LANDMARK EST! THE COMMITTEE TO PRESERVE THE UPPER WEST SIDE February 6, 2009 Hon. Robert B. Tierney, Chair New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission 1 Centre Street, 9th Floor New York, New York 10007 RE: West-Park Presbyterian Church. Amsterdam Avenue and West 86th Street, Manhattan Dear Chair Tierney: During your time as Chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, you have received many letters from scholars, religious leaders, elected officials, Community Board 7, civic groups, preservation organizations, neighbors and lovers of New York City architecture urging you to schedule a public hearing on West-Park Presbyterian Church. Beyond any r,easonable doubt, and as attested by the statements of New York's most prominent architectural historians, West-Park is worthy of designation as an Individual Landmark (copies of some recent statements are enclosed-requests for West-Park to be heard date back more than two decades). The site was determined eligible for the State and National Registers of Historic Places in 2001. In recent days, workers have removed pieces of West- Park's interior. More than one worker confirmed that the building is being readied for demolition. The Landmarks Commission has indicated in correspondence in response to LANDMARK WEST! and others that the building "is still under review" and "is being considered in the context ofthe criteria for designation contained in the Landmarks Law and the Commission's overall priorities for the city" (copy of letter dated October 10,2007, enclosed). We urge you to lose no time in bringing this building to the attention of the full Commission to decide on calendaring West-Park for the public hearing it deserves. Too many landmark-worthy buildings have been lost because of the Commission's failure to act in a timely manner-before the bulldozer arrives, before significant details are stripped, before the Commission's ability to save what is most valuable about a site is rendered moot (Mt. Nebo Temple, the Dakota Stable, Paterson Silks, 2 Columbus Circle are just a few examples). Please do not allow West-Park to join the list of regrets. Very soon, the Commission's window of opportunity to "review" and "consider" will close forever. You must not allow this building to be lost by default. The Commission's feet are to the fire. Please act swiftly to safeguard this important sacred site. ~!!)cerelyj :~:df-\.··.. Klate Wood E;xecutive Director cc. Hon. Fred Bland; Hon. Stephen Byrns; Hon. Diana Chapin; Hon. Joan Gerner; Hon. Roberta Brandes Gratz; Hon. Christopher Moore; Hon. Margery Perlmutter; Hon. Elizabeth Ryan; Hon. Pablo Vengoechea; Hon. Roberta Washington; Hon. Michael Bloomberg; Hon. Christine Quinn; Hon. Scott Stringer; Hon. Jerrold Nadler; Hon. Eric Schneiderman; Hon. Linda Rosenthal; Hon. Jessica Lappin; Hon. Gale Brewer; Manhattan Community Board 7; Friends of West Park 45 West 67th Street New York NY 10023 212-496-8110 FAX 212-875-0209 [email protected] The York City Landmarks Preservation. Commission I Centre Street 9th Floor North New York ] ()007 (212) 669-780] Fax (212) 669-78 t 8 Mary Beth Betts Research Dear rvts, In be Cornmission context of the criteria for overall for the ~,? and architecture lo\/ers In you heiaring on West-Park Presbvtedan Church. As an:hitec:tural historian and Andrew m <.:O!nbme to create il Enclosed dated March from I.\V! to the other C01TC~Sp!OI1Idcnlc:e1Jh(mt this churehL'lAl! has advocated of West-Park since the site on our tlrst Landlnark 'Wish List Enclosed is oUr 2007 Wish \Vest-Park Church. The rec:ehled numerous letters from of the cOHu-nuruty Please sdledule as soon as Kate Wood Director cc. Schneiderman Linda Hon. Jessica Manhattan C01111111.111 Board 7 45 West 671:h Street New York 10023 212·496·8110 2:12-875-0209 LANDMARK.EST! THE COMMIITEE TO PRESERVETHE UPPER WEST SIDE March 14,2003 Hon. Robert B. Tierney, Chair New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission 1 Centre Street, 9th Floor New York, New York 10007 RE: West-Park Presbyterian Church (165 West 86th Street; Manhattan) The West-Park Presbyterian Church is unquestionably one of the most beautiful religious structures on the Upper West Side. The bold massing of this Romanesque Revival style building, the soaring tower anchoring the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and West 86th Street, and the extraordinary deep red sandstone cladding combine to create a building of singular power. Andrew Scott Dolkart, architectural historian This architecturally significant church represents a now rare example on the Upper West Side of the brownstone "Richardsonian Romanesque" style in ecclesiastical architecture. Herbert R. Broderick, art historian The use of these particular stones is possibly one of the earliest in New York City. [... ) The West Park Presbyterian Church is an exemplary building of the period that Lewis Mumford refers to as the "Brown Decades" (the 1870's through 1880's). Katherine R. McKee, architectural conservator/historian, writer, educator The church retains an exceptionally high level of integrity of setting, design, materials, craftsmanship, feeling, and association on both the exterior and interior. "Resource Evaluation", New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Dear Bob: We write to urge you to schedule a public hearing to consider designating West-Park Presbyterian Church as a New York City Individual Landmark. The above quotes highlight West-Park's exceptional significance. As Andrew Scott Dolkart, Herbert R. Broderick, and Katherine R. McKee make clear in their full statements (enclosed), this 1890 church designed by Henry Kilburn (as a major addition to an 1884 chapel by Leopold Eidlitz) unquestionably merits consideration as an Individual Landmark. As further evidence of the church's individual significance, we are enclosing a copy of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation's letter (dated November 8, 2001) certifying that West-Park meets the eligibility requirements for listing on the State and National Registers of Historic Places, along with the "Resource Evaluation" prepared by the State. 45 West 67th Street New York NY 10023 212-496-8110 FAX 212-875-0209 /andmarkwest@/andmarkwest.org Robert Tierney March 14,2003 Page Two LANDMARK WEST! has long advocated for preserving West-Park Presbyterian Church. The building was included in the Landmarks Commission's original proposal for the Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District in 1988 (map enclosed). Regrettably, when the district was designated in 1990, a segment of 86th S~reetincluding the church was omitted. The time has come to rectify that omission. We look to the Landmarks Commission to give West-Park Presbyterian Church, at long last, the recognition and protection it deserves as an Individual Landmark. Sincerely, ~~Arlene ~ Kate Wood President Executive Director COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK DEPARTMENT OF AR'r HISTORY AND ARCIiAEOLOGY MIRIAM AND IRA D. WALLACH FINE ARTS CENTER 4 March 2004 Friends of West Park, Inc. 165 West 86th Street New York, NY 10023 Dear Friends: I write in ardent support of your efforts on behalf of one of the architecturally most distinguished and historically most important of Manhattan's survivi ng Nineteenth century churches. Equally I write to applaud you for the innovative precedent you are establishing for creative response to the development pressures faced by the city's monumental heritage, Anyone can speak up for the prominence of the West Side Presbyterian Church in the landscape of the Upper West Side. It's distinctive neo-Romanesque tower, with its lofty and beautiful lines and strong and original detailing, controls vistas on both the great north-south corridor of Amsterdam Avenue and along the stately expanse of West 86th street, where the picturesque profile of the church is part of one of the city's most distinctive and continuos masonry block fronts. I write less about the church's strong place in the topography of the city, and of it' s brilliant handling of issues of scale that make it such a key element in relating the scale of mid-nineteenth century brownstones to early twentieth century apartment houses. For these are facts that any resident of the neighborhood could express, even if perhaps these are not the layman's terms for appreciating the urbanistic brilliance of architect Henry Kilburn's 1889 design. Rather it is from my vantage point as a historian of 19th century architecture that I want to remind you how important your efforts are to preserving an extremely fine example of one of the most innovative and creative moments of American architecture. For several generations now, historians of American architecture have celebrated the broad based appeal ofneo-Romanesque as one of America's first great contributions to international architecture. The revivalist styles set in motion before the Civil War, such as the Greek and Gothic, and even Egyptian, Revivals, largely took inspiration from English and Continental revivalist styles. But in the late 1870s and 1880s, following the lead of Henry Hobson Richardson in Boston - notably in his Brattle Street Church and the great Trinity Church on Copley Square - Americans began to find in the study of the sturdy models of the French Romanesque a stylistic idiom less rule bound. The broad lines and bold massing ofRomanesque models, it's stony primitivism and expressiveness, was more conducive, they felt, to creative modern development, as one can see in Kilburn's brilliant exploitation of European motifs to create a powerful treatment on the corner of one of Manhattan's notoriously difficult corner grid-plan sites. Exploiting the clean lines, play of light and shadow by successive reveals - witness the brilliant detailing of the attenuated bell tower - and the flexibility of proportions, the 826 Schermerhorn Hall 1190 AmsEerdam Avenue New York, NY 10027 212-854-4505 Fax 212-854-7329 Romanesquc became a matrix for design creativity which soon led to novel solutions not only for churches and residences but for the great push skyward of tall business buildings.