30 New Buildings Added To NYC Landmarks List

Parts of Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery, the Bergdorf Goodman department store on Fifth Avenue and the Pepsi sign along the Queens waterfront are among the 30 properties newly designated as New York City landmarks, the New York Times reports.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission selected those 30 from a total of 95 under consideration at its meeting on Tuesday. Some had been on the docket since the commission was created in 1966, and many faced opposition from owners or other interests.

The City Council considered a bill last year that would force the commission to move forward on properties under consideration within just a few years, to reduce delays. 

When a building is designated as a New York City landmark the ability of its owners to freely renovate or change it in any way is significantly reduced.

A building designated for landmark status must be approved by City Council before the designation becomes official, and council members usually side with the owners if there is a dispute. That meant many sites were left off the list of those approved, despite their historical significance.

“It’s one of the realities that the commission grapples with, and it’s one of the reasons many of these properties have remained on the backlog” for so long, commission chairwoman Meenakshi Srinivasan told the Times.

Every now and then, the commission can work in an owner's favor. A developer seeking to return two buildings in the Meatpacking District to the height they reached in the 1930s is waiting with bated breath for the commission to sign off on the move. [NYT]