E-BULLETIN OF THE HISTORIC DISTRICTS COUNCIL
February 2014, Volume 11, Number 7
In This Issue:
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Only two weeks to the 20th Annual Preservation Conference on Friday, March 7, 2014 with the Design Awards Ceremony and Opening Reception. The inaugural HDC Design Awards will be presented by jury chair James Stewart Polshek, FAIA. The ceremony will be followed by a reception where attendees can meet the awardees and view their projects. The following day, Saturday, March 8, 2014 will consists of two morning presentations and panels, one with the award winners themselves presenting their projects and the other featuring a discussion of “What is ‘Good’ Design?”.
During the conference on Saturday, make sure to stop into the ‘Preservation Fair’ and meet our neighborhood partners. Each group will be displaying and distributing information about their local preservation campaigns. It’s a great opportunity to meet advocates from across the city and find what’s going in the neighborhoods. There’s still room if you want to sign up for a table and as an added bonus each participant gets to enjoy the full day of panels (and breakfast!!) for free. If you would like to join the Preservation Fair, contact Brigid Harmon [email protected]
See below for more information, or click here to register.
Friday, March 7, 2014
HDC Design Awards Ceremony and Opening Reception
6:00-9:00 p.m.
Steelcase
Southwest corner of West 58th Street and 8th Avenue, Manhattan
$35/person/ $30/person for Friends of HDC, Students, Seniors
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Conference and Preservation Fair*
New York Law School
185 West Broadway, Manhattan
8:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
$35/person-$25/person for Friends of HDC, Seniors- Free/student (with valid school ID)
*Includes continental breakfast
Conference Panels
8:30-9:30am
Registration, Coffee, and Preservation Fair
During the coffee and registration hour attendees will meet with civic and community-based groups who are working on neighborhood-based preservation campaigns. More than a dozen organizations will present their current efforts, including posters, images, postcards, petitions, brochures and other educational and advocacy literature. Come meet your fellow preservationists and learn about efforts to preserve our city.
9:30-11:00am
HDC Design Awards Presentations
Following the previous evening’s award ceremony, attendees at this panel will hear from the award winners themselves about their projects. Awardees will discuss the design challenges, strategies and solutions for each case. An ample question and answer period will allow for a full discussion with the audience on the specifics of projects and design philosophy, allowing the lessons of each project to be considered by communities across the city. This panel will be moderated by Alan G. Brake, executive editor, The Architect’s Newspaper and an HDC Design Awards juror.
11:00-11:30am
Break and Preservation Fair
Fair will be open throughout the day.
11:30am-1:00pm
What is “Good” Design? Appropriateness and Context
Taking the ideas generated from the HDC Design Awards presentations and applying them citywide, a distinguished group of critics, architects and advocates will examine the specific issue of appropriateness and contextual design in New York City’s designated historic districts and beyond. Understanding how new design fits in an old neighborhood, panelists will present some of their favorite (and least favorite!) examples of contextual design and discuss the idea of “appropriateness” and its applicability. Confirmed speakers for the panel include; Stephen Byrns, partner at BKSK Architects, a former NYC Landmarks Preservation Commissioner and chair of the Untermyer Gardens Conservancy; Mel Wymore, community activist and former chair of Manhattan Community Board; and Matt Chaban, the Real Estate Editor at New York Daily News.
For more information and to sign up for the 2014 conference you can go to our website by clicking here,
calling 212-614-9107, or emailing [email protected]
The 20th Annual Preservation Conference is co-sponsored by HDC’s Neighborhood Partners, more than 500 community-based organizations across the city.
Support is provided in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Additional support is provided by City Councilmembers Margaret Chin, Inez Dickens, Daniel Garodnick, Vincent Gentile, Sara Gonzalez, Stephen Levin, and Rosie Mendez.
Support for the HDC Design Awards is provided, in part, by The Architect’s Newspaper, Steelcase, Leo Blackman & Ken Monteiro, Françoise Bollack & Tom Killian and Anna May & Tim Feige.
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New design in an old place
HDC reviews and testifies on an average of 50+ Certificate of Appropriateness (C of A) applications each month at the Landmarks Preservation Commission. We advocate for appropriate new construction in historic districts and alterations/extensions to historic buildings. In congruence with the theme of the conference New Design + Old Places spotlight C of A is 269 Washington Avenue, aka 242 Hall Street. The C of A applicationwas for two new buildings in the Clinton Hill Historic District which HDC happily supported. Many may say that preservation freezes the city, but the truth is we could never nor do want to freeze New York City. It is great to see this vacant lot being utilized with contextual new buildings that fit the neighborhood and can be enjoyed by the community.
Below is the application and HDC’s testimony. To read all HDCs testimonies go to our HDC@LPC page by clicking here
CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS
BOROUGH OF BROOKLYN
152640- Block 1918, lot 51-
269 Washington Avenue, aka 242 Hall Street – Clinton Hill Historic District
A vacant lot. Application is to construct two new buildings.
HDC applauds the approach taken here to use the vocabulary, form, and materials of the historic district to create two modern, but contextual, new buildings. There is some concern though that 275 Washington Avenue, one of the few freestanding early residences remaining on this street, will be overshadowed by its new neighbor. Understanding that pulling the new building back to the deeply recessed line of the 1873 house may not be practical, we ask that the three-story piece on the right be removed to provide more breathing room
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Follow Us on Facebook and Find Out What’s Up in New York Preservation
HDC uses our Facebook account to circulate news articles about preservation in New York City. Check us out at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Historic-Districts-Council/91520047765.
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If you’re receiving this, then you know that HDC is working hard throughout the city to protect and preserve the neighborhoods which make New York great. Please consider contributing and becoming part of the movement to preserve our city’s irreplaceable architecture and history. There are a lot of buildings to cover, and we can only do it with a lot of people.
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tel: 212-614-9107 fax: 212-614-9127 email: [email protected]