The Historic Districts Council

New York City possesses a rich and glorious history still manifest in its neighborhoods, buildings, parks and public spaces. Upon this layer of past accomplishment, the present lies in its urgent immediacy, and the future stretches forward in a continuum of hopeful betterment. The core belief of the Historic Districts Council is that preservation and enhancement of these material resources contribute to the city’s health and success and can enable an ever richer future. Preserving our city’s cultural and architectural heritage guides the Historic Districts Council in all its actions.

We are the citywide advocate for New York’s designated historic districts and for neighborhoods meriting preservation. A nonprofit organization with a small professional staff and a working board, we are dedicated to preserving the integrity of New York City’s Landmarks Law and to furthering the preservation ethic. We are an independent, nonpartisan organization not connected to the city government, to any other preservation organization or to any individual neighborhood group, although we work with all of them.

As advocate for New York’s more than 80 designated historic districts, we advise community groups about preservation issues and consult with building owners about what Landmarks Preservation Commission regulations mean. So when owners of individual landmarks or buildings in designated districts--the same regulations apply to both categories--want to make changes to their property that affect its external appearance, they must under the law apply to the LPC for approval to make those changes. The applications are often approved at staff level. But when the proposals are complicated or do not suggest a clear-cut solution, they go to public review. Every month, a committee of HDC examines every proposal scheduled for review--about 400 a year--and then drafts testimony which is read at the commission’s public hearing. We are the only organization in the city that covers all applications.

As advocate for neighborhoods not designated but meriting protection, we advise community groups that come to us because they are seeking historic designation. An HDC staff member meets with them in their neighborhoods to talk about what designation means and advises them how to proceed. Later, a committee of HDC tours the proposed district on foot, taking notes and photographs. With that information, we make concrete suggestions and then counsel groups on how to apply for designation, on what kind of research is necessary and how to get it done. We always stress the importance of community support and help local groups obtain it.

Sometimes HDC initiates the designation process itself, usually in nonresidential areas that do not have local community leaders. In those cases, HDC sponsors the work that would otherwise be done by a community group.

We also sponsor applications to State and National Registers of Historic Places. Listing on these Registers often helps move the designation process forward at the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

To preserve the integrity of the Landmarks Law, we monitor behavior of city government and the LPC, taking issue with actions and policies when we feel we should. HDC testifies before the City Planning Commission, the Art Commission, the Board of Standards and Appeals and the City Council, usually on the effect a proposal would have on historic neighborhoods.

To further the preservation ethic, we create and sponsor educational forums for local communities, helping them learn and employ the techniques of neighborhood preservation. Historic preservation became policy largely because of citizen arousal over the demolition of such architectural icons as Pennsylvania Station, so an informed public is important for its continuing strength; we meet that mandate by staging an annual Preservation Conference open to the public and by publishing a zoning survey of historic districts as well as our classic guidebook to the landmark-designation process, “Creating an Historic District.”

HDC’s staff consists of professionally educated and trained specialists, headed by an executive director and augmented by interns and volunteers on a rotating basis. We have a board of advisers upon whose expertise we draw freely and a board of directors which functions as an expanded staff. It consists of 20 to 25 people of wide-ranging disciplines from all over the city, each of whom works on two or more committees and serves without remuneration. The committees and their fields of endeavor are:

• Administration, Development and Nominating & Board Organization, which deal with the running of the organization
• Program/Events, Council Outreach and Communications, which liaise between HDC and the public: Program/Events plans and manages the annual three-day preservation symposium to which the public is invited and organizes fund-raising social functions and celebrations; Council Outreach is charged with educating City Councilmembers about historic preservation and landmarking; and Communications produces the newsletter District Lines and other printed material
• Legal and Public Review deal with interpretations of the Landmarks Law: Legal focuses on challenges by new development; and Public Review vets proposed building alterations that come to the LPC for approval and testifies before other city agencies as needed
• Designation and Planning & Zoning look to the future: Designation proposes and nurtures potential historic districts and individual landmarks; Planning & Zoning takes a longer-range and policy-planning view on citywide issues.

The Historic Districts Council was founded in 1971 by the Municipal Art Society as a coalition of community groups from the city’s designated historic districts--of which there were only 18 at the time--primarily to work on special projects and networking. In the late 1970s our focus shifted to helping advance district designations; in the 1980s our advocacy role expanded and we received a greater commitment of MAS staff time; and finally, in 1986, we became an independent, incorporated organization with our own officers. HDC’s first full-time executive director was hired in 1992.

Financing comes from grants by such government entities as the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Council as well as from private foundations, funds and corporations; from fund-raising events such as our annual Landmarks Lion Award; and from individual donations. More than 300 Friends of HDC contribute on a regular basis and participate in our public activities.