Context/Contrast: New Architecture in Historic Districts
To be reminded of the range of new projects in designated historic districts in New York City, go see the exhibition, “Context/Contrast: New Architecture in Historic Districts, 1967-2009,” on view at the American Institute of Architects New York (AIANY) Center for Architecture in Manhattan through February 4th as well as online and by dedicated phone message thereafter. It serves not only as a valuable primer on preservation in New York City since the establishment of the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1965, but also as an illustration of how years of regulation by the LPC have affected the New York City streetscape.
The exhibition represents projects in all five boroughs approved at the Commissions frequent Certificate of Appropriateness hearings. These range from proposals little-noticed outside their districts to well-known examples such as Ulrich Franzen’s Watchtower dormitory in Brooklyn Heights, the first new building in any historic district, and starchitect Jean Nouvel’s recent addition to the SoHo Historic District on Mercer Street in Manhattan.
Sherida Paulsen, architect and former chair of of both the LPC and the AIANY, credits curator Rachel Carley with choosing to focus on a sample of five historic districts or “neighborhoods”: Brooklyn Heights; Manhattan’s Upper East Side, SoHo and South Street Seaport; and Douglaston, Queens. In considering the exhibition, Paulsen noted admiringly, “it’s hard to see the new buildings.” The twenty-eight projects represent a tiny sample of those approved by the LPC, which saw 10,000 applications for alterations to 25,000 buildings in 2009 alone.
“These are not dead buildings,” commented Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council, at an exhibition-related panel that also included HDC Board member Julia Schoeck of Douglaston. Though it may seem unlikely to some battle-weary preservationists, the regulatory activity of the Commission and the preservation community is often overlooked, which may be why LPC came up with the idea for an exhibition about new projects in historic districts in the first place. The show is backed by major sponsorship from the New York Landmarks Preservation Foundation, the commission’s non-profit partner.
Extending across two floors of the Center for Architecture, the show allots between four and seven buildings per district to illustrate representative projects. They range from single-family homes in Brooklyn Heights, the Upper East Side and Douglaston to institutional buildings, including an addition to the Jewish Museum, dubbed “the last word in contextualism.”
The exhibition design by Moorhead & Moorhead includes extensive educational and reference materials includes loose-leaf binders containing essential preservation gossip (most if it from The New York Times and local media) surrounding the five districts’ designations and notable personalities as well as selected proposals and their attendant squabbles. Additional information is provided by wall texts, maps, brochures, family guides, and other print and online materials (www.aiany.org). Currently and following the exhibition’s closing date, you can also pick up a phone to hear interviews with such preservation pioneers as Brooklyn Heights’s eminence grise Otis Pearsall and Kent Barwick, president emeritus of the Municipal Art Society.
The exhibition includes some subtle editorializing. “There may be no place in New York where neighborhood advocates are as strong a force for public scrutiny as the Upper East Side,” one panel matter-of-factly claims, later noting that many Eastsiders hoped designation would “keep towers out.” And there’s a reference to “some” who try to use zoning as a preservation tool: not its purpose according to the exhibition. The exhibition however is largely without bias toward architects or preservationists, and some of the commentary even seems to have been written by the staunchest among preservationist, for example referring to a nine-story building as a “tower.”
Overall, the impression is, to quote former Commissioner Richard Olcott, partner at Polshek Partnership and a former Landmarks commissioner. “Which strategy do you think is most appropriate for designing in Historic Districts? Mimicry, contrast or interpretation?”
To hear podcasts of interviews with leading preservationists, go to http://www.aiany.org/eOCULUS/newsletter/?p=4129 or call the following numbers for recorded interviews.
Otis Pratt Pearsall on Brooklyn Heights (Time 29:15): 212 514-0014 ext #1
Kevin Wolfe, AIA, on Douglaston (Time 17:57): 212 514-0014 ext #2
Kent Barwick on the South Street Seaport (Time 34:16): 212 514-0014 ext #3
Peter Pennoyer, AIA, on the Upper East Side (Time 11:24): 212 514-0014 ext #4
Richard Olcott, FAIA, on SoHo (Time 18:48): 212 514-0014 ext #5
Every two weeks HDC reviews dozens of proposals for the Commission’s Certificates of Appropriateness hearings, prepares and delivers testimony on most of them and publishes its testimony online at www.hdc.org/hdc@lpc. HDC@LPC is also available as a biweekly e-mail newsletter by emailing [email protected] with “HDC @ LPC” in the subject line.
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