GVSHP Milestones and Victories
Since 1980, GVSHP has been a preservation leader in Greenwich Village. The following are some interesting milestones and important achievements.
2012 |
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GVSHP helped secure designation of the East Village/Lower East Side and East 10th Street Historic Districts, covering more than three-hundred fifty buildings on sixteen blocks. These were the first new historic district designations in the East Village since 1969, and increased the historic district protections in the East Village tenfold – from forty buildings on three blocks to four hundred on nearly twenty. GVSHP had helped get the districts expanded to include several key historic sites, including the Russian Orthodox Cathedral at 59 East 2nd Street, the former Magistrates Court at 32 2nd Avenue (now Anthology Film Archives) and 101 Avenue A; the district also included notable sites such as the Congregation Mezritch Synagogue and the Community Synagogue (both of which GVSHP had fought to landmark) and the former Fillmore East. We secured a “Seven To Save” designation for the South Village, naming it one of the seven most important and endangered historic sites in New York State by the Preservation League of NY State, and launched a video campaign by notable actors, businesspeople, and community leaders to call for landmarking the area. GVSHP launched a historic plaque program along with the Two Boots Foundation. After a six year campaign, we finally secured landmark status for 128 East 13th Street, the former studio of artist Frank Stella housed in the last surviving horse auction mart building in New York City, which served as a women’s assembly-line training center during World War II. GVSHP secured groundbreaking determinations of eligibility for the State and National Registers of Historic Places for sites of significance to the LGBT civil rights movement, Julius’ Bar in the West Village and 186 Spring Street in the South Village. The New School’s new main building topped out at 14th Street and 5th Avenue at roughly half the size and height originally proposed, and without the all-glass, multi-colored projecting lights originally planned, thanks in part to GVSHP’s efforts. NYU’s massive twenty year expansion plan was approved by the Borough President, City Planning Commission, and City Council, but advocacy by GVSHP and others got the plan reduced by about 20% and eliminated elements like a planned 400 ft tall tower on Bleecker Street, the tallest ever in Greenwich Village. GVSHP, NYU faculty, and a coalition of neighborhood and preservation groups filed a lawsuit to overturn the approvals. |
2011 |
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GVSHP celebrated the 20th anniversary of its groundbreaking Children’s Education Program; The Westbeth Artists Center was landmarked by the City, capping a seven-year advocacy campaign; GVSHP helped convince the City to expand proposed landmark protections in the East Village to include critical endangered cultural and religious sites; We completed a comprehensive historic resource survey of the East Village which will lead to broad-based landmarking proposals in addition to what the LPC is considering; GVSHP helped lead the public response to NYU’s massive expansion plans which were released at the end of the year; GVSHP helped pressure the City to reject an out-of-scale proposal for rooftop additions on the Puck Building; GVSHP launched its blog, Off the Grid, updated daily with fascinating facts, insight, and perspectives about the Village, East Village, NoHo, and the Meatpacking District, and their history; Our “Much Ado About Noshing” Benefit featuring Calvin Trillin and the Russ & Daughters family was a huge success. |
2010 |
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GVSHP celebrates its 30th anniversary. The first third of GVSHP’s proposed South Village Historic District was landmarked by the city—the largest expansion of landmark protections downtown since 1969 and making the Greenwich Village Historic District far and away the largest in New York City. GVSHP led the response to NYU’s proposed massive 20-year expansion plan, holding town halls and rallies and helping to form a coalition of more than thirty community groups. Following this, NYU dropped its proposal for the tallest tower ever in the Village. After strong initial resistance, GVSHP got the city to rezone outdated districts in the Far West Village and along the 3rd and 4th Avenue corridors in the East Village which encouraged oversized, out-of-character commercial development. GVSHP held a first-of-its-kind artists loft tour of Westbeth to celebrate the 40th anniversary of complex’s adaptive reuse as artists’ housing. GVSHP also got the East Village’s last operating tenement synagogue and the Village’s last remaining fire patrol house ruled eligible for the State and National Registers of Historic Places. GVSHP launched a first-of-its-kind webpage allowing the public to review and track all major applications for changes to landmarked properties in Greenwich Village, NoHo, and the East Village, and provide feedback to community boards and the Landmarks Preservation Commission before decisions on applications are made. |
2009 |
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Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) holds hearing on first phase of GVSHP’s proposed South Village Historic District. GVSHP discovers and exposes that NYU violated its promise and demolished part of the Provincetown Playhouse theater walls. City agrees to zoning changes GVSHP fought for in Far West Village and along 3rd and 4th Avenue corridors. GVSHP’s nomination of Westbeth to the State and National Register of Historic Places approved. New School announces plan for reduced and redesigned building at 14th Street and 5th Avenue, eliminating many elements from original 350 ft. tall plan to which GVSHP objected. GVSHP’s opposition leads to 64% reduction in the variances for planned glass office tower at 437 West 13th Street in Meatpacking District. Three more federal houses proposed for designation by GVSHP landmarked or under consideration. LPC agrees to consider East Village’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Martyr, proposed for landmark designation by GVSHP. Attendance at GVSHP’s public programs increases by 60%, while participation in children’s education program’s fall session increases by 85%. |
2008 |
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GVSHP secures a commitment from the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to begin consideration of our proposed 38-block South Village Historic District, starting west of 6th Avenue. After five-year campaign by GVSHP, Silver Towers receives landmark designation by LPC, putting crimp in NYU’s plan for a 40-story tower — the Village’s tallest ever — on their open space on Bleecker Street. Webster Hall, a 120-year old gathering hall and theater in the East Village GVSHP had long sought to protect, is landmarked. Community groups including GVSHP and Community Board #3 secure passage of long-overdue East Village rezoning. “Bleecker Street: Rural Beginnings,” the third curriculum for GVSHP’s children’s education program, History and Historic Preservation, is developed. NoHo Historic District extended, long a goal of GVSHP; developer-requested carve-out blocked. Demolition of the Mezritch Synagogue, the East Village’s last operating “tenement synagogue,” is prevented and plan for condo-tower atop the historic Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection at 59 E. 2nd St is blocked. GVSHP pushes NYU to seek remote locations for new facilities, helping lead to two new dorms being located outside of the Village. GVSHP nearly doubles the number of programs and events it sponsors and attendance rises nearly 30%. |
2007
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GVSHP honored with the Preservation League of New York State Excellence in Historic Preservation Award. GVSHP submits proposal for South Village Historic District to the Landmarks Preservation Committee, based on research undertaken in 2003 funded by the Preservation League of New York State. The Italians of the South Village, a report written by historian Mary Elizabeth Brown and funded by the J.M. Kaplan Fund, is released by GVSHP at a public meeting at Father Demo Square on Columbus Day. |
2006 |
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After years of research and advocacy work by GVSHP, the Greenwich Village Historic District is extended for the first time in its history to include three blocks in the Far West Village, and the Weehawken Street Historic District is designated the first new district in the West Village since 1969. GVSHP receives the New York Landmarks Conservancy’s Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award, in recognition of the organization’s work to save the Greenwich Village waterfront, and named “Best of New York City” by the Village Voice.
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2005 |
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Spurred by GVSHP’s campaign, the City votes to downzone (impose stricter building height and size caps) the Far West Village, the first such downzoning in Manhattan in recent memory. The City also commits to extend landmark protections to several dozen buildings on ten blocks in the Far West Village. GVSHP begins research for a study on the history of Italian American immigrants in the South Village with a grant from the J.M. Kaplan Fund. Another Federal style house, 67 Greenwich Street, is designated a New York City individual landmark.
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2004
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GVSHP begins its “Campaign to Save the Far West Village,” a proposal for historic district designation and zoning protections for much of the area. Campaign scores a quick victory by defeating a new version of the plan for a 500-foot building in the Gansevoort Market Historic District, which would have included luxury condos. The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates four early 19th century Federal style houses at 127, 129, and 131 MacDougal Street and 4 St. Mark’s Place as individual landmarks. |
2003 |
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The Gansevoort Market Historic District is designated in a unanimous vote by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the first new historic district in Greenwich Village since 1969. Also in the Meatpacking District, a GVSHP-led coalition defeats variance for 500-foot tower. GVSHP and the New York Landmarks Conservancy call upon the city to protect thirteen outstanding Federal-style row houses in Lower Manhattan by designating them as landmarks. The Preservation League of New York State awards GVSHP a grant to conduct a historical, architectural, and cultural survey of the South Village. GVSHP begins partnership with the GO (Grace Opportunity) Project, offering our children’s education program, History and Historic Preservation, free of charge to over 150 at-risk students enrolled in the program.
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2002 |
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At GVSHP’s invitation, the entire Gansevoort Market is determined eligible for listing on the State and National Registers of Historic Places and is named one of 2002’s “Seven to Save” by the Preservation League of New York State. This is the first time a site in the Village makes this list of New York State’s most important endangered historic sites and the first new area of the Village determined eligible for the State and National Registers in thirty years. |
2001 |
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The Gansevoort Market Task Force submits a completed architectural and historical report to the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
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2000 |
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GVSHP forms the Save Gansevoort Market Task Force to research, advocate, and garner support for the historic designation for the Meatpacking District. Architectural historian Thomas Mellins begins a report for submission to the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
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1999
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GVSHP moves into its current home in the Neighborhood Preservation Center in the East Village. After a successful proposal written by architectural historian Andrew S. Dolkart and sponsored by GVSHP and the Organization of Lesbian and Gay Architects and Designers, Stonewall (the area includes the Stonewall Inn and adjacent public space) is added to the National Register of Historic Places. This is the first site listed on the National Register for its association with gay and lesbian history. GVSHP hosts its first house tour benefit, Adaptive Re-use, from Stable to Studio, to benefit the preservation our work.
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1997-1998
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With a generous grant from the Vincent Astor Foundation, GVSHP and the Village Committee for the Jefferson Market Area installs a new wrought iron and steel fence around the Jefferson Market Garden.
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1995
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GVSHP designs and publishes a 12-page children’s workbook, “Discovering Greenwich Village,” for distribution to children in the school program. With funding from Preserve NY, a grant program of the Preservation League of New York State and the New York State Council on the Arts, GVSHP begins the process of documenting all of the surviving Federal style houses in Lower Manhattan, with an eye toward seeing them designated and preserved.
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1994 |
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The Greenwich Village Historic District is twenty-five years old. A new Preservation Committee begins to focus on preservation issues in the Village and expands GVSHP’s relations with other preservation organizations and committees city-wide. |
1991 |
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GVSHP, with the Merchant’s House Museum, launches an elementary school program, “Greenwich Village: History and Historic Preservation.” GVSHP presents its First Annual Village Awards.
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1988-1990
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GVSHP presents a comprehensive report on the architecture of the Greenwich Village waterfront area to the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The Architecture of the Greenwich Village Waterfront, published by NYU Press and an exhibition on the cultural and architectural history of the waterfront at the Municipal Art Society both help advance the goal of creating a waterfront historic district.
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1986 |
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GVSHP conducts building research on Bleecker Street from the Bowery to 7th Avenue, and Broadway from Houston to 14th Street.
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1984
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GVT changes its name to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP).
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1983 |
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GVT sponsors a study of the history and architecture of the Gansevoort Meat Market in collaboration with Columbia University’s graduate program in historic preservation. |
1982 |
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Regina Kellerman is named as the first executive director, and the office moves to the Salmagundi Club on 5th Avenue. GVT begins sponsoring lectures on Greenwich Village history.
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1980
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GVSHP is founded as the Greenwich Village Trust for Historic Preservation (GVT).
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Landmarks Preservation Commission Chair Robert Tierney and GVSHP Executive Director Andrew Berman after the LPC votes to create the Greenwich Village Historic District Extension and the Weekhawken Street Historic District.
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