By Carol Tannenhauser
They all came to the southeast corner of W 86th St and Amsterdam Avenue on Thursday morning — the community members, the lawyers, the nonprofit board members, the block association presidents, the preservationists, the artists, the U.S. congressman, and the City Council member who organized the presser and rally in support of saving the endangered West Park Presbyterian Church, a landmark, pictured behind them.
Council Member Gale Brewer (far right) was the prime force behind getting the church landmarked in 2010, and is now leading the charge to save its landmark designation lest it be sold to a developer and demolished in favor of a 19-story condominium.
Roger Leaf was also there this morning, standing apart. He is a member and representative of the remaining 12-person congregation of West Park Presbyterian, which, he says, will perish under the financial pressure of the decaying building. He is fighting to see it demolished.
Leaf says it would take “$50 million to restore the church, $17 million for the facade alone.”
“Under $10 million,” the church’s defenders said, on Thursday.
“Make believe!” Roger Leaf told the Rag.
Council member Gale Brewer said, “We’re going to buy the church.”
Tonight at 6:30pm, via Zoom, the Preservation Committee of Community Board 7 will begin deciding the church’s fate. The public is welcome to attend and comment. Here is the link to register.
The committee will — probably after several hours of impassioned testimony from both sides — pass a resolution either for or against the de-designation as a landmark of the church. The resolution will be voted on by the full board on June 7th. The CB7 resolution is then presented to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, and strongly considered as a gauge of community opinion in its decision.
Read our background story here, and consider joining the Zoom, as the future of one of the crossroads of the Upper West Side is determined.
The church is literally rotting away. By all accounts the building is not structurally sound.
Whether it will cost $10M or $50M to restore it is almost besides the point as nobody – not the city, not Presbyterian headquarters, not some wealthy philanthropist – will provide the funds to maintain the church. Even the few remaining congregants want the building torn down.
It is my understanding that the developer is willing to allocate space in the new building for the congregation and as a community center. This seems like a win for everyone.
Inevitably this building will be torn down and I wish Brewer and Nadler would spend their time doing something more productive for their constituents.
Completely agree with you. Even if they get in the initial funding to restore it to a sound condition, there won’t be a steady revenue stream to maintain it properly. Unfortunately, a developer will have to buy the land and repurpose it for something than can generate income.
Otis – agree w/you.
I also wish Brewers office would listen to her constituents about the homeless in this neighborhood.
I called up her office to complain about the secret homeless shelter that was put in our neighborhood without any notice to the community. No community board meeting…. no public talks…no nothing!
Down in Chinatown, they are fighting off homeless shelters and here on the UWS, we are getting more that are being brought in by Brewer…. even though we have the most homeless beds in all of Manhattan!
My call to her office was met with a bunch of words salad about the rights of the homeless.
Meanwhile, what rights? These folks don’t pay taxes and are not even from New York. The four buildings on W. 94th St. are completely filled with newly released prisoners and same story is to be with the Fortune building on West 97th.
What are the four buildings on West 94th? Thanks
The four buildings are small apartment buildings.
Each one is filled with newly released inmates.
Words don’t count. If you can’t come up with the money to renovate that property to make it safe so that scaffolding comes down you are doing performative hoo hah. You said the same thing when it was Landmarked and NOTHING has been done. This is my neighborhood it’s literally down the street from me but it is in total disrepair. Beautiful but falling down.
Another solution has to be found. The Congregation and Community will have space in the new building. It sounds like a good outcome. Perhaps they can ask for more affordable housing in the residential portion of the building.
Tilting at windmills asking for it to be preserved when you offer no way to do it is just ridiculous.
Elected officials are completely out of touch.
Time and energy spent on an old building that’s about to fall down, but no attention paid to all the crime in this neighborhood. My parked car has been burglarized twice in a year.
Ask Gail Brewer how much she’s done while she was Manhattan BP to repair the seriously damaged Soldiers and Sailors Civil War Memorial at 90th and Riverside. That’ll tell us how much she’ll really do to save the church. Talk is cheap. Action costs millions of $.
Had not thought about that before, but this is a good point. It’s city property, no issue of state funding a church. A temporary bandshell could make the place into an outdoor theater. Instead it’s rotting away.
I wish these elected officials had better things to do. Unfortunately, they listen to those who complain the loudest, though those who complain the loudest are often not representative of majority opinion.
I think many of those who don’t want it torn down feel that way because they don’t like the alternative. How about our elected officials do something useful and re-zone the space so that it is say a 10 story building, not 19, so that it is more tolerable?
So these politicians prefer an empty, rotting structure to a vibrant congregation and affordable housing. Unbelievable. If the congregation can’t monetize the land, they’re finished. And the neighborhood needs new housing, obviously. Completely absurd. NIMBYs are insane.
First off, no one in the neighborhood wants to lose the church for another grey glass tower. That said, this corner get together is nothing but performance art by our Not Ready for Prime Time Politicians. There is one thing that will save this building: an eight figure donation with sufficient left over to endow ongoing maintenance.
I notice that lots of people say that the West Park Church is beautiful. I have seen the church outside from all angles and have been inside many times. I fail to see wherein the beauty of this church exists.
My heart goes out to the preservationists who seek a worthy quest to save a valuable part of the UWS’s history. That said, unfortunately we simply can’t save them all when it comes to analyzing the cost/benefits aspects of the initiative and therefore must choose wisely to preserve that which benefits the most.
The neighborhood is devolving into a series of empty storefronts and sleeping addicts. I own an apartment in the city. My taxes are absurd. I guess I should leave, right? I’m the problem, I’m the idiot who thought this was a place to raise a family. Here we have a 12 PERSON CONGREGATION (!) asking to demolish…but the people who don’t even GO TO THE CHURCH want to keep it up??? WTF??!?!