"LANDMARKS HEARING" BILL: ALL EYES ON CITY COUNCIL TO SAVE NY'S MOST ENDANGERED BUILDINGS

Subject: Fwd: Eyes on Preservation
Date: 11/2/2005 10:31:16 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: whitmananne@yahoo.com
To: reysmontj@aol.com
Sent from the Internet (Details)



"LANDMARKS HEARING" BILL: ALL EYES ON CITY COUNCIL TO SAVE NY'S MOST ENDANGERED BUILDINGS

The spotlight is on the New York City Council, where a date has been set for a public hearing on Intro. 705 (the "Landmarks Hearing" bill). On Monday, November 14 (time tbd), the Council's Subcommittee on Landmarks will consider this bill to prevent the loss of historic buildings where the LPC has neglected or refused to hold a public hearing. If passed expeditiously, this legislation could save St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Harlem, the Richmond Hill district in Queens, Richmond Terrace in Staten Island, the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, Clinton Hill in Brooklyn, 2 Columbus Circle in Manhattan, and many other important, critically endangered sites citywide.

Mark your calendar and stay tuned for more details...
(To download a copy of the bill, go to http://webdocs.nyccouncil.info/textfiles/Int%200705-2005.htm?CFID=42645&CFTOKEN=31991492.)

For too many historic buildings and neighborhoods across the city, the wolf is truly at the door. Who's keeping watch? The scaffolding has already begun to rise around 2 Columbus Circle, and all signs suggest that owner Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) have no shame. With the eyes of the world on them, we hope they can prove otherwise.

Starting today, the 2 COLUMBUS CIRCLE "SHAME CAM" will keep a 24/7 vigil on what could be the last days of 2 Columbus Circle. Friends of this unofficial, and therefore unprotected, landmark have mounted a web camera producing a live video stream of the building's north facade available at www.save2columbus.org and www.landmarkwest.org. Visit the websites to find out what you can do to let MAD, the Mayor, the LPC and most importantly the City Council know you're watching.

The 11th hour for 2 Columbus Circle has arrived. Still, the fight goes on, and the circle of friends continues to grow. World-renowned architects Henry Cobb, Peter Eisenman, Richard Meier, Cesar Pelli, Kevin Roche and Laurie Olin (who designed the new landscape in the center of Columbus Circle) have signed on to a letter sent by artist Chuck Close to Mayor Bloomberg in support of a public hearing.

It's now or never. Your support matters - for 2 Columbus Circle and the integrity of the landmarks process we rely on to keep our city whole.


"We will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed."
- New York Times, in response to 1963 demolition of Pennsylvania Station