November 27, 2006
Tom Wolfe Takes the Landmarks Commission to Task
Yesterday, there was a sprawling editorial (literally sprawling too - it covered two pages) in the NY Times Week in Review by Tom Wolfe. And in it, he ripped the Landmarks Preservation Commission, most of its commissioners, and Mayors Koch, Giuliani and Bloomberg a couple new ones.
The essay, The (Naked) City and the Undead, begins with the debate over 980 Madison Avenue and developer Aby Rosen's proposed Norman Foster addition to it. (Which Wolfe is against.) But then Wolfe breathlessly mentions the LPC's and City Hall's run-ins with Pennsylvania Station, Grand Central Terminal, 2 Columbus Circle, Bryant Park, and the Dakota Stable, giving readers a delirious ride through about 20 years of NYC preservation history. Here's an excerpt about Rosen:
Like every major developer in town, he knows that the Landmarks Preservation Commission has been de facto defunct for going on 20 years. Today it is a bureau of the walking dead, tended by one Robert B. Tierney.It's a good read. We must read up on the Bryant Park/"Tung Affair," too, as that's pretty juicy. If only we were more aware during the 1980s!Mr. Tierney and the 10 members of his commission already have a hearty, comrades-in-arms, marching-along-together history with Aby Rosen. The commission was highly instrumental last November in clearing the way for him to build a zone-busting glass box full of condominiums on Lexington Avenue and 53rd Street in return for his guarantee, written into the deed, that the exterior of his Seagram Building, given landmark status in 1989, will be maintained in its original condition in perpetuity.
Mr. Tierney gushed — insofar as one can gush in a press release — that Aby Rosen was not only ensuring “the highest level of protection” for this historic building, he was also being so kind as to favor New York with “a landmark of the future,” namely, his glass box godzilla at Lexington and 53rd.
How generous! How civic-minded! Noblesse oblige! ... until one reminds oneself that Aby Rosen and every other owner of a landmarked building is required by law to maintain it in its original condition.
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Wolfe is a George W. Bush lover. That makes anything he does except fiction, well, fiction.
At the end of his piece, he mentions a preservation summit with 100 attendees. That was the Citizens Emergency Committee to Preserve Preservation, an organization of individuals that seek to bring independence, fairness and resources back to the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Learn more at www.savelpc.org .
cristopher hitchens dedicates 'letters to a young contarian' to tom wolfe, or ayn rand i k'ent remember. it's prolly in wikipedia if you want to factcheck me, calcifer.
Harlem's "Big Apple" night club had the same unique upside-down apple since 1934. It was torn down this month and the Big Apple plaque was put up for sale on eBay. I wrote to the LPC and asked how this could happen--especially since I'd written to the LPC and discussed this with them 15 years ago. They'd assured me then that Harlem's gems would be protected.
In response to the recent Harlem "Big Apple" desecration (still not reported anywhere), I got back a form letter. It made no sense!
Landmarks is another government office that doesn't respond to the public and makes its decisions based on which way the political preservation wind is blowing.
Eliminate the LPC!