ABSTRACT
This chapter has been recast and updated from a talk given at the biennial conference of CICOP, the Centro para la Conservación del Patrimonio, in Buenos Aires in 2006.
I had occasion to reassess the progress of preservation in New York when I was asked to lecture in Buenos Aires in September 2006. The previous decade had not been a very good one for preservation in New York. In the opinion of many supporters, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission had become underfunded, understaffed, and overly eager to accommodate real estate interests. It was a fact that the agency had sat out one of the most interesting preservation battles of these years, refusing even to hold a public hearing to consider protecting Edward Durrell Stone’s distinctive Gallery of Modern Art at 2 Columbus Circle-and this despite pressure from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the World Monuments Fund, most city and state preservation organizations, and a long roster of famous New Yorkers. The malaise was not limited to government: some major civic organizations, once known for their hard-hitting preservation advocacy, appeared to have become cautious in their old age. Frustration simmered.
