In local news
Jan. 12th, 2010 08:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
malsperanzaOf little interest to most of you, probably, but pleasing to me.
The beautiful brownstone church on 86th and Amsterdam has finally been given landmark status--after a 20-year battle with the Presbyterian church, which wanted to tear it down or sell the air rights for a high-rise condo, or both.
Churches in New York have often been exempt from both landmark protection and eminent domain, out of respect for their singular place in communities. West-Park Presbyerian has a mission to serve the poor, and wanted to maximize its assets. I fear it lost sight of some core community values in the process.
This is not only an important and lovely building, but the church has a rich history in the Civil Rights and antiwar movements, and as a home for experimental theater groups for many decades.
Am v. pleased. And now it behooves my community, having campaigned aggressively to block the church's demolition plans, to help it raise the money it needs to maintain the building and meet its mission.
And next up:
on 99th St., with its incomparably Tiffany windows and mosaics and perfect intact Byzantine Revival interior. Best place in NYC to hear a Tenebrae service (they have a great choir and a good organ). St. Michael's isn't trying to get its building torn down--it's on the National Register, so they probably can't--but it financed the rehab of its windows by selling its air rights to a vile corporate developer, which built a hideous monstrosity just a block away. Fortunately, this galvanized the community to push through a new zoning plan which will prevent my part of the Upper West Side from becoming another soulless, generic canyon of crappy highrises--what a friend of mine calls "building without architecture." Still, St. Michael's should be landmarked. The victory at West-Park signals the city's willingness to exercise some civic authority over religious buildings, and about time, too.
The beautiful brownstone church on 86th and Amsterdam has finally been given landmark status--after a 20-year battle with the Presbyterian church, which wanted to tear it down or sell the air rights for a high-rise condo, or both.
Churches in New York have often been exempt from both landmark protection and eminent domain, out of respect for their singular place in communities. West-Park Presbyerian has a mission to serve the poor, and wanted to maximize its assets. I fear it lost sight of some core community values in the process.
This is not only an important and lovely building, but the church has a rich history in the Civil Rights and antiwar movements, and as a home for experimental theater groups for many decades.
Am v. pleased. And now it behooves my community, having campaigned aggressively to block the church's demolition plans, to help it raise the money it needs to maintain the building and meet its mission.
And next up:
on 99th St., with its incomparably Tiffany windows and mosaics and perfect intact Byzantine Revival interior. Best place in NYC to hear a Tenebrae service (they have a great choir and a good organ). St. Michael's isn't trying to get its building torn down--it's on the National Register, so they probably can't--but it financed the rehab of its windows by selling its air rights to a vile corporate developer, which built a hideous monstrosity just a block away. Fortunately, this galvanized the community to push through a new zoning plan which will prevent my part of the Upper West Side from becoming another soulless, generic canyon of crappy highrises--what a friend of mine calls "building without architecture." Still, St. Michael's should be landmarked. The victory at West-Park signals the city's willingness to exercise some civic authority over religious buildings, and about time, too.
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-13 03:11 pm (UTC)