The Importance of Preservation

There's good reason to fight to preserve older buildings and historic neighborhoods. We'll take a look here

Let's talk about Preservation

“A House Is Not A Home If There’s No One There”

Thanks to Luthor Vandross for the lyrics in the title.

The talk de jour in my email and on my Facebook feed this week was almost entirely taken up by the news, photographs and videos of the destruction of a Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn house called the Jacob Dangler mansion. Personally, I’m still furious that the building was destroyed, and I’ll get to that in a minute. But first I want to tell you about the house and the family that first called it home.......... Read more

Landmarking in NYC

A Little History
In 1961, New York City officials announced that the city’s iconic Pennsylvania Station was slated to be torn down. McKim, Mead & White’s massive train station, built in 1910 as an homage to classical Roman architecture and the power of the railroads, had been poorly maintained and was now dirty, rundown and a shade of its former glorious self. The Pennsylvania Railroad didn’t want the responsibility of taking care of it, and the city and developers wanted to build a new Madison Square Garden sports stadium on the site.
There were no landmarks laws then, and despite the massive efforts of preservation groups, politicians and everyday New Yorkers to save it, their plans and pleas fell on deaf ears..............Read more