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Endangered New York: 10 (more) to save

By Lana Bortolot | Special to amNewYork

December 21, 2007

Admiral's Row, Brooklyn Navy Yard; plans are under way to build a supermarket here. (amNewYork Photo/ Lane Johnson / December 20, 2007)

As the real-estate boom year of 2007 winds down, houses of worship, schools, historic residences, whole neighborhoods -- even the corner diner -- tenuously exist under the threat of the wrecking ball.

Indeed, the changes are so breathtaking that the question of whether the city is losing its very soul has been seriously debated among preservationists, community and civic groups.

It's a grim scenario that Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council, imagines in neighborhood after neighborhood -- and not affecting just the mom and pops.

"Just picture in your mind: Madison Square Garden is slated to be gone, and you imagine perhaps that Macy's is gone and the Hotel Pennsylvania--that's an entire district. What's on the table is looking at important, enormous parcels in Midtown being vacant or replaced," he says.

Of course, it's not just the big projects such as the Hudson Rail Yards or a new Penn Station that worry preservationists. It's about losing the city's "incredible layering of architecture" says Peg Breen, president of the New York Landmarks Conservancy.

"People throughout the city are slightly uneasy about the pace of change and the loss of familiar things in their neighborhoods," Breen says. "We're in a period where real-estate interests have clearly dominated. [Development] is not bad, but what makes the city unique and a joy to live in are the layers of history--you don't want to lose a sense of place."

This year has not been entirely without rays of hope. The Landmarks Preservation Commission protected more than 1,100 structures--the greatest number since 1990--and identified new areas to shield, such as DUMBO

News, however, seemingly comes every day of another disappearing institution. What follows is amNewYork's "10 to Save," our second annual look at the city's endangered places -- a small sampling from the growing list of sites that at any time could be only a memory.

1.) Modernist architecture
Midtown will lose the Donnell Library Center when it's razed for an 11-story luxury hotel. The new property will include space for a significantly smaller library that won't match the scope of services now provided. The building made architect Robert A. M. Stern's "Landmarks in Waiting" list, but Breen says, "I think modern buildings aren't as easy to love sometimes and most people wouldn't have put their arms around this one. Some buildings give you an emotional response like Grand Central Terminal and some, like Donnell, require a more intellectual understanding." (Address: 20 W. 53rd St. Completed: 1955 Architect: Edgar I. Williams)

The Morris B. Sanders House in Turtle Bay is a rare, authentic, intact, and very early modern house. After a public hearing in October, the building has interim protection, but has still not been designated. (Address: 219 E. 49th St. Built: 1934-35 )

George Washington Bridge Bus Station, also on Stern's landmark list and still undesignated, is one of the few buildings its famed engineer and architect designed outside of Italy. Its flamboyant form evokes the thrill of arrival in the modern city. (Address: Broadway, between West 178th-179th streets, Washington Heights Built: 1963 Architect: Pier Luigi Nervi)

2). Pennsylvania Station area
Much of the Penn Station area is endangered, beginning with the historic James A. Farley Post Office Building on West 34th Street. Though on the National Register for Historic Places and a city landmark, the state, which owns the building, does not have to go to the landmarks commission for approval of what happens there.

Preservationists and aesthetes alike are concerned that the building will lose its integrity if Madison Square Garden moves in and commands a chunk of the Eighth Avenue portico. "We're concerned internally and externally that they would carve up the landmark quality," says Breen.

"Everyone is going to know where the Garden is located. But we want people to know there is a beautiful post office and I hope, a beautiful, well-designed train station that shouldn't be dominated by a sports arena."

A related concern: The Hotel Pennsylvania. Preservationist and author Anthony Wood says the hotel is "one of the last pieces of the great Penn Station complex and it has a great cultural history. If we weren't in a super-heated real-estate market, it would be a logical candidate for designation and brought into the future in some way."

Wood refers to the original Penn Station, the masterpiece of neo-classic architecture much mourned since its demolition in 1964. (And of course, who can forget the hotel's still operative phone number, Pennsylvania-6500, made famous by Glenn Miller--one of many big bands that often played there.)

Several neighborhood religious buildings (See No. 10 for more on churches) also face pressures from developers including St. John the Baptist (207 W. 30th St. ), Church of St. Michael (414 W. 34th St.), St. Francis of Assisi Church (136 W. 31st St.) and Beth Israel West Side Jewish Center (347 W. 34th St.). At press time, demolition was under way at the 1867 Glad Tidings Tabernacle (325 W. 33rd St.).

And it's not only the land acquisition that has preservationists worried: More than 5 million square feet of air rights are in play, which, if developed, change the skyscape and scale of this neighborhood forever.