Historic preservation in a development-dominated city the passage of New York City's Landmark preservation legislation

Journal of Urban History

Volumn 22, Issue 3, 1996, Pages 350-376

  Allison, Eric W M ^a  

^a Columbia University ^*

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 5844360595     PISSN: 00961442     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/009614429602200304     Document Type: Article

References (49)

1. Much of what follows in the discussion of Castle Clinton comes from Robert Caro's The Power Broker (New York, 1974), 639-88.
2. Moses could, and did, strike back. In 1941, he blithely announced that the construction of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel (which had been substituted for the planned bridge) would endanger Castle Clinton. Using his authority as parks commissioner, Moses, in what can only be described as pique, closed the aquarium. Everything except the original early nineteenth-century masonry walls of the old fort was destroyed - the aquarium interiors, the great metal roof, and the outbuildings. The fort itself survived because labor shortages during World War II prevented demolition of the masonry. In 1946, the reformers succeeded in getting it named a national monument, removing Moses' ability to demolish it.
3. Anthony C. Wood, "Preservation's Scholarly Roots: Talbot Hamlin and the Avery Library. An Interview with Commissioner Adolph Placzek. Pioneers of Preservation: Part III," Village Views 4, no. 4 (Fall 1987), 12.
4. Edward Steese, chairman of the Committee on Historic Structures of the Municipal Art Society, letter, New York Times, May 9, 1953, 18.
5. "Action on Shrines Asked," New York Times, February 24, 1954, 27.
6. William N. Jayme, member of the board of directors of the Municipal Art Society, letter, New York Times, November 24, 1955.
7. Anthony C. Wood, "Pioneers of Preservation: Part II, An Interview with Harmon Goldstone," Village Views 4, no. 3 (Summer 1987), 22.
8. Wood, "Preservation's Scholarly Roots," 30.
9. James Marston Fitch, Historic Preservation, Curatorial Management of the Built World (Charlottesville, 1990), xiii.
10. "City Landmarks Cited for Saving," New York Times, March 1, 1957.
11. Ibid.
12. Otis Pratt Pearsall, unpublished letter, to Clay Lancaster, September 7, 1976.
13. Otis Pratt Pearsall, "Otis Pratt Pearsall's Reminiscences Of The Nine Year Effort To Designate Brooklyn Heights As New York City's First Historic Districts And Its First Limited Height District" (unpublished address given at the 1993 Historic Districts Council Landmarks Lion Award, March 8, 1993).
14. Wood, "Pioneers of Preservation: Part II," 24.
15. Ibid., 25.
16. Anthony C. Wood, "Pioneers of Preservation, An Interview with the Late Geoffrey Platt, the First Chairman of the Landmarks Preservation Commission," Village Views 4, no. 1 (Winter 1987), 8.
17. Ibid., 28.
18. The commission was made up of Platt as chairman, Juliet Bartlett, Robert Curtiss, James N. Fosberg, Alien E. Foster, Russell Lynes, Loring McMillan, Leopold Rothschild, Bayrd Still, Stanley B. Tankel, Frederick J. Woodbridge, and William Zinsser. William R. Fisher replaced Curtiss on October 30, 1962.
19. Wood, "Pioneers of Preservation," 10.
20. Wood, "Pioneers of Preservation, Part III," 10.
21. "Farewell to Penn Station," New York Times, October 30, 1963.
22. The New York Stock Exchange planned a twenty-two-story building that would have been the centerpiece of an urban renewal plan for 12.7 acres straddling Broad Street south of Pearl Street in the financial district. The City Planning Commission approved the site in January of 1964 but redrew the boundaries to exclude Frances Tavern and a few other historic buildings. In the event, the urban renewal plan was never implemented.
23. "Pioneers of Preservation," 12.
24. Felt resigned as chairman of the City Planning Commission in January of 1963 but remained a member of the board until December of 1964. Though no longer chair, his influence on the commission was considerable.
25. Ibid., 35.
26. Wood, "Pioneers of Preservation," 14.
27. Ibid.
28. "City Council Gets Landmarks Bill," New York Times, October 7, 1964.
29. Ibid.
30. Ibid.
31. Presumably James D. Landeauer, the president of the Real Estate Board of New York in 1965, although Platt did not specify a name.
32. "Pioneers of Preservation," 24.
33. "Penn Station Demolition Begun," New York Times, October 29, 1963.
34. "Action to Save Landmarks," New York Times, October 19, 1964.
35. "City Holds Landmark Hearing," New York Times, December 4, 1964.
36. Ibid.
37. Ibid.
38. Interestingly, although clauses addressing fair return on investment were part of the original legislation (among other things allowing for hardship exemptions), one of the most significant inventions, transferable development rights (TDR's) - a mechanism to sell unused bulk allowed under zoning but not under historic designation - was not part of the original bill. It was added later.
39. Wood, "Pioneers of Preservation, Part II," 40.
40. Ibid.
41. "Landmarks Bill Signed by Mayor," New York Times, April 20, 1965.
42. Ibid.
43. The commission consists of eleven members, including the chair, appointed by the mayor with approval of the city council. The chair is a salaried city commissioner and is head of the commission and its staff. The other ten commissioners serve for no pay. As amended, the law now mandates that each of the five boroughs of the city (the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island) must be represented and there must be a historian, an architect, a city planner or landscape architect, and a representative of the real estate community among the commissioners.
44. Wood, "Pioneers of Preservation, Part III," 11.
45. Ibid.
46. Harmon Goldstone, "The Future of the Past," graduation address given at The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen in 1978, reprinted in Wood, "Pioneers of Preservation, Part II," 10.
47. Harmon Goldstone, "The Future of the Past," graduation address given at The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen in 1978, reprinted in Wood, "Pioneers of Preservation, Part II," 10.
48. Pern Central Transportation Co. v. City of New York, 438 U.S. 104 (1978), 127.
49. Kermit Hall, ed., The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States (New York, 1992), 628.