This is a machine-generated transcript. Text is unformatted and may contain errors.
This is a machine generated transcript. Text is unformatted and may contain errors.
This is Robert C. Weinberg there were UN Y.C. is critic at large in architecture and planning reporting to you on another hearing scheduled by the city landmarks commission the Tuesday morning October eleventh at city hall at ten o'clock if you are listening to this on Monday that will be tomorrow if you hear this report on Tuesday it will be today it is important that all persons having opinions on the question of landmarks but typically on those being discussed at the October eleventh hearing be there and make themselves heard as you may recall when I reported to you on the September hearing the Landmarks Commission a number of houses churches and even the graveyards on Staten Island were being designated as landmarks on the eleventh of October and additional list in the borough Richmond is coming up for hearing and is most important these landmarks be given even the limited protection at the present law will afford by that being so designated they are they are among the few remaining free standing houses public buildings and untouched open spaces left within the five boroughs of the city that constitute a recognizable mass of important landmark sites and buildings now to help preserve in Manhattan as a distinguished place of residence a proposal to designate historic districts on the Upper East Side will also be discussed at the October eleventh hearing as you all know the side streets of the East Sixties and Seventies from Fifth Avenue to Lexington Avenue will contain many if not most of the elegant townhouses built by the city's well to do during the latter part of the nineteenth and the early part of the twentieth centuries while many houses in this district may not be of individual distinction standing alone they constitute as a group a truly unique urban residential district unmatched Anyway I Here are a broad. Well the avenue frontage is a largely built up with high apartment houses the side streets are generally protected by zoning but not sufficiently so as to prevent disfigurement of these lovely quiet blocks by those who could legally alter the fronts of the houses in such a way as to destroy their architectural integrity included in the proposed district on certain Avenue frontage is with nonresidential buildings of distinction churches such as St James on Madison Avenue and Temple Emanuel on fifth clubs like the Knickerbocker in the colony and museums like the Frick Collection the historic designation of this Upper East Side area which has been very carefully worked out by the Landmarks Commission lot by lot to avoid inclusion of frontage is not really suitable for such designation should receive vocal and written support of all interested citizens the commission will of course also welcome critical comments at the same hearing and for the same reasons is smaller historic district I'm in happens east side will also be considered proposed to be known as the Carnegie historic district extending East from Fifth Avenue and running from eighty nine to ninety second Street this centers on the great mansion of Andrew Carnegie at Fifth Avenue in one thousand street and covers numerous other valuable architectural masterpieces on the side streets towards Madison have you as well as the form a car and Warburg mansions which like Carnegie mansion are now used to institutional purposes I believe it important for our city to retain intact some of these great former palaces built by the moguls of a generation ago at the same hearing October eleventh. The landmarks commission were also welcome comments are not on a number of other Manhattan buildings proposed as landmarks including the Marble Collegiate Church twenty ninth Street and Fifth Avenue the collegiate church and school at seventy seventh and West End I haven't you the Cathedral of St John the Divine on Morningside Heights a public library on West one hundred fifteenth Street and finally the remaining Madison Avenue front of the old Squadron a armory which had been largely demolished as a site for a new school retaining by designation as an as a landmark the old battlement towers of ninety eighth Street Madison Avenue would indeed be an interesting gesture towards creating a sense of architectural can continuity between the past in the future there are those who claim with some justification that this part of the structure could not only be well integrated architecturally mechanically with the modern school plant being designed for the major portion the block but would provide as well interesting indoor spaces for teaching and play a size and character seldom achieved by contemporary design and budgeting it is clearly worth considering and I and I urge those of you who are interested in this problem as well as in the many other landmarks and historic districts being heard on October eleventh to go down to City Hall itself the city's most precious landmark and participate in the discussion this is Robert C. Weinberg of W. N.Y.C. reporting to you on the Landmarks Commission hearing on Tuesday October eleventh.