New Queens LPC Commissioner Treated with Trepidation
From the Queens Tribune
Landmarks Has A New Queens Face
Diana Chapin of Jackson Heights will weigh in on landmarking properties in Queens and the rest of the city.
By Theresa Juva
Diana Chapin of Jackson Heights begins her new role this week as a newly appointed landmarks commissioner while historic preservationists around the borough wait to see what the 64-year-old Michigan native will accomplish during her three-year term.
Last week, the Landmarks Preservation Commission appointed Chapin to the 11-person committee in charge of protecting the City buildings that show historical, cultural and architectural importance.
Chapin, who lives in an historic district, is the executive director of the Queens Library Foundation, a former Parks Department Queens borough commissioner and deputy commissioner for capital projects with Parks. In addition, she was chair of the Historic House Trust, a not-for-profit organization created in 1989 that protects historic houses located inside city parks. She also previously worked as deputy commissioner for the Buildings Department.
A Cornell University graduate with a doctorate in medieval literature, Chapin said her years of experience working in communities across the borough are her biggest asset.
“I basically traveled to every neighborhood in the City,” she said on Monday, the day before she officially met with the commission for the first time. “I was always going to different neighborhoods, building a park or playground and meeting with various community boards. I have a good sense of the different neighborhoods in Queens.”
She also noted that her appointment, the second one for Queens (architect Joan Gerner is the other) is indicative of a shift in the commission’s focus from mostly Manhattan designations to other parts of the City.
“I think it’s important that there be a good share of representation from boroughs other than Manhattan,” she said. “Manhattan has older structures, but increasingly in the outer boroughs there are more possible landmarks.”
But not everyone is certain she is prepared for the task.
Paul Graziano, an independent urban planning consultant from Flushing, was nominated for the position along with Kevin Wolfe, an architect and Ivan Mrakacic, an architect and chairman of Community Board 9.
Graziano questioned Chapin’s qualifications.
“There are lots of better candidates,” he said. “They at least have the background and understanding. The criteria of her getting elected are that she is a loyal bureaucrat.”
He emphasized the commissioner should have a background in building preservation or architecture while also being in tune with the needs of individual neighborhoods.
Jeffery Kroessler, vice-president of the Historic Districts Council, a historic district advocacy group, said he hopes Chapin will be able to recognize the difference in criteria for a historic building in Manhattan and one in Queens.
“The values in Queens are not the same,” he said. “Everyone can look at Park Slope and Brooklyn Heights and look and Greenwich Village and the Upper East Side and say those are historic, but when you start to look at garden apartments in Queens or you’re looking at suburb neighborhoods, it’s not as obvious.”
Nancy Cataldi of the Richmond Hill Historical Society has been advocating for a decade to make 80 Victorian and Queen Anne-style houses in Richmond Hill into an historic district.
After unsuccessfully working under three landmarks commissioners, she said the process of designations is unpredictable, often influenced by political ties and the affluence of a neighborhood to campaign for recognition.
She said Chapin should be ready to jump in.
“These are huge jobs and huge responsibility,” she said of commissioner positions. “If she’s inexperienced, it’ll take a while to warm up.”
If Queens preservationists are looking for an outspoken advocate, Chapin may not be the one.
“I’m not coming to the Landmarks Commission with an agenda,” she said. “I am there to serve the boroughs, all five. I want to help preserve its historic character.”
Kroessler said commissioners are traditionally not vocal about goals for the borough.
“We have never had a member of the commission from Queens who has aggressively pushed for designations in Queens. There has never been a champion,” he said. But he noted that the commissioner’s power comes from her vote and not an agenda.
Even if the commissioners do not come into the office an expert in preservation, they gain expertise by the end of their terms, Kroessler said.
Yet it’s too soon to judge how she will go down in history.
“Ms. Chapin has enormous experience in government, that’s a significant asset,” he said. “Whether that translates to sympathy for landmarks law, the next couple years will reveal.”