By Matt Chaban 8/01/12 4:41pm

Making History

The end of the beginning. (NYC-Architecture.com)

An Unfortunate Anniversary: 50 Years Ago, a Failed Fight to Save Penn Station

By now it is received wisdom that the city’s preservation movement got its start the day Penn Station was torn down, and it has been galvanized ever since “to put a stop to the wanton destruction of our greatest buildings” by “would-be vandals” of the real estate trade, as a protest ad published 50 years ago tomorrow once loudly declared in The Times.

Both sides are still at it, but The Times’ Building Blocks columnist David Dunlap provides a tantalizing window on how it all began, including a glimpse at the above ad an a protest that followed on Seventh Avenue, a doomed fight that shocked generations into action. Read More

By Matt Chaban 6/14/12 8:02pm

Making History

The landmark in question. (Daytonian in Manhattan)

Preservationists Issue Rallying Cry, Prepare to Save Landmarks Law from Big Real Estate

Though the Responsible Landmarks Coalition has yet to take any public action beyond launching its web presence, preservationists are lining up to fight back. The Historic Districts Council just announced a town hall meeting “to defend the Landmark Law” next week. It will be held next Tuesday evening at the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen—a landmark on West 44th Street designated in 1988, no less.

This follows on a strongly worded fusillade last week from HDC director Simeon Bankoff, the preservationists’ own cri de coeur. Read More

By Matt Chaban 6/08/12 10:14am

Making History

No place for Lefferts Place. (Brooklyn to the Fullest)

Who Says the Landmarks Preservation Commission Is Out of Control? Not Clinton Hill

As The Observer reported on Wednesday, a coalition of development and labor groups have launched the Responsible Landmarks Coalition to challenge what they see as mission creep on the part of the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission and the preservationists that surround it. The argument is that the preservationists are overwhelming the city with their protections and stiffing development, and thus the city’s economy. (F.I.R.E., baby, F.I.R.E.!)

But in Clinton Hill, they are feeling none of the love, as the commission has rejected a community-led effort to have Lefferts Place, just south of Atlantic Avenue, considered for historic district designation, according to The Times-affiliated Local Fort Greene/Clinton Hill blog. Read More

By Matt Chaban 6/06/12 6:21pm

Making History

Well, is it? (Responsible Landmarks Coalition)

The War on Landmarks Moves to Defcon 2: Big Real Estate Forming Big Coalition to Challenge Preservation

An assault on the city’s Landmarks Law has quietly been taking place in the corridors of power, through press releases and legislation, for going on a year now. But groups allied against landmarking are planning to fire their first public volley tomorrow, The Observer has learned, with the announcement of a coalition of development and labor groups known as the Responsible Landmarks Coalition.

Formed by the Real Estate Board of New York, it is made up of a number of influential real estate and labor organizations, “and it is only going to get bigger,” one person involved in the effort said. “We are going to have some very major institutions looking at these landmarks.”

The main issues of concern for the coalition are the increasing prevalence of historic districts, a lack of transparency in the landmarking process, and insufficient public input. The coalition will argue that the growing number of landmark buildings and historic districts are hampering the city’s economy and stymieing  development. Read More

By Jess Schiewe 6/04/12 4:52pm

Mysteries of Brooklyn

Better act fast: brownstones in Brooklyn are snatched up like hot cakes.

The Manhattanization of the Brooklyn Brownstone Means Red Hook Is Hotter Than Ever

Christabel Gough, the secretary for the Society for the Architecture of the City and a resident of the Greenwich Village Historic District, has a simple, to the point message for New Yorkers: Beware. Manhattanization, she warns, is growing, encroaching on historical neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs. It is the real estate equivalent of kudzu and Brooklyn, Ms. Gough says, is the next victim. Yet unlike it’s leafy cousin, Manhattanization cannot be eradicated with sheep.

But first, a word on Manhattanization, as explained by Ms. Gough in her keynote speech, “Can Cobble Hill Avoid Manhattanization” at the Cobble Hill Association General Meeting on May 29th, and helpfully reprinted at Brownstoner. Read More

By Matt Chaban 6/01/12 6:37pm

Planes Trains & Automobiles

8 Photos

Yesterday, JetBlue unveiled T5i, a new expansion to its terminal at JFK that adds six gates for international flights.

So That’s Why They Tore Down the Sundrome: JetBlue’s New T5i and Why JFK Now Has Only Six Terminals

JFK will now have two missing terminals.

As The Observer and others have been lamenting for some time now, the day has passed for Jet Age JFK. Terminal 3 is being demolished to make way for more airplane parking to accommodate Delta’s expansion of Terminal 4. And now we learn that the same fate has befallen the Sundrome, which was unceremoniously destroyed last year, with no immediate plans for replacement. This leaves only the still-shuttered Terminal 5 as the last remnant of midcentury JFK.

And yet while a piece of architectural history may be gone, it could mean smoother flying for those in and out of JFK, which is really what the airport is all about. Read More

By Matt Chaban 5/10/12 11:30am

Making History

Councilmen Comrie and Lander, the two to beat on Landmarks. (Landmarks! West)

Comrie Denies He Is Challenging Landmarks Law to Fill Campaign Coffers

Is there a war on against the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission? That is what preservationists fear, and there is some concern this is not simply about development issues, but also electoral politics.

According to DNAinfo, Councilman LeRoy Comrie could stand to win funds for his ailing campaign coffers if pro-development, anti-preservation proposals move forward. Read More

By Matt Chaban 5/03/12 2:34pm

Making History

Stamp of approval, or trouble? Leo Reynolds/Flickr

A Quiet War on Landmarks, or Fixing the Problems with the Preservation Commission?

Is the city’s Landmarks Law broken?

To the uninitiated, that would have been the likely conclusion from a hearing held at the City Council today. Eleven different pieces of legislation addressing myriad issues at the commission were debated. Nearly half of the council’s 59 member made an appearance, grilling officials from the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the Department of Buildings over problems perceived, parochial and patrician at the city agencies.

The city is under assault from a nanny state stuck in the past seemed to be the clear message.

For the large crowd assembled in protest for what turned out to be a four hour meeting, the case was quite the opposite: It was the city’s daring Landmarks Preservation Commission, keeper of the soul of the city, that was under assault. Of the 54 people who signed up to give testimony before a joint session of two council committees all but one spoke out against the vast majority of the bills. Read More

By Matt Chaban 4/26/12 12:31pm

Making History

(Amex Foundation)

Vote for Your Favorite New York City Landmark and It Might Win $3 M.

It’s the battle of the brownstones, balustrades and bulkheads!

Forty New York City landmarks across all five boroughs are vying for a $3 million prize courtesy the American Express Foundation. From today through May 21, anyone can visit Parnters in Preservation and vote for sites ranging from the Coney Island carousel to the Lower East Side’s Tenement Museum to the Mind-Builders Creative Arts Center in the Bronx. Read More

By Matt Chaban 2/17/12 10:57am

Making History

The graybeard of old buildings. (Landmarks! West)

The Making of a Preservationist: Streetscapist Christopher Gray on His Love of Old Buildings

Everyone has their favorite section of The Times. For some, it is Business Day, Dining or the Op-Ed page. Who doesn’t love to hate the Styles section (or is it hate to love?) or gaze longingly at the properties in the “What You Get For…” real estate column, constantly reminding us of the price we foolhardily pay to be New Yorkers.

For a certain subset of readers, nothing delights more than Christopher Gray and his Streetscapes column, a remarkable tour of the city’s ephemeral architectural history. Today, in a very personal column, Mr. Gray describes how he first fell in love with old buildings—four in particular, in fact. Read More