manhattan's west side accessible to cyclists and pedestrians. 

Josef Szende earned his master's degree in urban planning (with a focus on transportation) at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation and his B.A. in geography from the University of Toronto. He is currently the Executive Director of the Atlantic Avenue Business Improvement District, and is also an avid Transportation Alternatives volunteer. 

Learning about the Hudson River Railroad, hidden behind the background's stone structure

Stay tuned for upcoming events and tours with LANDMARK WEST! over the summer on our blog, website and Twitter.

Lesson in Color and Light with Farrow & Ball

DID YOU KNOW ...

... that the English paint company, Farrow & Ball, was founded by two chemists?

... that the Farrow & Ball paint palette is kept to a strict 132 color run? As new colors are developed, older colors are archived.

... that the names of Farrow & Ball paints are often derived from historic locations which inspired the colors?  For example, Ballroom Blue No. 24 finds its roots in the ballroom of the Bath Assembly Rooms in Somerset, England.

These were the lessons learned at last night's in-store color talk with Farrow & Ball's paint and wallpaper experts.  Couldn't join us?  Check out the photos below!  Have paint questions of your own?  Swing by the Farrow & Ball showroom (322 Columbus Avenue at 75th Street) -- their friendly and informed consultants can help you explore colors rich in history (and pigment!) for your own home.

Friends of LW! fill the F&B showroom.

Christine Klotz, F&B's Regional Tri-State Manager, shares with our group
the history of the company's paint development.

A view of cool colors offered by F&B, such as Folly Green No. 76 and Teresa's Green No. 236.

Samples of trough-dragged F&B wallpaper.

Let's Connect; Let's Tweet!

In addition to checking in with LANDMARK WEST! on our website (and, of course, here on our blog!), you can get even more up-to-date notices and musings from us via Twitter.  If you don't already, follow us! 

Jump into the conversation!  Our tweets cover special events like our #UnsungHeroes2012, our "reports from the field" (#advocacy in action!), and all things #UpperWestSide / #UWS.

Click on the icon to access our Twitter page.

History on Wheels: RSVP for first ever LW! bike tour!

A Bicycling Tour of Historic Railway, Subway & Greenway Sites and Structures on the Upper West Side 

Saturday, May 12, 2012 at 3 p.m.

$15, $10 for LW! and American Planning Association Members 

Click here to RSVP or email landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org

Josef Szende

From railway to subway to greenway, the Upper West Side is the keeper of key infrastructural components that help New Yorkers stay in motion. Join transportation planner and Upper West Sider Josef Szende for a tour of sites and structures that are part of the history of the Hudson River Railroad and the IRT subway.  Also learn about the history of some of New York City's most advanced bicycling infrastructure, including the Hudson River Greenway and the Columbus Avenue bike lane.

Josef Szende earned his master's degree in urban planning (with a focus on transportation) at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation and his B.A. in geography from the University of Toronto.  He is currently the Executive Director of the Atlantic Avenue Business Improvement District, and is also an avid Transportation Alternatives volunteer.  

Bicycle tour will be approximately 10 miles in length and will in part take place in NYC streets.  Bicycle rentals will be available prior to the tour.  For more information, please call us at 212-496-8110 or email us at landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org.  

(Lead image is 2012 US Bicycling Forever Stamps)

Say It Loud: "People Want Preservation"!

Our landmarks -- and our Landmarks Law -- need us!City Council announces public hearing for bills proposing RADICAL CHANGES to the Landmarks Law! Preservation advocates received the following hearing notification late last week:

 ***

 

I am writing to inform you about a joint hearing that the City Council’s Committee on Housing & Buildings and Committee on Land Use will be holding next week, Wednesday, May 2, 2012 at 10:00 AM at 250 Broadway, 14th Floor.

The hearing will cover a number of bills regarding the Landmarks Preservation Commission and landmarked buildings.  The official agenda with links to the bills being heard is available by clicking here.  The agenda will be updated and bill numbers will be assigned once they are introduced at the Council’s Stated Meeting on Monday, April 30, so please check back on the hearing webpage on Monday afternoon for an updated agenda.

-Councilmember Brad Lander

 456 5th Avenue, 3rd Floor * Brooklyn, NY 11215 * 718-499-1090

***

As Friends of the Upper East Side wrote, calling their friends and supporters to action, "while the Landmarks Preservation Commission certainly needs reform, important policy changes should not be made in haste." Come to the hearing on Wednesday and let the City Council know that a handful of days' notice is not enough!!  More, below, from our colleagues and partners in preservation, the Historic Districts Council, on exactly how you can take action ...

   
Come to the hearing and testify in favor of preservation. 

1. Even if the LPC hasn’t responded to your request for evaluation  (or especially if they haven’t), demonstrating to the Council members that ordinary New Yorkers want to preserve their communities and are crying out for help is a powerful statement. We need to show the Council that PEOPLE WANT PRESERVATION!
2. If you have had work done on a landmarked property – please come in to talk about it. The Council members really don’t have any experience with actually working with LPC and will be taking everything the development industry says as gospel.
3. If you are a preservation/design professional – showing up and explaining to the Council that Landmarking actually provides real value and jobs is a key thing.  The narrative which they will be hearing is “landmarking costs money”  and we need to shift that to “landmarking creates jobs”.
4. Even if you do not want to testify, showing up with your posters/buttons/postcards/etc. is a powerful statement to the Council members. 

Contact your elected officials 

1. Use the deadline of May 2nd to send in your Requests to LPC – and make sure to copy them to your elected official.  If LPC has not responded to your request, send in a reminder and copy your representative.  Show your Council member that people in their district want action from the agency.

To learn more about this emergent issue, contact LW! or our colleagues mentioned above, HDC and Friends of the Upper East Side.

Color Wheel 101 with the Experts at Farrow & Ball

On Wednesday, May 9, LANDMARK WEST! welcomes Farrow & Ball to their new Upper West Side location with an informational open house on their historically rooted and meticulously researched paints and wallpapers. 

Farrow & Ball Open House

Wednesday, May 9, 2012 at 6:30 p.m.

322 Columbus Avenue
(between West 74th & 75th Streets)

Please be our guest and join
Farrow & Ball for wine & cheese
Click here to RSVP (required) or email landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org 

Noted for its vintage, environmentally-friendly paint and wallpaper, Farrow & Ball offers a range of elegant decorative and architectural finishes for your home.

Learn from experts on the best paint colors for different exposures. F&B staff will also discuss the history of the company, how their paints and wallpapers are made, and the origin of their color names.

Scenes from a Slide Lecture: From up in the air down to our blog

From "New York from the Air", by John Tauranac, a view of Central Park.

Yesterday, LW! gathered with friends and neighbors as John Tauranac shared with us a view of New York rarely seen by the average individual: New York from the air.  Images from Mr. Tauranac's book of the same name (photographed by Yann Arthus-Bertrand) raised us up off the sidewalks and into the sky, if only for the evening.  What a treat, to see our city from this new perspective!

Architectural historian Tony Robins welcomed our guests to the Macaulay Honors College (our generous hosts for the evening) and introduced John Tauranac, first, by way of his leadership in designing the 1979 New York City subway map.  As Mr. Robins mused:

"... that brings us to tonight’s talk, and John’s current venture.  Having largely exhausted the possibilities of charting the city’s pathways below ground with his subway maps, and at street level with his bus and block-by-block maps, John had only one way to grow: Upwards.  And so tonight we will sit back while John guides us on an aerial expedition floating above the tops of skyscrapers, as illustrated in his wonderful book, 'New York from the Air.'”

To read Tony Robins' full introduction, click here

And with that, we were airborne!  Throughout the slide lecture, we tweeted some of our favorite images.  Head to our feed now to check them out; a selection are shared here, too.  For copies of "New York from the Air", visit John Tauranac's website.

At the intersection of Court and Livington Streets in Brooklyn, Art Deco stonework
enlivens an apartment building.

Getting closer to our Upper West Side neighborhood, the Symphony House apartment building.

As soon as the Beresford Apartments flicked up onto the screen, our thoughts turned to
2011's inaugural Landmark Feast, for which the handsome building served as inspiring backdrop.

As we tweeted last night, we "cannot escape McKim Meade & White!".  Architects of
Low Library on Columbia University's campus were also the masters behind
the landmark-in-waiting IRT Powerhouse. 
Learn more about efforts to save the IRT Powerhouse here.