As Mayor de Blasio continues the process of appointing new leadership at each city agency, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) will likely see its longtime chair, Robert Tierney, replaced as well. Chair Tierney was appointed at the beginning of the Bloomberg administration, which means he has served as the head of the LPC for well over a decade. Who the new LPC chair will be is only speculation at this point; as the smallest city agency, it is not uncommon that a new appointment here could take months. It is also possible that the mayor could re-appoint Chair Tierney, though this seems unlikely.
You may ask: what does the Landmarks Preservation Commission do? In a nutshell, it’s the city agency responsible for identifying, designating, and then regulating the city’s landmarks and historic districts. Changes to designated landmarks or buildings within historic districts are subject to the approval of the LPC; once a building owner receives an LPC permit, the Department of Buildings (DOB) then has the go ahead to issue a permit as well. Minor alterations are typically handled by LPC staff. Major alterations, new building proposals, and other applications must be reviewed by the agency’s eleven commissioners at Tuesday public hearings and public meetings. The public is welcome to attend both, although testimony is only taken at public hearings (public meetings are only held when the commissioners request further revisions to the application presented at the initial public hearing).
These commissioners consist of the full-time chair and ten part-time commissioners appointed by the mayor. Appointments are subject to the approval of the City Council, though it has never in memory turned one down. The Landmarks Law dictates that these commissioners must comprise of at least three architects, one historian, one city planner or landscape architect, and one realtor; at least one resident of each borough is also required. With the exception of the chair, the commissioners serve three-year terms that can be renewed.
While all eleven commissioners have an equal role in deciding matters presented to the commission for a vote, the chair really has an outsized role in relation to the agency’s work, which is why that appointment garners so much more attention and prominence. The chair manages the agency, determines the staff which makes many of the most important decisions, and influences the commissioners’ decisions. He/she also decides which proposals for landmark designation will be considered by the commission, how quickly they will be considered, and what the boundaries of a proposed historic district will be.
Thus, when a community advocates for landmark designation, it is really the chair who decides if the LPC will pursue it and when, and what buildings will be included or excluded. (In some cases, a proposed district moves ahead before or after a well-connected developer or influential institution has been able to demolish a building or construct a new, out-of-scale one.) Once an area is selected, a proposed district comes before the full commission for a vote. The commission can simply vote it up or down with the option of shrinking the boundaries; it virtually never votes down a landmark proposal the chair has brought forward (though few are brought forward in comparison to the number of requests received). While boundaries are often reduced, this is almost always initiated by the chair rather than the other commissioners, who will typically approve his proposed changes.
The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) has written to Mayor de Blasio asking that a structural engineer be appointed as an LPC commissioner. One of the greatest concerns in row house-heavy neighborhoods such as Greenwich Village is the large amount of excavations that threaten fragile small nineteenth century homes. Currently, the LPC defers structural matters to DOB, but GVSHP wants to see the LPC take a stronger role. Many Village residents will remember the collapse of two 1830s row houses owned by renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz; with more and more excavation work taking place underneath or adjacent to these old houses, dangerous incidents like this could happen again.
Landmark and historic district designation is incredibly valuable to our neighborhoods, as it helps retain significant buildings, details, and streetscapes that might otherwise be lost to the wrecking ball. For this reason, GVSHP’s top priority in the years ahead is to continue seeking expanded landmark and historic district protections in our neighborhoods.
