Morningside Landmarks Preservation

[Anchor:Martha]
Coming up: Landmarks gone wild!  Neighborhood advocates want to landmark a large section of Morningside.  Shards and all.

[Anchor:Yang]
Morningside Heights has seen less development over the past century than other Manhattan neighborhoods. But some local activists think area buildings need more protection. In this week’s Morningside report, Peter Cardwell examines efforts to make the area a historical district.

[TAKE PKG]

These buildings on both sides of Claremont Avenue are “landmarked”. That means if developers want to change anything about the way they look, it’s got to be in keeping with the historic nature of the area.

But Teachers College is just a block away – a set of buildings – some say are among the most beautiful structures in Manhattan – is not landmarked.

Campaigners say they want the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission to protect buildings over 30 years old from 110th street to 122nd Street west of Broadway and east of Riverside Drive.
They’ve been campaigning for years. So why hasn’t it happened?

“(Laughs) I have absolutely no idea,” Pat Jones, chair of Community Board 9, said. “We within CB9 have had any number of proposed sites for landmarking that have been swirling around LPC for 10, almost 20 years.”

Ah yes… the Landmarks Commission. Walter South, a committee he’s part of, the Community Board, and the local State Assemblyman, all want the historic district.

“What is protected is that the façade of the building, which means that I can’t change my façade, but likewise you can’t change yours,” said Walter South, a historic district campaigner.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission told us:

“We have said that we are interested in Morningside Heights, that a proposed historic district remains under review and that our staff has begun preliminary research.”

Broadway and 110th, the entrance to Morningside Heights, within the last ten years this cross-street has seen a lot of development, with new buildings here, here and here.

This building, a century old this year, remains largely the same. But its roof was changed to a modern design a few years ago.

“That was a major loss as far as I’m concerned,” Barbara Hohol, a local campaigner, said. “It was the mark by which you knew you were entering Morningside Heights on Broadway.”

Hohol salvaged this mosaic when the building was altered.

“I think that in the case of something worth preserving, I’m all in favor of it.  But I think flat out making the whole area a historic district is probably questionable policy,” she said.

One local architect and historian says he supports limited landmarking.

“I don’t think that landmarks should be used as a tool simply to stop development,” Andrew Dolcart, a professor at Columbia University, “There may be a few spots in the neighborhood where development may be quite appropriate.”

Speaking of development…

“Columbia is seen as the big bad wolf,” said Hohol.

“I guess it could be characterized as exceedingly arrogant,” South said. “In fact they’ve even opposed the landmarking of the campus, another great landmark in this area.”
While Columbia didn’t want to comment to us on this issue, the Landmarks Preservations Committee says the university hasn’t weighed in on the discussion at all.

But if there’s going to be a historic district on Columbia’s doorstep, it’s clear that the ambitious university may need to scale back its plan as a result.

In reality a historic district in Morningside Heights would be highly unlikely to go ahead without Columbia’s approval – and that’s something campaigners say they’re doubtful they’ll ever get.

Peter Cardwell, Columbia News Tonight.

~ by supermann on May 2, 2008.