"Context/Contrast: New Architecture in Historic Districts, 1967-2009" Exhibition
The Center for Architecture
This event has ended.
New York is often imagined as a perennially new city, yet in the four decades since the 1965 passage of the New York Landmarks Law, it has become one of the strongest forces for historic preservation in the country. To date, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, the agency in charge of identifying and protecting our architectural resources, has designated 1,235 individual landmarks, 110 interiors, ten scenic sites and 96 historic districts, including the five showcased in this exhibition. Now affecting more than 25,000 properties through the city, the New York Landmarks Law requires that the commission grant approval in advance of any alteration, demolition, or new construction, and significant projects must go through a hearing process and panel review.
The Commission has always argued that historic districts can and should evolve with time. However, the legal mandate to determine the “appropriateness” of changes has proven to be one of the agency’s most demanding responsibilities, and it raises many provocative questions. How should the Commission negotiate the arguments of opposing interests? How does the Landmarks process make our historic neighborhoods better?
Exhibition curator: Rachel Carley
Exhibition design: Moorhead & Moorhead
Graphic design: PS New York
Photography: Elizabeth Felicella
[Photo: Elizabeth Felicella "322 Hicks Street by Smith-Miller + Hawkinson in the Brooklyn Heights Historic District"]
Media
Schedule
from October 06, 2009 to January 23, 2010
October 21, 2009, 6-8pm Inaugural Forum. November 4, 2009, 6-8pm Roundtable discussion on "Appropriateness." November 14, 2009, 1-3:30pm FamilyDay@theCenter. November 18, 2009, 6-8pm Preservation in Context: Communities and their Landmarked Dist