Stanley Tankel was at the forefront of both the city planning and historic preservation movements. A proponent of centralized cities that provided mixed uses, limited suburban sprawl, and protected its historic landmarks, he had an indelible impact on the physical fabric of New York City.

Stanley Tankel was born on December 25, 1922 in Mount Vernon, New York. He originally studied architecture at Yale University for two years until transferring to Harvard University, where he earned both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in city planning.¹

The post-World War I socio-economic climate influenced new methods of rebuilding cities in Europe. These methods were transported to the United States as many architects and planners abdicated Nazi Germany in the 1930s.² Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus School in Germany, was teaching at Harvard University at the time Tankel had enrolled. Gropius, a pioneer of the International style of architecture, fundamentally changed the architecture program by encompassing a broader view of architecture and planning.³ These ideas transformed Tankel’s interest in the relationship between urban planning and architecture.

After graduating from Harvard, Tankel’s relationship with architectural critic Lewis Mumford and city planner and architect Clarence Stein, both of whom established the Regional Planning Association in 1923, had inspired Tankel and his wife Claire to travel to Europe to study city planning.⁴ Stein was a proponent of the Garden City Movement, which emphasized decentralizing the city and slum clearance for new housing complexes that were encompassed by a green belt surrounding the city.⁵ This movement permeated throughout Europe in an effort to rebuild cities that had been obliterated during World War II. In London, Tankel was asked to work for Town and Country Planning, which planned towns that had been substantially damaged as a result of the war.⁶ A year later, he received a Fulbright scholarship to study city planning in France.

When his wife became pregnant in the early 1950s, they decided to move to New York City. Tankel, along with other professionals in Greenwich Village, created the Village Study in 1956 to investigate methods for improving traffic patterns, housing, and parks—an effort with the intention to make the community more livable.⁷ Coincidentally, Robert Moses had planned to run a major highway through Washington Square Park at the time. The Village Study took on this battle and many others including the preservation of Jefferson Market Courthouse.⁸

In 1955, Tankel joined the Regional Planning Association, and became its director in 1958. He contributed to several reports that advocated for denser centralized cities while preserving open space. The seminal report, “The Race for Open Space” asserted the necessity of protecting environmental space in the City, and led to legislation for open space.⁹ The creation of Breezy Point Beach in Queens and Fire Island Natural Seashore can be attributed to this legislation. Tankel’s wife Claire asserts that in many ways the report helped spur the environmental movement.¹⁰ Another study, “Spread City (1962),” asserts the disadvantages of suburban sprawl by illustrating that it “give[s] most of us neither the benefits of the city nor the pleasures of the countryside.”¹¹

Stanley Tankel was also appointed to the mayoral study committee to draft legislation for a landmarks law to protect historic structures. Once the New York City Landmarks Law was passed in 1965, Stanley was appointed as vice chairman of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.¹²

Stanley Tankel died on March 31, 1968 at the age of 45.

Regional Planning Association
Director, 1958-1960

New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
Vice Chairman, 1965

The political climate of the 1960s helped infiltrate new ideas about city planning and historic preservation. Stanley Tankel was very much a part of these movements. Living in Greenwich Village at a time when Robert Moses, New York University, and real estate developers proposed plans that threatened the unique sense of place the Village engendered, Tankel helped introduce new methods for protecting the community by creating The Village Study Committee in 1956. The group consisted of planners, architects, and preservationists that investigated the physical fabric of the neighborhood in order to promote a more livable community.

Stanley Tankel was also involved with the effort to close Washington Square Park to traffic.  From the beginning, Washington Square Park had been a hotbed for political activism and socio-cultural movements. Yet it was also a respite for mothers who routinely took their children to play in the park. Robert Moses, head of the Parks Department, had tinkered with plans to reroute traffic in Washington Square Park as early as the 1930s.¹³ When he announced plans to construct a 36-foot roadway through Washington Square Park, the Village Study group launched a campaign to prevent his plans from becoming a reality.¹⁴ Tankel, along with Robert C. Weinberg, conducted several studies of traffic patterns and statistics to demonstrate that the road was unnecessary. They presented their findings to Mayor Wagner and Manhattan Borough President Hulan Jack.¹⁵

Nevertheless, the Board of Estimate had approved Moses’s plans. Consequently, Ray Rubinow formed the Joint Emergency Committee to Close Washington Square Park to Traffic.¹⁶ This committee included a variety of politically-charged Village activists such as Jane Jacobs, Lewis Mumford, Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret Mead, Shirley Hayes, and Stanley Tankel. Tankel’s role in this campaign was to galvanize support from the real estate and business community who lived in the Village.¹⁷ After months of campaigning, numerous petitions, testifying to the City Planning Commission, and engaging in political rallies, the Board of Estimate voted to temporarily close traffic on October 23, 1958.¹⁸ Village residents gathered to celebrate this landmark victory at the park; the event drew several hundred residents. Claire and Stanley Tankel were the last to drive their car through the park.¹⁹ One year later, Washington Square Park was permanently closed to traffic except for emergency vehicles.

In addition, Stanley Tankel was involved with the effort to adaptively reuse the Jefferson Market Courthouse. The Jefferson Market Courthouse, designed by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Withers, had sat vacant for many years until the City decided to demolish the building. Margot Gayle, Greenwich Village activist, launched a campaign to raise funds to fix the clock in the courthouse's tower.²⁰ Village residents became fond of the building and decided to rally for its protection. As part of the Village Study Committee, Stanley Tankel, Whitney North Seymour, Jr., and Robert C. Weinberg investigated methods for adaptively re-using the building. The idea to use the building as a library had originated as early as 1954 by Owen Grundy, a reporter for the Villager.²¹

Tankel and Weinberg consulted with the Pratt Institute’s professor of architecture, Harold Edelman, and students to institute a proposal for reusing Jefferson Market Courthouse as a library.²² Although the New York Public Library was incredulous about the feasibility of this proposal, the conversion of the courthouse had the political backing of Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr. planning commissioner James Felt, and democratic politician Carmine DeSapio. In 1964, the City approved plans to rehabilitate Jefferson Market Courthouse to function as a library.²³ In the basement of the library is a plaque commemorating Stanley Tankel’s contributions to the preservation of the Jefferson Market Courthouse.

Furthermore, Stanley Tankel was involved with the study committee that would later become the Landmarks Preservation Commission, to which he also contributed his efforts. On June 19, 1961, Mayor Wagner announced the creation of a mayoral study committee to review New York City landmarks worthy of protection.²⁴ The committee’s goal was to draft legislation that would protect historic landmarks. Mayor Wagner appointed 13 members to the Commission comprised of an architect, lawyer, planner, realtor, and banker. Stanley Tankel was appointed as one of the commissioners. According to Tankel’s wife Claire, it was his experience with the Regional Planning Association that influenced his appointment to the study committee.²⁵ The committee researched other cities including Charleston, Boston, and New Orleans zoning ordinances.²⁶

The study committee would eventually become the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. When the New York City Landmarks Law was passed in 1965, Stanley was appointed as Vice Chairman to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.²⁷ Ultimately, Tankel’s inventiveness, combined with his insight in city planning, made an important mark on the history of the preservation movement in New York City.

• Oral History with Claire Tankel
  Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
  232 East 11^th Street, New York, NY 10003
  Tel: (212) 475-9585
  Email: gvshp@gvshp.org