First Person: Money & Meaning
Past Perfect
Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel
07/01/2005

Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel is a landmarks activist and chair of the Historic Landmarks Preservation Center in New York. She served on the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission for 17 years and was the city’s first director of cultural affairs. In addition to her efforts in New York, she has served on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts since 1996 and on the board of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Council. Diamonstein-Spielvogel has been an interviewer and producer for a number of television shows about the arts and architecture. Her 19th book, The Landmarks of New York: An Illustrated Record of the City’s Historic Buildings, was published in May.

The preservation movement is one of the most successful and egalitarian campaigns in our nation’s history. It involves people of all geographic, socioeconomic and age groups. Preservationists have long discussed the intangible social benefits of protecting the past from the wrecker’s ball. Conserving our historical and physical heritage provides a reassuring chain of continuity between past and present. A sense of continuity, an awareness that some things last longer than mortal existence, is important to most people. Over the centuries, many have recognized that cities, as the greatest communal works of man, provide the deepest assurance that this is true. But today’s cities are also the greatest source of conflict over balancing the past against future economic growth.

THE PLAZA Hotel, finished in 1907, and the Seagram Building, 1958, are among Manhattan’s prized architectural landmarks.
During the past 40 years, landmarks laws have helped transform the process of preservation from a series of brushfire rescues into an integral aspect of city government. For those who are economically oriented, it has been proven again and again that properties that are preserved create greater economic benefits than most others. Of course, there will always be detractors who complain that what they regard as the restrictions of preservation law are just too costly to implement. I don’t believe this is true. Preservation does not mean economic stagnation. Properties are not frozen in time, but are subject to review. Many, many landmark buildings are altered. These changes, however, must be sympathetic to the original architecture, to a building’s context and to its neighbors.

Many of the same developers who protest—many of whom are among the quickest to defy preservation laws—are the first to advertise their buildings as “landmarks,” because they too have become aware that preservation endows properties with a special cachet and a higher value. The struggle to “save” New York’s Plaza Hotel from new owners bent on creating condominiums out of historic spaces has attracted many headlines. Wherever there are emotions, property values and dominion at stake, conflict follows. At the Plaza, I foresee that the spaces that will enhance the property for the new owners, such as the Palm Court, the Grand Ballroom and the Oak Room, will be designated landmarks and remain open to the public.

Historic Homesteads
Celebrated buildings like the Plaza garner the most attention, but preservationists also focus on little-known buildings with remarkable historic resonance.

The oldest surviving dwelling in Queens, N.Y., dates from 1661. It is a modest structure, but an important example of early wood-frame Anglo-Dutch architecture. More importantly, it is a monument to religious freedom. Nine generations of the same family have lived in this house; prominent family members have included four mayors of New York, distinguished educators, a leading abolitionist, one of the most celebrated early horticulturists and a founder of the oldest public company in New York, the 230-year-old Bowne Co.

The house originally belonged to John Bowne, who practiced the Quaker religion there. Governor Peter Stuyvesant thought it was “an abominable sect,” and banned its practice. Despite being exiled back to Holland, Bowne refused to sacrifice his religious freedom and instead invited fellow Quakers to meet in his house. His trial and subsequent acquittal helped establish the fundamental principles of freedom of conscience and religious liberty, principles later codified in the Bill of Rights. Of course, historic buildings such as Grand Central Terminal are magnificent, but this house is also unique.

The Landmarks of New York is an attempt to create an encyclopedic history of more than 300 years of the city’s architectural history in social, economic, historical and commercial terms. In it, I detail what it takes for a building to become a designated landmark. First, it must be at least 30 years old. We must then consider architectural details and historical significance. For every building, there is a reason that someone built it, and there is a reason someone restored, adapted, amended or extended it. Every landmark building has a history worth knowing, because each reveals a filament of the rich fabric of the New York story. The book is organized chronologically, so as it unfolds, so too unfolds the history of the city.

It has been proven
again and again that
properties that are
preserved create greater economic benefits than most others.
New York plays a significant role in the national preservation movement. Although there are older landmark commissions in the United States, 2005 marks the 40th anniversary of the New York landmarks law, which has become, in many ways, the model for landmarks laws across the country. When the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission began, there were already about 100 such commissions nationwide. There are now more than 4,000, and thousands of historical societies and conservancies. Almost every community in the United States has some local preservation group, in addition to the many official city and state organizations.

Grounded in Gotham
I try not to seem parochial and chauvinistic about what occurs in New York, but our city is quite remarkable. For example, we have 1,119 individually designated landmarks, 104 interior landmarks (which must be available for public view) and nine scenic landmarks. Every blade of grass, tree, walkway, bench, statue and light post in all of Central Park comprise one of these scenic landmarks. There are also 83 historic districts. In total, there are approximately 23,000 landmarks, and they are among the most valuable properties on Earth. Our preservation efforts have their critics, but overall New Yorkers have been energetically behind preservation. They know how it has helped to revive neighborhoods.

We always have new ideas about preservation to consider, as well. One group of people now believes that modernist buildings—the very structures that spawned the movement to save their older counterparts—are coming of age, and that they should be considered for landmark status.

The head of the Royal Institute of British Architects has suggested that all the eyesores in England be identified and demolished. Perhaps he was speaking tongue-in-cheek. But it could happen, particularly in England where there are so many modern buildings. In certain instances, today’s eyesore will be cherished more in the future; but there may be something to this idea, provided the razed buildings are replaced with ones of singular beauty. Of course, it all depends on who the tastemakers are.