Dorothy Marie Miner was a legal scholar who served as counsel to the Landmarks Preservation Commission from 1975 to 1994. Trained as a lawyer and an urban planner, Miner uniquely understood the nuances of the Landmarks Law and defended its legitimacy in multiple cases in New York City.

She attended Smith College in the 1950s and graduated twice from Columbia University, with a law degree in 1961 and a master's degree in urban planning in 1972. In 1975, she was officially named counsel to the Landmarks Preservation Commission. She argued the agency’s position in Penn Central Transportation Company v. New York City, and St. Bartholomew’s Church v. New York Landmarks Preservation Commission, in addition to other important cases.

Miner also served on the boards of numerous preservation organizations, including the National Center for Preservation Law Commission, the James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation, and the New York Preservation Archive Project. She was particularly active at the Municipal Art Society, serving on each of its three committees. She was also a member of the New York City Bar Association’s "Redevelopment of Lower Manhattan Task Force."

Miner taught preservation law at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, the Pace University School of Law and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute School of Architecture. Dorothy Miner passed away on October 21, 2008. She was 72 years old.

 

This page has been funded in part by a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation's John E. Streb Preservation Fund for New York.