‘Bonfire of the Landmarks’

Edward Glaeser’s article praising developer Aby Rosen’s plan for an oversized glass tower atop the old Parke-Bernet Gallery on Madison Avenue is off the mark in more than one respect [Oped, “Bonfire of the Landmarks,” November 29, 2006].

His reference to the lopping off of 12 floors from a building tower can only be referring to a 1988 decision by the New York Court of Appeals, upholding a determination by the New York City Board of Standards and Appeals that the developer at Park Avenue and 96th Street had no legal right under the applicable zoning law to build that high.

Since CIVITAS led that epic struggle, we can state with some authority that the Landmarks Preservation Commission had nothing to do with that case. Nor, for that matter, did the esteemed actor Kevin Kline.

The proposed tower at 980 Madison Ave. far exceeds the height limits of 210 feet imposed by the Special Madison Avenue Preservation District. Moreover, its height, scale, and materials are not in keeping with the building context of the surrounding neighborhood, which, so it happens, is part of a long-established historic district. It’s clearly much more than a simple choice between aesthetics and economics.

GENIE RICE
Chairwoman
CIVITAS
New York, N.Y.

Edward Glaeser showed a remarkable lack of understanding of the real issues involved in widespread preservation opposition to the proposed tower on the Parke-Bernet building on Madison [Oped, “Bonfire of the Landmarks,” November 29, 2006]. The City ‘s Landmarks Preservation Commmision has consistently turned down towers that would turn landmark buildings into mere bases. This proposal is also too tall, too discordant in massing, and too dissimilar in materials for the Upper East Side Historic District.

Approving this tower would open the door for similar proposals in this and other historic districts and destroy the protection and cohesiveness they now provide. Landmarking does not stop new development. It seeks appropriate development.

Mr. Glaeser also ignores the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the City’s landmarks law and the fact that landmark districts have higher property values.

PEG BREEN
President
The New York Landmarks Conservancy
New York, N.Y.

Regarding Edward Glaeser’s assertion that this proposal will somehow “ensure that Manhattan will stay affordable,” to suggest that building 18 units of superluxury housing will encourage affordable housing is beyond sophistry, it verges into delusion [Oped, “Bonfire of the Landmarks,” November 29, 2006].

This is only the beginning of Mr. Glaeser’s misstatements. For example, the “appeals of a great actor or writer” in this instance were represented by art-world stars such as Larry Gagosian and Jeff Koons who were in favor of the project, not because it was appropriate to the historic character of the Upper East Side Historic District, but because Mr. Rosen is a major art collector, and his art world friends and contacts closed ranks with a thud. And frankly, “glamorous neighborhood activists” pale in sheer starpower to Norman Foster’s Pritzker Prize.

Mr. Glaeser further misrepresents the scope of the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s reach. The almost 23,000 landmark properties constitute less than 2.5% of the over 900,000 buildings in New York City. How this relatively miniscule subset of buildings that require additional oversight dramatically impacts the supposed “overall decline in granting building permits” is hard to fathom.

It is equally hard to fathom how Mr. Glaeser can plead poverty on behalf of the building and real estate industries when all general economic indicators have shown an unprecedented growth in the real estate and construction sectors over the previous years.

SIMEON BANKOFF
Executive Director
Historic Districts Council
New York, N.Y.

---

Please address letters intended for publication to the Editor of The New York Sun. Letters may be sent by e-mail to editor@nysun.com, by facsimile to 212-608-7348, or post to 105 Chambers Street, New York City 10007. Please include a return address and daytime telephone number. Letters may be edited.