Month: March 2016

The Fairy Godmother of Preservation

Posted on by danimarie19

In 1965, New York passed its historic landmark law, ushering in an era of preservation and grassroots movement. People started to think that the “old” buildings were beautiful and worth fighting for.

However, with every movement comes opposition, and the preservation movement found its opposition in real estate moguls and urban renewal projects. In 1970, the preservation found a formidable foe in Pennsylvania Railroad, according to Alex Herrera, the Director at Technical Services Center at the New York Landmarks Conservancy.

The Pennsylvania Railroad Company owned Grand Central Terminal, and threatened to demolish it in order to build new office buildings. With the companies financial woes, they decided to try to get the maximum revenue for their property. However, the Terminal was historical, and the Landmark Commission decided to say no to this proposition. Pennsylvania Railroad filed a lawsuit that eventually made it all the way to the United States Supreme Court.

Through various testimonies and the liberal nature of the court at that time, preservation was protected and Grand Central Terminal saved from demolition. One of these testimonies, according to Herrera, was God’s gift to the preservation movement.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis testified in support of Grand Central Terminal, while also becoming the face of the movement. She was the fairy godmother of preservation. Without her support, Herrera believes that the railroad company would have won.

“I think it was here presence there that the Supreme Court Justices could not bring themselves to rule against her,” Herrera explains, “Even people who were there said when she walked in it was like silence.”

With the support of the Supreme Court, the New York landmark statute is the strongest in the country, leading other municipalities from various cities to copy it. The Supreme Court decision was also significant because it allowed the Landmarks Commission to have more back-bone when going up against big real estate.

“This decision really saved historic preservation in the US.”

*Photo: ©Danielle Elmers

Spring in Washington Square Park

Posted on by danimarie19

Washington Square Park, part of Historic Greenwich Village and the unofficial campus square for NYU,  is not only historical, but an important identifier for these two different entities.

 

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On a beautiful spring day, one does not need to wonder why.

*Photos: ©Danielle Elmers

The Ottendorfer Library

Posted on by danimarie19

With just two floors, the top designated for children and the bottom for everyone else, the Ottendorfer Library on 2nd Avenue is small branch compared to the main New York Public Library. But what it lacks in size, it makes up for in history and community.

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The library’s Landmark Designation 

Located between St. Marks Place and East 9th Street, the library opened in 1884 as New York City’s first public library. The building, a mix of Queen Anne and Neo-Italian Renaissance style with a terracotta putti exterior facade, was designed by William Schikel, a German-born architect. The building, however, was a gift from Oswald Ottendorfer to the neighborhood, which was known as Kleindeutschland, or Little Germany. Ottendorfer, who was the owner of the New- Yorker Staats-Zeitung newspaper, wanted the library to be bilingual in German and English to help the 150,000 people of German descent to assimilate into American culture. Of the original 8,000 books, half where in English and the other half where in German.

An inside look

Nowadays, the library still remains a multi-lingual library, offering books in many languages, such as Spanish and Polish. The library also offers help with research, teaches others how to navigate through information, and offers immigration aides.

Any afternoon, one can walk into the Ottendorfer Library and find people of all ages sitting at one of the round tables, reading a book, perusing a newspaper or doing work. Others mingle around the shelves, looking for something that catches their eyes. Others go straight to the reserves shelf, finding the book that they reserved for themselves using the last four digits of their library card. The staff buzz around, making sure everyone who needs help gets help, or busily check in and out books from local library patrons.

This narrow building grows as you walk through the front door.

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*All Photos: ©Danielle Elmers

Three Organizations, One Mission

Posted on by danimarie19

©In NYC, there are three organizations that stand out when it comes to the preservation of Downtown. The Landmarks Preservation Commission, the Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation, and the New York Landmarks Conservancy all work together to ensure that the historical architecture and the culture behind each landmark is protected from big real estate and the need for more skyscrapers.

 

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From aiding with landmark applications to giving advice on architectural renovations, these three organizations are involved.

Check out their websites:

GVSHP (Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation)

LPC (Landmark Preservation Commission)

NYLC (New York Landmarks Conservancy)

*Photo: ©Danielle Elmers

The Puck Building

Posted on by danimarie19

The Puck Building, located on Lafayette Street in Soho, is now home to expensive penthouses and the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, as well as the Sociology department from NYU. With a golden Puck, the mischievous character from Shakespeare’s plays,  watching pedestrians walking by the front doors and a luxurious lobby with a cast-iron fireplace imported from Europe and stain-glassed Puck by the elevators, the Puck building exudes elegance.

However, before it became home to New York City’s elite, the Puck building was home to the Puck Magazine, a satirical publication run by Austrian immigrant, Joseph Keppler. Keppler brought the magazine to fame, poking fun at public officials and helping Grover Cleveland win the Presidency against James G. Blaine, by throwing their influence behind Cleveland. Puck Magazine consisted of political cartoons, with Keppler taking the best cartoonists from imitator magazines. When Keppler died in 1894, his son, Udo, took over the publication, but due to changes in media, Puck would go under. William Randolph Hearst would come to acquire the magazine, quite ironic considering the magazine mocked him constantly.

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“What Fools These Mortals Be” 

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Spy Magazine, another political satire magazine, would have a short life at the Puck Building.

Now, the Puck Building stands a combination of offices and penthouses, even after exchange with the Landmark Preservation Commission in 2011.

For a more detailed history of the building, please look here.

Photos: ©Danielle Elmers

The Silver Towers

Posted on by danimarie19

In 1963, New York University developed the Silver Towers as a middle-income housing project, which would house people who lived and worked in Greenwich Village, NYU faculty and their families. The towers, which are located in University Village on LaGuardia, West Houston, Mercer and behind Coles Sports Center, were designed by I.M. Pei, who started the designs in 1953. The project finished in 1966, and after NYU proposed plans to expand the University further, the towers were pushed to be landmarked by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and the Landmark Preservation Commission. NYU at first opposed, but relented under community pressure, leading the towers to be landmarked on November 18, 2008.

Within the area between the Towers, there is a sculpture created by Carl Nesjar. It is a reinterpretation of Pablo Picasso’s “Portrait of Sylvette.”

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However, while the Towers are now landmarked,  the area that the Towers are located in use to be Italian working class neighborhoods, according to Harvey Molotch, NYU Professor of Sociology and Metropolitan Studies.

“Today, [the neighborhoods] would have been highly valued for their historic virtues,” Molotch explains.

This shows the downside of urban development, even development that is now preserved as a historical landmark.

*Photos: ©Danielle Elmers