New York Preservation Archive Project :: NYPAP Public Programs

A series of cross-generational conversations on preservation practice and philosophy

Because of the active role you play in New York’s preservation community, the New York Preservation Archive Project and the Neighborhood Preservation Center invite you to participate in our Fall Preservation Series:

Each 90-minute session features a seasoned preservation veteran in conversation with an emerging preservation leader, discussing issues that have been and continue to be central to the preservation movement in New York City. As a member of the audience, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the conversation.

from 4–5:30, with a reception to follow. The cost for attendance is $25 for the entire series, or $10 per session. Seating for this series is extremely limited, so please return the enclosed form along with a check made payable to “The New York Preservation Archive Project” as soon as possible.

Historic Districts Wednesday, October 20, 2004 Host: Laura Hansen Sage: Otis Pratt Pearsall Interviewer: Andrew Berman	Preservation Planning Wednesday, November 3, 2004 Host: Lisa Ackerman Sage: Ed Kirkland Interviewer: Eddie Nelms
Preservation Advocacy Wednesday, October 27, 2004 Host: Thom Bess Sage: Jack Taylor Interviewer: Kate Wood	Politics Wednesday, November 10, 2004 Host: Vicki Weiner Sage: Fred Papert Interviewer: Ken Lustbader

This series is made possible with generous grants from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Thom Bess
Preservation Advocacy
Thom Bess, community activist and former executive director of Landmarks Harlem, works to protect an area of the city that the Landmarks Commission often overlooks in the designation process. In a 1998 article, Mr. Bess reflected, "To have a place like the West Side landmarked from 62nd Street to 96th Street and not include areas like Harlem is criminal…There are entire blocks in Harlem that are so significant in the creation of jazz and the development of Harlem as the black cultural center of the world."

Mr. Bess was instrumental in the 1980 designation of the Longwood Historic District in the Bronx.

Otis Pratt Pearsall
Historic Districts
In a 1988 New York Times article, Otis Pratt Pearsall summarized the objectives of the Brooklyn Heights Association: “We wanted to be proactive, rather than reactive.” Mr. Pearsall has been a proactive preservationist in New York City for over forty years. His contribution to the preservation movement has afforded us the opportunity to today stroll through the character-laden streets of Brooklyn Heights.

Mr. Pearsall spearheaded the nearly seven-year campaign that led to the designation of Brooklyn Heights on November 23, 1965 as the city’s first historic district. His efforts began in the fall of 1958, when he, along with a group of professionals, formed the Community Conservation Improvement Council (CCIC), to challenge Robert Moses’ proposed Cadman Plaza Project – a project that threatened to destroy the a number of period houses and replace them with high-rise luxury-priced rental efficiencies.

CCIC, which was later absorbed by the Brooklyn Heights Association, fought to preserve the neighborhood through esthetic or historic zoning. The group was guided in part by National Trust publications, including “Preservation of Historic Districts By Architectural Controls,” and it was aware of the Beacon Hill historic district in Boston, established by Massachusetts legislature in 1957.

The most important document to CCIC, however, was the Bard Law of 1956, authorizing cities to adopt regulations to protect places, buildings, structures, works of art and other objects having a special character, special historic, aesthetic interest or value.

Within months of establishment, CCIC announced in the February 26, 1959 issue of Brooklyn Heights Press its proposal for an historic preservation ordinance under the Bard Law. The council enlisted the support of notable city groups, such as the Municipal Arts Society. Mr. Pearsall wrote to MAS president George Hopper Fitch seeking assistance, and Mr. Fitch appointed a special sub-committee to examine the issue further.

CCIC also encouraged Clay Lancaster to conduct a survey of houses in Brooklyn Heights. This survey led to the publication of Mr. Lancaster’s book, “New York’s First Suburb: Old Brooklyn Heights”, which was used as propaganda to convince the city of the pass the zoning amendment necessary to protect the character of the neighborhood.

A lawyer by trade, Mr. Pearsall later worked closely with the MAS, submitting an amicus curiae brief defending the Landmarks Preservation Commission in the Sailors’ Snug Harbor case in the 1960s.

In 1992, Mr. Pearsall was elected to the Board of Green-Wood. He is also a member of the Art Commission, representing the Brooklyn Museum of Art, as well as the Brooklyn Heights Association. Mr. Pearsall also serves on the Board of the New York Preservation Archive Project.

He and his wife were presented with a Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award in 1999, recognizing their Preservation Leadership.

Lisa Ackerman
Preservation Planning
Lisa Ackerman is the Executive Vice President of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in New York, which supports programs and fellowships in the history and preservation of art and architecture. Ms. Ackerman also serves as secretary of the board of the New York Preservation Archive Project and is active board member of the Historic House Trust of New York City.

Laura Hansen
Historic Districts
Ms. Hansen is the co-founder and served as the co-director of Place Matters, an organization supported by the Municipal Art Society and City Lore that encourages community members to identify and protect historical and cultural places, whether it be a building, a structure, a park, or a street.

Until 2003, Ms. Hansen sat on the Board of the New York Preservation Archive Project, serving as its secretary. She is now the Program Officer at the J. M. Kaplan Fund.

Ken Lustbader
As a preservation consultant and spokesperson for the Lower Manhattan Emergency Preservation Fund, a consortium of five preservation groups, Mr. Lustbader is leading on of the most politically charged preservation projects in recent history – the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan. He is working to influence the MTA to protect the Corbin Building in its proposal for the new transit center. Mr. Lustbader is also committed to the protection of historic structures damaged in or following the September 11th attacks, and he has been an advocate for the smaller scale structures, including several Federal era row houses, that could be vulnerable to demolition in the rebuilding efforts. At a time when New Yorkers are looking to rebuild not only the physical fabric of their city, but also its economic strength through redevelopment, Mr. Lustbader and his colleagues face the difficult challenge of striking a balance between new development and the retention of the existing fabric – one that ultimately boils down to politics.

Kate Wood
Preservation Advocacy
Whether testifying before the Landmarks Preservation Committee, arguing a case in front of the City Planning Commission, rallying in front of an endangered building, or sitting in a crowded courtroom, Kate Wood has “emerged” as a preservation advocate.

As Executive Director of Landmark West!, Ms. Wood protects the architectural heritage of Manhattan’s Upper West Side neighborhood – a neighborhood which today, in large part due to LW’s efforts, has over 2,600 landmark buildings. Through email updates, newsletters, walking tours, lectures and forums, Ms. Wood raises public awareness of preservation issues and encourages community involvement.

The effectiveness of her voice is evidenced in LW’s fight to save Edward Durell Stone’s 2 Columbus Circle. While mounting an aggressive campaign in defense of this building, one that generated much media attention, she worked to build a strong pro-2 Columbus Circle alliance among leading preservation advocacy groups including the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Preservation League of New York State, DOCOMOMO, and many others.
Ms. Wood and her staff often advise residents, property owners, businesses and neighborhood groups on how to safeguard historic properties and educate them about available resources. She also works closely with the Landmark West! Committee of Appropriateness to ensure that adverse changes are not made to the neighborhood’s architectural resources.

The effectiveness of Ms. Wood’s voice impacts historic districts, individual landmarks, and other architectural treasures outside the boundaries of the Upper West Side. She fights to ensure that dangerous precedents are not set that could jeopardize the historic fabric of all areas of the city, such as allowing an oversized tower to be built on a midblock, and has worked to regulate the installation of public pay telephones.

Before coming to LW!, Ms. Wood served as the co-chair of the Save the Coogan! Coalition in the Midtown South area of Manhattan and, in recognition of this work, received a Grassroots Preservation Award from the Historic Districts Council. She is a member of the board of the Metropolitan Chapter of the Victorian Society in America and also serves on the Board of Advisors of the Historic Districts Council.

Ms. Wood is a graduate of Columbia University’s Historic Preservation and Urban Planning programs.

Jack Taylor
Preservation Advocacy
Armed with a red pen, Jack Taylor helped to polish the prose of other writers while working as a copy editor and proofreader. Fortunately for preservationists, he has long used his own pen – and typewriter – to defend the architectural heritage of neighborhoods throughout New York City.

Mr. Taylor’s eloquent prose, frequently appearing in the editorial pages of the city’s leading newspapers, continues to raise awareness of and generate support for preservation efforts. Whether writing about the merits of adaptive reuse or persuasively arguing for the protection of threatened resources, such as the Dvorak House or the Naumburg band shell in Central Park, Mr. Taylor is always an advocate for the built environment.

As chairman of the Historic Preservation Committee of the Union Square Community Coalition, Mr. Taylor led the nearly decade-long campaign to save Lüchow’s, the famous century-old German restaurant on East 14th Street. He secured the support of citywide organizations, including the Municipal Art Society, and successfully organized a petition drive, collecting over seventy letters to the Landmarks Preservation Commission in order to convince them to put Lüchow’s on their calendar, which they did but never brought it to a vote.

Despite the tireless efforts of Mr. Taylor and his colleagues on the Union Square Community Coalition, the City Planning Commission included the Lüchow’s site in the upzoned portion of the Union Square Special Zoning District, thus ensuring the demise of the low-rise restaurant buildings. In response to this decision, Mr. Taylor brazenly wrote a letter published in the January 1, 1995 issue of The New York Times expressing what was on the minds of many preservationists. He declared, “In the end it was the action of one city agency, the Planning Commission, and the inaction of another, the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which declined to cross swords with the planners, that have consigned Lüchow’s to ashes.”

Mr. Taylor is not afraid to cross swords when necessary, and because of this he is recognized as one of the city’s leading preservation advocates. As president of The Drive to Protect the Ladies’ Mile District, Mr. Taylor fought for the designation of more than four hundred properties located on parts of twenty-eight blocks along the Avenue of the Americas, Fifth Avenue and Broadway, as well as side streets from 15th to 24th Streets.
Opponents of the proposed Ladies’ Mile Historic District argued that not all the buildings in this area were of landmark quality. Mr. Taylor, however, successfully argued that the area was “a magnificent universe in miniature…To designate piecemeal would be a travesty, for the gaps and inconsequential structures are negligible.” And, as a result of his efforts, and those of the seven organizations that united under the umbrella of The Drive to Protect the Ladies’ Mile District (spearheaded by Margaret Moore, Christabel Gough, and Anthony C. Wood), the city designated much of the area a historic district in 1989.

Today Mr. Taylor serves on the board of the Historic Districts Council, which in 1992 presented him with its annual Landmarks Lion Award, and is active in the historic-preservation efforts of the Union Square Community Coalition, the Stuyvesant Park Neighborhood Association, and the Gramercy Park Block Association. He is a Public Member of Manhattan Community Boards Five and Six, assigned to their Landmarks Committees, and continues to work with the East Side Rezoning Alliance to promote responsible planning for the area from East 14th Street to East 59th Street between Lexington Avenue and the East River.

Frederic “Fred” Papert
Preservation Politics
Mr. Papert is no stranger to politics. As chairman of his advertising agency (Papert, Koening, Lois), he worked on the campaigns for Senators Jacob Javits and Robert F. Kennedy. When he retired as an advertising executive, Mr. Papert did not leave the political arena. He applied his campaign knowledge and advertising strategies to historic preservation, generating both political and financial support for projects throughout New York City.

In the late 1970s, Mr. Papert served as the president of the Municipal Art Society, where he worked closely with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, herself a director of MAS, to save Grand Central Terminal. Among their most famous activities, they organized the Landmarks Express Train – an event that drew national attention to the preservation of Grand Central Terminal. Mr. Papert and Mrs. Onassis also worked together to protect Lever House and the Greek Revival buildings at Sailors Snug Harbor.

Mr. Papert again demonstrated his political abilities when fighting to save St. Bartholomew’s Church on Park Avenue. In his battle to protect St. Bart’s, he spearheaded the Landmark Express II, which carried a group of preservationists and concerned citizens, including Mrs. Onassis, to Albany to argue against the proposed “Flynn/Walsh Bill.” This bill would amend that State’s enabling law that authorized landmark ordinances, such as the Bard Act, so that religious property was not subject to the same regulations as other properties. Because of the efforts of Mr. Papert, Mrs. Onassis, and Brendan Gill, a drama critic for The New Yorker, the bill was not passed. In a 1984 lecture entitled “Ministry vs. Mortar: A Landmark Conflict”, the Reverend N. J. L'Heureux, Jr. stated, “[The bill] had become too hot a potato in an election year.”

In 1976, Mr. Papert founded the 42nd Street Redevelopment Corporation with the hope of revitalizing 42nd Street from river to river. His interest in the street, particularly Theater Row, which runs west of Ninth Avenue, began when he took a walking tour of the area in connection with the fight to save Grand Central Terminal.

The success of Mr. Papert’s work on the revitalization of 42nd Streets resulted, in part, from his ability to convince city leaders and politicians that his proposed plans warranted their support. In a 1995 New York Times article, Nicholas Fish, chairman of Community Board 5 stated, “He’s one of the most charming and persuasive people I’ve ever met.” Mrs. Onassis, a member of the corporation’s board of directors, frequently attended press events organized by Mr. Papert, who recognized that her presence always generated media attention and was a great draw for fundraisers.

His hard work and determination generated support from both public and private sources, including the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the Mayor’s office, and the New York Telephone Company. Mr. Papert and his colleagues also worked closely with the New York State Urban Development Corporations, which oversaw the Theater Row project.
While Mr. Papert’s plan for a trolley to run along 42nd Street won support from Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, some community board members and civic groups who argued that it was financially impossible contested the proposal.

Mr. Papert led the Carnegie Hill Neighbors, a group that supported special zoning districts in Manhattan.

In October 2001, Mr. Papert was honored with the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis medal at the MAS’s annual awards dinner.

Eddie Nelms
Preservation Planning
Eddie Nelms is currently a special projects planner with the Times Square Alliance (formerly the Times Square BID), which supports local businesses, co-coordinates major events in Times Square and advocates on behalf of its constitutes with respect to a host of public policy, planning and quality-of-life issues. In this role, he oversees public art, streetscape and design initiatives, and coordinates various programs centered on design and retail retention and growth in Times Square. Prior to this position, Eddie worked for the Municipal Art Society Planning Center as a researcher on the Campaign for Community-based Planning.
Eddie holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture from the University of Virginia with a concentration in Historic Preservation. He is a recent graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where he received a Masters degree in both Urban Planning and Historic Preservation.

Eddie was the recipient of the University of Pennsylvania Preservation Fellowship in 2000 and is currently a member of the Municipal Art Society Urbanist Steering Committee.

Vicki Weiner
Politics
Vicki Weiner is an assistant visiting professor at Pratt in the Historic Preservation program, and she works at the Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development (PICCED) as the project director of Fulton Mall: New Strategies In Preservation. Prior to these positions, Vicki served a three-year term as Kress Fellow for Historic Preservation at the Municipal Art Society of New York. She is also the former executive director of both the Historic Districts Council and the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. Vicki currently serves as treasurer of the board of the New York Preservation Archive Project.

Edward “Ed” Kirkland
Preservation Planning
Recognizing the nexus of preservation and planning, Ed Kirkland has used zoning as a tool to protect the Chelsea community in New York City.

An active member of Community Board 4, which serves the Chelsea and Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen neighborhoods, Ed has long been the chair (now co-chair) of the group’s Chelsea Preservation and Planning Committee. Before becoming chair, he headed a subcommittee that developed a 197-a plan for Chelsea that was approved by the City Planning Commission in 1996 and implemented in 1999.

Ed saw the rezoning of Chelsea as a way to “protect the old housing stock, maintain the historic character and scale of the neighborhood and discourage displacement,” while providing opportunities for new development, especially affordable housing. To achieve these goals, the plan reduced the permitted density in certain areas, including the Chelsea Historic District and rowhouse streets nearby; maintained the existing density in other areas, such as the Ladies’ Mile Historic District; and increased the allowed density in appropriate locations. This was achieved by mapping contextual districts widely throughout Chelsea so that the height of new development would be compatible with the existing form of the community. Unfortunately the proposals for affordable housing in eastern Chelsea were not accepted, and attempts to follow up had no success.

According to Joseph B. Rose, former Chairman of the City Planning Commission and Director of the Department of City Planning, “This Chelsea Rezoning Plan is the product of close collaboration between the Planning Department and the local community. It should serve as a model for future community based planning in New York City.”

Ed believes the route to successful projects is through community participation from the early stages of planning. He credits such participation with the success of the originally controversial Hudson River Park, with which he has long been involved.

Ed is retired. He is a former recipient of the Historic Districts Council's Landmarks Lion award and of a Certificate of Merit from the Municipal Art Society.

Andrew Berman
Historic Districts
As the Executive Director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, Andrew Berman has fought to see the character of the Village maintained through appropriate zoning and the designation of historic districts. Under his leadership, the GVSHP spearheaded the successful efforts to secure the designation of the Gansevoort Market Historic District, which protects 102 buildings on parts of 11 blocks in the Village. To Mr. Berman, however, the designation of the Gansevoort Market Historic District does not signify the end of the battle -- he is now working to ensure that the provisions of the historic district designation are enforced and that similar protections are extended elsewhere.

Today Mr. Berman and his colleagues at the GVSHP are pursuing the designation of an historic district that would protect the Far West Village and the Greenwich Village Waterfront, which are today threatened with development that is incompatible with the existing scale of the area. They are also exploring the possibility of proposing a South Village Historic District to protect the working-class immigrant history of that area.

In addition to protecting areas in the Village, Mr. Berman is organizing a campaign to extend landmark designations to federal row houses in Lower Manhattan, and he is leading a citywide coalition of community groups seeking reform of the city’s regulations regarding the development of community facilities.

Mr. Berman previously worked for the New York City Council as chief of staff to a land use subcommittee chair, where he worked on many neighborhood preservation and planning issues on the west side of Manhattan.