E-BULLETIN OF THE HISTORIC DISTRICTS COUNCIL

January 2008, Volume 5 Number 1

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

With the start of this New Year, HDC is pleased to announce the “Best of 2007,” a list of notable preservation victories in New York City over the past twelve months. That’s right—as we usher in 2008, we’re following the tradition of media outlets both big and small to name our choices for the most monumental events that shaped and shook the preservation community in 2007. From the designation of new historic districts to the successful cross-borough collaborations of community groups, HDC is pleased to highlight a very short list of the many critical efforts to defend the unique sense of place of our neighborhoods and our city.

In no particular order, here is our “Best of 2007,” HDC’s picks for the some of the biggest preservation successes of the past year:

· The Designation of the Sunnyside Gardens Historic District

As grassroots activists create new campaign and advocacy tactics, the preservation toolbox continues to grow. Yet official designation by the LPC still remains the preservationist’s holy grail, which is just one reason why the designation of the Sunnyside Gardens Historic District makes our shortlist this year. Now the largest historic district in Queens, with over 620 residential structures, Sunnyside Gardens owes its designation to the unwavering support of preservation advocates, elected officials, and of course, its local neighborhood organization, the Sunnyside Gardens Preservation Alliance. Despite ongoing opposition from a small but vocal minority, the community remained focused and guided their designation through to the very end.

Of course, 2007 saw the successes of a number of other long-term preservation campaigns with the designations of the Crown Heights North (phase 1), DUMBO, and Eberhart Faber Pencil Company Historic Districts, as well as the designations of McCarren Pool and two federal row houses on Grand Street, among others, as individual landmarks. And though not an official city historic district yet, the proposed Fiske Terrace-Midwood Park neighborhood was finally heard in front of the commission and is awaiting designation. Send a statement of support for this district to comments@lpc.nyc.gov. For more information on these neighborhoods, visit our Neighborhood at Risk and click here to learn about HDC’s choices for the most significant “Heard but not Designated” structures (a list which has dwindled from twenty-one to twelve unprotected properties in only two years!).

LPC has taken an active approach to increasing the number of landmark designations over the past year, and a large number of them have occurred in the outer boroughs. This is thanks in large part to the commission’s increased budget, which allowed new survey staff members to be hired. In May, HDC joined with other preservation organizations throughout the city to hold a Preservation Lobby Day on the steps of city to rally to allocate an additional $1 million dollars to the LPC’s annual budget.

· Brooklyn CM Bill De Blasio Supports Special Limited Height Restriction in Cobble Hill Historic District

An addition atop the former Independence Bank Building on the corner of Court Street and Atlantic Avenue in the Cobble Hill Historic District proposed by developer Two Trees caused quite a stir this year. After some design modifications, the LPC approved the proposal but the plan still required several zoning waivers from the City Planning Commission, including eliminating the rear yard to build to the back of the property line and allowing the building to rise to 60 feet in a 50 foot maximum height limited zone. These permissions were fought against at City Planning by a strong coalition of community activists and preservationists, including the Cobble Hill Association, the Brooklyn Heights Association, the Society for the Architecture of the City and HDC. In addition, we were joined in opposition by Brooklyn Community Board Six and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. Unfortunately, local Council Member Bill de Blasio was supportive of the waivers and had testified in favor of them at the City Planning hearing. However, after several meetings with CM de Blasio, we successfully made the case that the height variance had the potential to set a very dangerous precedent citywide for all of the city’s historic districts and he asked his colleagues at the City Council to decline permission for the height waiver, which they did. HDC is proud of our neighborhood partners in Brooklyn for their successful advocacy and very grateful to CM de Blasio for his open mind on the issue, open-door policy to community members and willingness to re-examine the situation.

Winning CM De Blasio’s support was an essential step in ensuring the integrity of this Limited Height District. Which is why, to facilitate the future exposure of elected officials to current preservation and land use concern, HDC launched the League of Preservation Voters Initiative in February. Beginning during the special election for the local council seat in Brooklyn’s District 40, HDC and the Coalition of Concerned Preservation Voters in the 40th District sponsored a public forum with candidates for the District’s special election and released a corresponding Voter Guide. Candidates discussed important preservation and development concerns including questions of landmark designation, community rezoning and building codes within the district.

As the 2009 municipal elections approach, HDC hopes to host similar forums in contended districts throughout the city. These forums will be nonpartisan and will not endorse any specific candidates. Rather, the goal here is to expose to the public the amount of knowledge candidates have on these issues, and to likewise demonstrate that these are genuine concerns of communities throughout the city. To read the sample Voter Guide released in February, and to check out the candidate’s responses, please click here.

The precedent is a positive one. Dr. Mathieu Eugene, the winner and new council member, has since been supportive, listing “Neighborhood Preservation” as one of his top priorities and having testified in favor of a handful of proposed landmarks in front of the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

· Historic Preservation Proven as a Green Practice

At HDC’s Annual Preservation Conference this past March, keynote speaker Donovan Rypkema of PlaceEconomics argued that historic preservation is one of the most effective components of sustainable development. The adaptive reuse of older structures proves overwhelmingly beneficial to local economies and local environments in a variety of ways, from the employment of local workers to rehabilitate existing properties to the significant reduction of waste compared to that generated during demolition. Even the simple use of newer, mass-produced building materials can be wasteful: nearly a third of the windows replaced each year are less than ten years old, and the energy consumed in manufacturing them ranges from 40 times (vinyl) to 126 times (aluminum) that used for wood. Once they are scrapped, the landfill space the old windows take, to say nothing of the energy consumed getting them there, compounds the waste. Read the full text of the speech here.

With the foundation set by Mr. Rypkema, the program for our 2008 Preservation Conference will further examine the future of historic preservation. With Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC 2030 as our starting point, HDC will gather a host of planners, advocates and professionals to dissect the Plan and it’s implications for our city’s future. Is preservation included in the Mayor’s vision for the future of New York? How can we make sure that preservation principles are incorporated into efforts to accommodate an additional one million people over then next two decades? Check your mailbox for full conference details later this month and in the meantime be sure to save March 7-9, 2008 on your calendars!

· 980 Madison Avenue Tower Quashed

2007 was a year of collaboration. Rather than being limited to issues rooted in their surrounding blocks, New Yorkers concerned with preservation and land-use issues throughout the city banded together to support causes throughout the boroughs. These collaborations generated a collective voice loud enough to effectively advocate against various proposals. One such example was the application to erect two glass towers atop the Parke-Bernet Building at 980 Madison Avenue. 9 out of 10 Landmarks Commissioners stated that they felt, regardless of the merits of the design, it was simply proposed for the wrong place. There has been extensive press coverage of the decision and see here for a full report. We are incredibly appreciative for all the support from the 84 groups who signed on in opposition to this project, and for the Landmarks Commissioners for their articulate and thoughtful consideration of this project which led them to the right decision. The only cloud on the horizon is that the agency didn’t reject the proposal outright, and it might come back in an altered form, but given the strong words of the Commissioners and the intense public interest, we are hopeful that any new application will have to start the process afresh.

For the record, here are the groups that stood in opposition: thank you all!

10th & Stuyvesant Streets Block Association, Bay Improvement Group, Bayside Civic Database, Boerum Hill Association, Brooklyn Borough Historian's Office, Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, Brooklyn Heights Association, Brownstone Revival Coalition, Building Conservation International, Cambridge Place Action Coalition, Carnegie Hill Neighbors, Center Development Corporation, Center for Thanatology, Central Park West Preservation Committee, Civitas, Committee To Save The Trylon Theater, Concerned Citizens of Greenwood Heights, Council of Chelsea Block Associations, Crown Heights North Association, Defenders of the Historic Upper East Side, Ditmas Park Association, Drive to Protect the Ladies' Mile District, DUMBO Neighborhood Association, East 78th Street Block Association Park/ Lex., East 85th/86th Lex-Park-Mad Block Association, East 86th Street Merchants/Residents Association, East Midtown Coalition for Sensible Development, East Village Community Coalition, Fort Greene Association, Four Borough Neighborhood Preservation Alliance, Friends of First Avenue Estate, Friends of Historic New Utrecht, Friends of Terra Cotta, Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts, Fulton Ferry Landing Association, Gramercy Neighborhood Associates, Greater Astoria Historical Society, Greenwich Village Community Task Force, Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, Historic Districts Council, Historic Neighborhood Enhancement Alliance, Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America, Jackson Heights Beautification Group, Jackson Heights Garden City Society, Landmark West!, Manhattan Community Board 8, Manhattan East Community Association, Metropolitan Historic Structures Association, Modern Architecture Working Group, Municipal Art Society, Murray Hill Neighborhood Association, National Trust for Historic Preservation, New York Landmarks Conservancy, New York Marble Cemetery, New York Preservation Alliance, New Yorkers for Responsible Development, NoHo Neighborhood Association, North Shore Waterfront Greenbelt, Parkway Village Historical Society, Preservation League of Staten Island, Preserve and Protect, Queensborough Preservation League, Rego-Forest Preservation Council, Richmond Hill Historical Society, Riverdale Historic District, Roosevelt Island Historical Society, Senator Street Historic District, Serpentine Art and Nature Commons, Society for Clinton Hill, Society for the Architecture of the City, SoHo Alliance, Sunnyside Foundation for Community Planning and Preservation, Tribeca Community Association, Turtle Bay Association, Union Square Community Coalition, Vinegar Hill Neighborhood Association, West 122nd St. Block Association, West 54 - 55 Street Block Association, West Brighton Restoration Society, West Cunningham Park Civic Association, Westerleigh Improvement Association, Wyckoff House & Association, Yorkville Historic Society.

Without support from community groups beyond the neighborhood immediately affected in this instance, such an advocacy effort could not have been as effective. The continued collaboration of preservation-minded individuals and organizations is essential to the fight to preserve the integrity of our city’s historic character. To formalize the establishment of such a citywide network, in November HDC launched its new Neighborhood Partners Program. This free program aims to positively influence and shape the future both of our neighborhoods and of the entire city by creating a unified voice for preservation and land use issues. (For more information, please contact Lauren Belfer, HDC’s Community Coordinator, at lbelfer@hdc.org or 212.614.9107, extension 14.)

· Historic Duffield Street Residence Spared from Eminent Domain Efforts

Sometimes you can catch lighting in a bottle. In 2004, when Joy Chatel learned that her mid-19th century rowhouse at 227 Duffield Street in Downtown Brooklyn was to be seized for demolition by the City as part of the Downtown Brooklyn rezoning plan, she began a tireless campaign to preserve the building against enormous odds. In addition to her personal connection to the historic building, local legend connected the house and its neighbors with the Underground Railroad and the mid-19th Century Abolitionist Movement. Thanks to Joy’s indomitable spirit and ceaseless efforts, she gathered support from a wide array of community members and organizations, as well as out-spoken champions in public official such as Council members Tony Avella, Charles Barron and Letitia James. Thanks to their support, the City sponsored a study of the properties which showed a direct link with prominent Abolitionists and recommended that further research into this important and largely-invisible social history. Finally in December 2007, after years of struggle and two different eminent domain hearings, the City reversed its decision to demolish the home for a parking lot and announced its plan to look into re-use options for the site. Jennifer Levy of South Brooklyn Legal Services, who brought the legal action against the City which resulted in this outcome, put it best when she said “I commend the City for their flexibility. They have shown that it is possible to do development thoughtfully, in a manner that is responsive to community concerns, and with an eye to preserving our history.” We applaud Joy, Jennifer and everyone else involved in the campaign to preserve these houses for their passion, dedication and fortitude, Hopefully, decision-makers will learn from this that flexibility and community concerns are pivotal in guiding appropriate development within our historic city. There are certainly enough opportunities coming up to exercise this new wisdom; from Admiral’s Row to Moynihan Station to (dare we hope?) Atlantic Yards…

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