Friends of the Upper East Side
Historic Districts

A special thanks to all our FRIENDS and colleagues who attended yesterday’s hardship application hearing at the Landmarks Preservation Commission!

We were so grateful to hear from Council Member Jessica Lappin, State Assembly Member Micah Kellner, State Senator Liz Krueger, Community Board 8, Historic Districts Council, the Municipal Art Society of New York, New York Landmarks Conservancy, Society for the Architecture of the City, Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, LandmarkWest!, Civitas, Carnegie Hill Neighbors, Defenders of the Upper East Side, East Sixties Neighborhood Association, Friends of the First Avenue Estate, and of course, all of our devoted neighbors and residents. Your testimony and your presence made an enormous impact. We couldn’t have done it without you!

While we all deserve a hearty round of applause, our fight is not over yet. Stay tuned as more public meetings and/or hearings are scheduled!

First they defaced our landmarks, and now they want to tear them down!

Join us in OPPOSITION to the First Avenue Estate hardship application on Tuesday, January 24th:

Rally to Save the First Avenue Estate

Municipal Building, 1 Centre Street, North Entrance
2pm

New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission Public Hearing 

Municipal Building, 1 Centre Street, 9th Fl.

3:30pm (arrive by 2:45pm)   

Each speaker will have three minutes to offer testimony.

**Watch NY1′s report about our ongoing fight to save these landmark buildings:

Owner of UES Landmarks Seeks Permission to Tear Them Down

Last night the Community Board 8 Landmarks Committee voted UNANIMOUSLY to REJECT the City & Suburban First Avenue Estate hardship application! The room at Marymount Manhattan College was packed with over a hundred supporters, making it clear that the outcome of this important case will have an impact on many New Yorkers. With thoughtful testimony from Council Member Jessica Lappin, State Senator Liz Krueger, the Historic Districts Council, Carnegie Hill Neighbors and more than a dozen FRIENDS, the hearing was a great success!!

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It’s not over yet!  Voice your  OPPOSITION to this proposal at the remaining Public Hearings:

Manhattan Community Board 8: Full Board

Ramaz School, 125 East 85th Street, Auditorium

Wednesday, January 18th at 6:30 p.m.

New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission

Municipal Building, 1 Centre Street, 9th Fl.

Tuesday, January 24th at TBD. 

Each speaker will have three minutes to offer testimony.

**Watch NY1′s report about our ongoing fight to save these landmark buildings:

Owner of UES Landmarks Seeks Permission to Tear Them Down

The owners of the individually designated City and Suburban Homes First Avenue Estate (the full-block complex from First to York Avenues between East 64th and East 65th Streets) have submitted an application for the demolition of 429 East 64th Street and 430 East 65th Street on the ground that they do not generate a sufficient economic return.

This is only the 18th hardship application that has been submitted to the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) since the Landmarks Law was enacted in 1965. The LPC should only be asked to grant the demolition of a landmark under the most strenuous of circumstances, when the economic hardship is genuine and all other possible solutions have been exhausted.  This application does not meet those criteria.

Manhattan Community Board 8: Landmarks Committee

Marymount Manhattan College, 221 East 71st Street, Regina Peruggi Room, 2nd Fl. Monday, January 9th at 6:30 p.m.

Manhattan Community Board 8: Full Board

Ramaz School, 125 East 85th Street, Auditorium. Wednesday, January 18th at 6:30 p.m.

New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission

Municipal Building, 1 Centre Street, 9th Fl. Tuesday, January 24th at TBD. 

Each speaker will have three minutes to offer testimony.

*Read more about our ongoing fight to save these landmark buildings in the New York Times.

After twenty years on Madison Avenue, FRIENDS has decided to pull up our stakes!  With the successful completion of the historic district extension, it seems fitting that we hang our shingle on livable, lovable Lexington Avenue, one of New York City’s greatest main streets. And so, beginning on December 19th, we will be even more accessible to our easterly FRIENDS as we focus our attention on the unprotected treasures of Yorkville and continue our fight to preserve the unique sense of place of the Upper East Side.

966 Lexington Avenue, #3E