E-BULLETIN OF THE HISTORIC DISTRICTS COUNCIL
May 2013, Volume 10, Number 7
Historic Districts Council 2013 Grassroots Preservation Awards and Annual Preservation Party
Date: Thursday May 23, 2013
Location: Village Community School, 272 W 10th St New York, NY 10014
Time: 6:30 pm
Click here to read more or purchase tickets!!
Highlighted 2013 Grassroots Awards Recipient: Robert LaValva – New Amsterdam Market
and Vendors!
Robert LaValva created the New Amsterdam Market, an organization with a mission to incubate a new and growing economic sector—small businesses such as butchers, grocers, mongers and other vendors who source, produce, distribute and sell foods made with regional ingredients as well as carefully selected imports and to do so where the city’s market history began, at the foot of the Fulton Street on the East River. Join the Grassroots Preservation Awards this Thursday for a culinary experience as vendors from the New Amsterdam Market serve their delicious treats. Joining us from the New Amsterdam Market will be:
This year’s Grassroots Awards recipients are:
• The Myrtle Avenue Revitalization Project
• New Amsterdam Market’s Robert LaValva
• NYC Parks advocate Geoffrey Croft
• NYU Faculty Against the Sexton Plan
• The Aquinas Honor Society of the Immaculate Conception School
• Friend in High Places: Council Member Stephen Levin of Brooklyn’s 33rd District
• Friend from the Media Award: The Tribeca Trib.
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Knowledge of the Future: The Changing Face of New York City’s Public Library Systems
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
6pm
Steelcase, 4 Columbus Circle #2, Manhattan
Free. To rsvp, contact [email protected]. Space is limited.
Despite recent record increases in library attendance usage citywide, the three New York City library systems have been systematically starved for financial resources and forced to make hard choices in their plans for the future. From the proposed sales of the Pacific Branch Library and Cadman Plaza Library in Brooklyn, to the radical intervention proposed for the 42nd Street Research Library and the recently revealed plans for a smaller library to replace the demolished Donnell Library in Midtown Manhattan, the library system has been radically transforming the use and form of its public property.
Join our panel of experts as they discuss a number of plans currently in the works for New York City libraries, and what it might bode for the future of America’s largest public system. Invited speakers include: Dr. Jeffrey Kroessler, Librarian and Urban Historian, John Jay College, Scott Sherman, contributing writer and editor, The Nation, and David Giles, Research Director at the Center for an Urban Future.
Special thanks to Steelcase for hosting this event.
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WORLD FAIR – A documentary and discussion with the filmmaker and a special guest historian
Wednesday – June 12th at the Neighborhood Preservation Center 232 East 11th Street
6-7:30pm
Cost: $5 – Space is limited and you must rsvp for the event
VIEW a trailer of the film on their website HERE!
WORLD FAIR is a new documentary film that celebrates personal memory, innovative architecture, and amateur cinematography through a singular, spectacular event: the 1939 New York World’s Fair. On the heels of the Great Depression and with war mounting overseas, millions of people traveled to a former ash dump in Queens, New York, to catch a fleeting glimpse of a better future. WORLD FAIR weaves together the impressionistic memories of former fairgoers—now in their eighties and nineties—with vibrant archival footage, transporting viewers to the futuristic and hopeful realm of the 1939 New York World’s Fair. As a meditation on the ways we remember and preserve the past, WORLD FAIR explores the stories contained in photographs and home movies, in illustrations, and in the objects we collect and save. WORLD FAIR premiered in April at the 2013 Independent Film Festival Boston, where it won the Audience Award for Best Short Film.
Filmmaker Bio:
Amanda Murray (director/producer, WORLD FAIR) is a filmmaker with the independent documentary production company Wicked Delicate Films in Brooklyn, NY. Trained in public history and humanities, she was a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, and has worked with the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, National Building Museum, and National Trust for Historic Preservation. She holds a B.A. in American Studies from the College of William and Mary, and an M.A. in Public Humanities from Brown University. WORLD FAIR is her first film and premiered at the 2013 Independent Film Festival Boston, where it won the Audience Award for Best Short Film. Amanda is a producer of the forthcoming documentary films THE SEARCH FOR GENERAL TSO, MISSING MODERNIST, and THE GREENING OF QATAR.
RSVP TO [email protected]
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June 3
8:30 – 10:00 AM
The Department of City Planning’s mission is to promote strategic growth, transit-oriented development and sustainable communities, in part by initiating comprehensive, consensus-based planning and zoning changes for individual neighborhoods and business districts, as well as establishing policies and zoning regulations applicable citywide. It supports the City Planning Commission and each year reviews more than 500 land use applications for actions such as zoning changes and disposition of City property.
Carolyn Grossman, Director of Governmental Affairs, will speak about the many facets of the Department’s work, including a discussion of what zoning is, how the process works, and how the Department uses it to achieve changes in the city’s built character. This discussion will include a variety of case studies involving zoning and other initiatives in recent years. Ms. Grossman will address attendees’ questions on a range of topics, so come prepared to engage in a discussion centered on your inquiries and concerns.
These events are FREE, but reservations are required. For more information on this series or to RSVP, please contact Barbara Zay at [email protected] or 212-614-9107.
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Have you been wondering how you’re going to explore and discover this great city over the summer? Well here’s your answer!
Join HDC on our fantastic walking/ bike tours of the Six To Celebrate neighborhoods. The tours will run from May through October.
BIKE TOUR (north Bronx loop) les by Richard Gans, Bronx bike advocate
Saturday, June 15, 9:30AM
Bronx Parks System, The Bronx ; Rocking Stone, Bronx Park, about 1895
photo credit : JFGryphon, Flickr
In 1888, more than four thousand acres was designated as parkland in The Bronx in anticipation of New York City’s northern growth. This enormous public investment guided the development and planning of the borough to become a livable place for people of modest means. Please join us for two bike tours of the magnificent parks that have shaped The Bronx since their conception 125 years ago. The first will explore the parks of the northern Bronx, beginning with a visit to the Van Cortlandt Mansion at Van Cortlandt Park and meandering eastward to Pelham Bay Park with stops at the Valentine-Varian House, the Bronx River Forest and the Bartow Pell Mansion. The second will explore the parks in the south, including Bronx Park, Crotona Park and St. Mary’s Park. Bikes will not be provided.
For more information about the tours click here
For information about the 2013 STC click here
For information about the STC program click here
Don’t forget we have the 2012Walking Tour Brochures are now available for sale on our website!!!!
Only $10 for all six brochures (shipping included).
To purchase the brochures click here.
Six to Celebrate is generously supported by The New York Community Trust. Support for the Six to Celebrate Tours and walking tour brochures is provided by 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 Councilmembers Margaret Chin, Inez Dickens, Vincent Gentile, Daniel Garodnick, Stephen Levin and Rosie Mendez.
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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]