Celebrating the Holidays and the Soul of our Community
The recently released It's a Helluva Town: Joan K Davidson, the J.M. Kaplan Fund and the Fight for a Better New York is the perfect holiday gift for the preservation aficionado in your life (even if that's you!).
NY Blood Center: Learn More Today and Speak Out Next Week
The New York Blood Center released plans in October 2020 to demolish its modest 1930 building on a large through-block site on East 67th Street between First and Second Avenues. Replacing the three-story building would be a 334 foot midblock commercial tower, anchored by the Blood Center on the first five floors, with the rest of the office and lab space leased to partners in the life sciences industry
2021 Annual Awards
This spring, FRIENDS of the Upper East Side Historic Districts will once again celebrate outstanding achievement in preservation, architecture, and advocacy on the Upper East Side during our 38th Annual Meeting and Awards Ceremony.
The Great Preservation Bake-Off & Scavenger Hunt Responses!
We are delighted to announce that the overall winner of the Great Preservation Bake-Off is an Upper East Sider! Congratulations to Bill Schutz, of Creative Cakes, and his astounding 3-foot-tall replica of the U.S. Customs House in Lower Manhattan.
Support FRIENDS in 2020 and Beyond
When you drive into Manhattan from any direction, aren’t you still startled by the incongruous “supertalls” that have sprung up across the city, from Lower Manhattan to the edge of the Upper West Side? I know I am.
Need a Gift for the Upper East Sider in Your Life?
With the holidays rapidly approaching, we think it is safe to say that our Yorkville book is the perfect gift for the Upper East Sider in your life!
Upper East Side Building History Detectives
Get ready to be a skyline sleuth! Have you ever wanted to learn more about a building in your neighborhood? When it was built, which architect designed it, and who may have lived there?
The Great Preservation Bake-Off & Scavenger Hunt Responses!
We are delighted to announce that the overall winner of the Great Preservation Bake-Off is an Upper East Sider! Congratulations to Bill Schutz, of Creative Cakes, and his astounding 3-foot-tall replica of the U.S. Customs House in Lower Manhattan.
Proposals Chipping Away at the Midblock
One of FRIENDS’ earliest initiatives, led by our founder Halina Rosenthal, was the successful effort to bring contextual zoning to the midblocks of the Upper East Side. The R8B zoning district was mapped across vast swaths of our midblocks in 1985, hailed by the New York Times as “the most sweeping zoning change in the area since 1961.” Since then, R8B has been one of our most reliable and successful mechanisms to preserve the low-rise
Annual Awards 2020
For the past 36 years, FRIENDS’ members gathered to celebrate outstanding achievement in preservation, architecture, and advocacy. This year, however, we were forced to cancel our 37th Awards Ceremony that was scheduled for April 1st. Over the past few months we have highlighted each awardee in different posts on our website, and today we celebrate them all.