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Landmarking booms as developers loom

By Justin Rocket Silverman, amNewYork Staff Writer
More stories | jsilverman@am-ny.com

October 31, 2007

The defensive shield that protects historic buildings from the whims of real estate developers grew significantly Tuesday, after the city designated seven new landmarks, including a former pencil factory in Greenpoint, Lord & Taylor on Fifth Avenue, and the former apartment tower home of Grace Kelly and Benny Goodman on East 66th Street.

"This is a landmarking Lollapalooza," said Roger Lang, a spokesman for The New York Landmarks Conservancy, an advocacy group.

In a city famous for a teardown mentality fostered by soaring real estate values, the idea of preservation may itself seem endangered. But it is the very speed of development that may have sparked the current wave of landmarking activity.

"The fear of overdevelopment was very clear in today's hearings," Lang said. "We want to use landmark status to ensure development is done appropriately."

The designations, which still have to be approved by the City Council, are consistent with the dramatic increase in the pace as well as the geographic scope of preservation.

In fiscal year 2005, only 46 buildings were landmarked. In fiscal year 2007, 1,158 buildings received protection, the highest number since 1990. The commission has also been aggressively landmarking in other boroughs, such as Queens and Staten Island.

Tuesday's landmarks represent a broad range, including the endangered industrial heritage of the Brooklyn waterfront, a stylish white-brick Upper East Side apartment tower evocative of 1950s glamour, and the disappearing traditions of urban department stores.

"There is a lot of very aggressive activity going on here in support of historic designation," said commission chairman Robert B. Tierney Tuesday. "We have the support of the mayor, and that makes it easier."

In addition to the seven landmarks designated Tuesday, the committee heard testimony on a new DUMBO historic district, and on six East Village buildings, including Webster Hall, in preparation for a future vote.

"All these East Village buildings are relevant to one aspect or another of the immigrant experience in America," said Tierney, expressing what seemed to be broad support for the effort to protect those buildings.

The Big Numbers
24,000+: Landmarked properties in NYC
1,180: Stand-alone landmarked buildings
89: Historic districts
120: Landmarked interiors
9: Scenic landmarks
1,158: Properties landmarked in fiscal year 2007, most since 1990

Landmarked today
-Eberhard Faber pencil factory: Opened the first pencil factory in the United States in 1861 in Manhattan, but moved to Greenpoint, Brooklyn, in 1872, where it remained until 1956. Address: Greenpoint Avenue and West and Kent streets.

-Lord & Taylor: Founded in 1826, the chain was the first major store on Fifth Avenue, the flagship to the oldest department store chain in the country. The building dates from 1914. Address: West 38th Street and Fifth Avenue

-Manhattan House: The sprawling full-block, modernist 1951 white-brick icon on Manhattan's Upper East Side, attracted such renowned tenants as actress Grace Kelly and jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman. The 21-story, 10-tower structure elevated white brick as a fashionable building material and popularized balconies, green spaces and driveways in many post-war residential highrises. Address: 200 E. 66th St.

Under consideration
-Webster Hall: Opened in 1886, the hall was hailed as the United States' first modern nightclub. Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles recorded there.

-DUMBO: Although the name DUMBO only dates back to the 1980s, the Brooklyn neighborhood was a bustling commercial center in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries and was once home to Walt Whitman.