WEST END AVENUE-RIVERSIDE HISTORIC DISTRICT WINS APPROVAL
The Landmarks Preservation Commission voted this morning to approve the first phase of the long-awaited Riverside-West End Avenue historic district. The district, which also includes buildings on Riverside Drive and Broadway, is split into three sections — the one voted on today spans 79th to 87th Street. It’s not clear when the other votes will occur.
Check out the map of the district below, and our previous story here.
West End Preservation Society Executive VP Erika Petersen announced the news via twitter:
LPC creates HD on UWS. This morning 10AM. WEPS is thrilled. UWS citizens thrilled. THANK YOU LPC!
— Erika Petersen (@erika_petersen) June 26, 2012
LPC Chair Robert Tierney said at the hearing that “It’s a sweeping sense of architecture in a distinct section of the city. A sense of place — I can’t think of anything that better defines that term, or exemplifies that term,” according to Landmark West. The full City Council still needs to vote on whether to affirm the LPC decision.
I was, and still am not, in favor of this designation. There are plenty of buildings in this district from the 1950’s and 1960’s which have no reason to be preserved. I think we are being much too self-congratulatory. The LPC said that this area deserved designation because of it’s “consistency of appearance and of use.” Based on that definition, we should be landmarking Lincoln Towers, one of the ugliest, albeit totally functional, groups of buildings in Manhattan.
Landmarking entire areas has been shown in economic studies to time and time again to disadvantage minorities.
It worsens the already tight supply/demand for apartments, which drives up rents. This in turn harms minorities who cannot afford to live in the expensive areas. One need look no farther than the massive “historic district” that is the UES, where rents are sky high, cultural diversity is low, and you can track the “expulsion” of the minority community from the UES through Census data perfectly timed to the landmarking. The UES is primarily white.