Tag Archives: landmarks

NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Thank You, Landmarks Preservation Commission!

Landmarks Preservation Commission
NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

The Landmarks Preservation Commission has outdone itself with the new “Discover NYC Landmarks” web site. This interactive map is the fastest way to find and explore the city’s architectural heritage.

Since its creation in 1965, the Landmarks Preservation Commission has granted landmark status to more than 35,000 buildings and sites, including 1364 individual landmarks, 117 interior landmarks, 10 scenic landmarks and 139 historic districts and extensions in all five boroughs. LPC shields this cultural history against defacement or destruction.

Equally if not more importantly, LPC has researched and written volumes of reports that examine and interpret those landmarks in the context of New York City and neighborhood history. The commission’s researchers also reveal the architects, builders and owners of the buildings.

Last but not least, LPC has made its work accessible in many ways. It published the “Guide to New York City Landmarks” (Fourth Edition – Wiley, 2009), and made individual report .PDFs available from its website.

Since 2011, I’ve relied on the LPC reports for details about the buildings I’ve photographed for NewYorkitecture.com. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Best Yet From Landmarks Preservation Commission

The new “Discover NYC Landmarks” site is LPC’s best-yet platform for browsing our architectural heritage. It’s an interactive map of the city, showing the locations of all landmarks and historic districts. Click on a landmark or district, a popup shows you the landmark name and designation date. Click on the popup image, and a .PDF report opens up. While the map itself is a major accomplishment, LPC has also upgraded its pre-computer reports. Old typewritten documents that had been scanned into .PDFs were often difficult to read and could not be searched electronically. The upgraded documents have been cleaned up dramatically and sometimes reformatted to make them easier to search and navigate.

The 433-page Greenwich Village Historic District report, for example, was originally published in two volumes. Here are the “before” and “after” versions of the original 1969 title page: The updated version combines both volumes and includes navigable bookmarks.

Before...
Before…
  
After...
After…

I’ve been using the improved report to document my new photos of Greenwich Village – it is so much easier to work with. Thank you, LPC!

Discover NYC Landmarks

East River Bridges

New York has more than 75 bridges connecting the boroughs to each other and to New Jersey. It’s fascinating how so many different engineers came up with so many different solutions for the same problem: How to cross a river. Here are views of some of the principal East River bridges.

To come: Bronx-Whitestone, Throggs Neck and Rikers Island bridges.

Google Map

Kingsbridge Armory

Originally known as the Eighth Coastal Artillery Armory, Kingsbridge Armory was built in 1912-17 with what was then the world’s largest drill hall, to accommodate artillery.

According to “Guide to New York City Landmarks,” the armory was designed by Pilcher & Tachau and inspired by a medieval French castle at Pierrefonds.

The main hall has been unused by the military for more than a decade, and New York City now controls the building. (A National Guard unit still uses the north annex, adjacent to the armory.) The Bronx Borough President has endorsed a proposal to turn the armory into an ice skating center with nine rinks.

Kingsbridge Armory Vital Statistics
  • Location: 29 W Kingsbridge Road between Jerome and Reservoir Avenues
  • Year completed: 1917
  • Architect: Pilcher & Tachau
  • Style: Romanesque
  • New York City Landmark: 1974
  • National Register of Historic Places: 1982
Kingsbridge Armory Suggested Reading

Google Map

Random: May 2014

Highlights from photos shot in May, 2014 – but not yet added to a New York neighborhood or specific building gallery. Mostly architecture, some whimsical, all except the last five in Lower Manhattan; the last five (Prada entrance) are from the Upper East Side.

These were all taken May 17, 18 & 20, while I was shooting residential buildings.

I started out in Chinatown, walked to the East River, then down to the Battery. I used the Staten Island Ferry Terminal as a viewpoint for some of the photos, and gathered the rest while walking up Broadway; the last five (Prada entrance) I spotted while walking down Madison Avenue.

Enjoy!

In this album: