Six to Celebrate is a dynamic program of the Historic Districts Council, and New York’s only targeted citywide list of preservation priorities.
The purpose of the program is to provide strategic resources to neighborhood groups at a critical moment to reach their preservation goals. The six selected groups receive HDC’s hands-on help on all aspects of their efforts over the course of the year and continued support in the years to come. The program helps community activists learn to use tools such as documentation, research, zoning, landmarking, publicity, and public outreach to advance local preservation campaigns.
Since 2011, Six to Celebrate has been helping to shape preservation activities in New York City. It has helped create 13 New York City Historic Districts and 50 Individual Landmarks, five districts on the National Register, three individual National Register properties and 19 neighborhood surveys encompassing thousands of buildings. It has also leveraged over $130,000 in private and public grants for these community-driven projects. Neighborhoods selected also benefit from professionally-designed website, illustrated walking tour brochures, press attention, growing audiences and new contacts in the field.
The six, chosen from applications submitted by community organizations, are selected on the basis of the architectural and historic merit of the area, the level of threat, the strength and willingness of local advocates, and potential for HDC’s preservation support to be meaningful.
As HDC’s Executive Director Simeon Bankoff stated at the beginning of the program, “Neighborhoods throughout New York are fighting an unseen struggle to determine their own futures. By bringing these locally-driven neighborhood preservation efforts into the spotlight, HDC hopes to focus New Yorkers’ attention on the very real threats that historic communities throughout the city are facing from indiscriminate and inappropriate development. As the first list of its kind in New York, the Six to Celebrate helps raise awareness of local efforts to save neighborhoods on a citywide level.”
Visit the Six to Celebrate website to learn more