New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission


The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and culturally significant buildings and sites by granting them landmark or historic district status, and regulating them after designation. It is the largest municipal preservation agency in the nation., the LPC has designated more than 37,800 landmark properties in all five boroughs. Most of these are concentrated in historic districts, although there are over a thousand individual landmarks, as well as numerous interior and scenic landmarks.
Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. first organized a preservation committee in 1961, and the following year, created the LPC. The LPC's power was greatly strengthened after the Landmarks Law was passed in April 1965, one and a half years after the destruction of Pennsylvania Station. The LPC has been involved in several prominent preservation decisions, including that of Grand Central Terminal. By 1990, the LPC was cited by David Dinkins as having preserved New York City's municipal identity and enhanced the market perception of a number of neighborhoods.
The LPC is governed by eleven commissioners. The Landmarks Preservation Law stipulates that a building must be at least thirty years old before the LPC can declare it a landmark.

Role

The goal of New York City's landmarks law is to preserve the aesthetically and historically important buildings, structures, and objects that make up the New York City vista. The Landmarks Preservation Commission is responsible for deciding which properties should be subject to landmark status and enacting regulations to protect the aesthetic and historic nature of these properties. The LPC preserves not only architecturally significant buildings, but the overall historical sense of place of neighborhoods that are designated as historic districts. The LPC is responsible for overseeing a range of designated landmarks in all five boroughs ranging from the Fonthill Castle in the North Bronx, built in 1852 for the actor Edwin Forrest, to the 1670s Conference House in Staten Island, where Benjamin Franklin and John Adams attended a conference aimed at ending the Revolutionary War.
The LPC helps preserve the city's landmark properties by regulating changes to their significant features. The role of the LPC has evolved over time, especially with the changing real estate market in New York City.
Potential landmarks are first nominated to the LPC from citizens, property owners, city government staff, or commissioners or other staff of the LPC. Subsequently, the LPC conducts a survey of properties, visiting sites to determine which structures or properties should be researched further. The selected properties will then be discussed at public hearings where support or opposition to a proposed landmark designation are recorded. According to the Landmarks Preservation Law, a building must be at least thirty years old before the LPC can declare it a landmark. Approval of a landmark designation requires six commissioners to vote in favor. Approved designations are then sent to the New York City Council, which receives reports from other city agencies including the New York City Planning Commission, and decides whether to confirm, modify, or veto the designation. Before 1990, the New York City Board of Estimate held veto power, rather than the City Council. After the City Council's final approval, a landmark designation may be overturned if an appeal is filed within 90 days.
The New York Landmarks Preservation Foundation is a not-for-profit organization, established in 1980 to support the Commission. They sponsor plaques, historic district signs, and street signs.

Staff and departments

Commissioners

The Landmarks Preservation Commission consists of 11 commissioners, who are unpaid and serve three-year terms on a part-time basis. By law, the commissioners must include a minimum of six professionals: three architects, a historian, a city planner or landscape architect, and a realtor. In addition, the commissioners must include at least one resident from each of New York City's five boroughs. All of the commissioners are unpaid, except for the chairman. The commission also employs a full-time, paid workforce of 80, composed of administrators, legal advisors, architects, historians, restoration experts, and researchers. Students sponsored by the federal government, as well as volunteers, also assist the commission.

Departments

The full-time staff, students, and volunteers are divided into six departments. The research department performs research of structures and sites that have been deemed potential landmarks. The preservation department reviews and approves permit applications to structures and sites that have been deemed landmarks. The enforcement department reviews reports of alleged violations of the Landmarks Law, which includes alterations to a landmark. In 2016, the preservation commission consolidated its archaeological collection of artifacts and launched a reconstructed archaeology department, known as the NYC Archaeological Repository: The Nan A. Rothschild Research Center. Archaeologists work for the center reviewing the impact of proposed subsurface projects, as well as overseeing any archaeological discoveries. The environmental review department uses data from the research and archaeology departments to collect reports for governmental agencies that require environmental review for their projects. Finally, the Historic Preservation Grant Program distributes grants to owners of landmark properties designated by the LPC or on the National Register of Historic Places.

Types

, there are more than 37,900 landmark properties in New York City, most of which are located in 150 historic districts in all five boroughs. The total number of protected sites includes 1,460 individual landmarks, 121 interior landmarks, and 12 scenic landmarks. Some of these are also National Historic Landmark sites, and many are on the NRHP., the vast majority of interior landmarks are also exterior landmarks or are part of a historic district.
  • Individual landmark: The exteriors of objects or structures; the interior is not included unless designated separately. Individual landmarks must be at least 30 years old and contain "a special character or special historical or aesthetic interest or value as part of the development, heritage, or cultural characteristics of the City, state, or nation".
  • Interior landmark: The interiors of structures, which fit the individual landmark criteria and are "customarily open or accessible to the public".
  • Scenic landmark: Sites owned by the city, which fit the individual landmark criteria and are "parks or other landscape features".
  • Historic districts: Regions with buildings that fit the individual landmark criteria and contain "architectural and historical significance". Landmark districts must also be geographically cohesive with a "coherent streetscape" and a "sense of place".

    History

Context

The preservation movement in New York City dates to at least 1831, when the New York Evening Post expressed its opposition to the demolition of a 17th-century house on Pearl Street in Lower Manhattan. Before the LPC's creation, buildings and structures were preserved mainly through advocacy, either from individuals or from groups. Numerous residences were saved this way, including the Andrew Carnegie Mansion, Percy R. Pyne House, and Oliver D. Filley House, all of which ultimately became individual landmarks after the LPC's formation. Other structures such as the Van Cortlandt House, Morris–Jumel Mansion, Edgar Allan Poe Cottage, and Dyckman House were preserved as historic house museums during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Advocates also led efforts to preserve cultural sites such as Carnegie Hall, which in the late 1950s was slated for replacement with an office tower. However, early preservation movements often focused on preserving Colonial-style houses, while paying relatively little attention to other architectural styles or building types.
There was generally little support for the preservation movement until World War II. Structures such as the City Hall Post Office and Courthouse, Madison Square Presbyterian Church, and Madison Square Garden were demolished if they had fallen out of architectural favor. Others, such as St. John's Chapel, were destroyed in spite of support for preservation. By the 1950s, there was growing support for preservation of architecturally significant structures. For example, a 1954 study found approximately two hundred structures that could potentially be preserved. At the same time, older structures, especially those constructed before World War I, were being perceived as an impediment to development. The demolition of Pennsylvania Station between 1963 and 1966, in spite of widespread outcry, is cited as a catalyst for the architectural preservation movement in the United States, particularly in New York City.

Creation

The Mayor's Committee for the Preservation of Structures of Historic and Esthetic Importance was formed in mid-1961 by mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. This committee had dissolved by early 1962. Wagner formed the Landmarks Preservation Commission on April 21, 1962, with twelve unsalaried members. Soon afterward, the LPC began designating buildings as landmarks. That July, Wagner issued an executive order that compelled municipal agencies to notify the LPC of any "proposed public improvements".
The early version of the LPC initially held little power over enforcement, and failed to avert Pennsylvania Station's demolition. As a result, in April 1964, LPC member Geoffrey Platt drafted a New York City Landmarks Law. Outcry over the proposed destruction of the Brokaw Mansion on Manhattan's Upper East Side, identified by the LPC as a possible landmark, inspired Wagner to send the legislation to the New York City Council in mid-1964. The law, introduced in the City Council that October, would significantly increase the LPC's powers. The City Council cited concerns that "the City has been and is undergoing the loss and destruction of its architectural heritage at an alarming rate, especially so in the last 8-10 years". Several changes to the Landmarks Law were made by the City Council committee that was reviewing the legislation; for example, the committee removed a clause mandating a protective zone around proposed landmarks. The bill passed the City Council on April 7, 1965, and was signed into law by Wagner on April 20.
The first eleven commissioners to take office under the Landmarks Law were sworn in during June 1965. Platt was the first chairman, serving until 1968. The LPC's first public hearing occurred in September 1965, and the first twenty landmarks were designated the next month. The Wyckoff House in Brooklyn was the first landmark numerically, and was designated simultaneously with structures such as the Astor Library, the Brooklyn Navy Yard's Commandant's House, the Bowling Green U.S. Custom House, and six buildings at Sailors' Snug Harbor. The first landmark district, the Brooklyn Heights Historic District, was designated in November 1965. Within its first year, the LPC designated 37 landmarks in addition to the Brooklyn Heights Historic District. The LPC's earliest landmarks were mainly selected based on their architecture, and were largely either government buildings, institutions, or structures whose preservation was unlikely to be controversial. As a result, several prominent buildings were destroyed in the first several years of the LPC's existence, such as the Singer Building and the New York Tribune Building. Other structures, such as the Villard Houses and Squadron A Armory, were saved only partially.