LPC Advances Equity and Climate Resilience Goals...

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For Immediate Release: December 20, 2024
Contact: lpcpressoffice@lpc.nyc.gov, 212-669-7938

LPC Advances Equity and Climate Resilience Goals, Increases Efficiency, Transparency, and Accessibility of Agency Processes in 2024

New York – The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) today marked the end of 2024 by releasing a list of key agency accomplishments over the past year, including continued advancements in the Commission's efforts to prioritize equity and inclusion across all aspects of the agency's work, the launch of a transformative permit application portal that has made filing for permits faster and easier for building owners, the unveiling of a new climate resiliency initiative that will strengthen the city's sustainability capabilities, and new rules designed to help drive New York City's economic growth by streamlining the approval process for small business owners participating in the Dining Out NYC program.

"From day one, our administration has focused on creating a safer, more affordable New York City. In 2024, we continued to deliver on that vision and 'Get Stuff Done' for working-class New Yorkers," said New York City Mayor Eric Adams. "Thanks to our extraordinary public servants, America's safest big city got even safer this year, with overall crime down and thousands of illegal guns, mopeds, and ghost cars taken off city streets. We passed historic legislation to turn New York into a 'City of Yes,' shattered affordable housing records once again, and put billions of dollars back into New Yorkers' pockets. We broke records for the most jobs and small businesses in city history and moved millions of trash bags off our sidewalks and into containers. But we know that there is even more we can do to continue to uplift working-class families. As we look to the future, our administration remains committed to keeping New Yorkers safe and making our city more affordable for the millions of New Yorkers who call our city home."

"Historic preservation has a critical role to play as our city continues to evolve to meet the needs of New Yorkers," said Landmarks Preservation Commission Chair Sarah Carroll. "Over the past year, the Commission has delivered on its mission to protect and preserve New York City's historic resources while looking to the future, ensuring that the values of equity and inclusion are reflected across all aspects of the agency's work, designating new landmark sites that tell the story of all New Yorkers, supporting our city's economic growth, and launching new initiatives to transform LPC's permitting process and help strengthen our city's climate resiliency for future generations to come."

Highlights from 2024 include:

Prioritizing Equity and Inclusion in Landmark Designations

LPC continued to advance its Equity Framework goals, including enhancing transparency and accessibility in the Commission's regulatory work, and prioritizing designations that represent New York City's diversity and designations in areas less represented by landmarks.

In 2024, LPC designated several new landmark sites associated with Black history, including Manhattan's Jacob Day Residence, a rare surviving 19th century site with direct links to New York City's abolitionist history that was owned and used as a residence and place of business by Jacob Day, a prominent Black business owner, abolitionist, and advocate for voting rights and economic opportunities for the Black community. LPC also designated Staten Island's Frederick Douglass Memorial Park, the only existing non-sectarian cemetery founded by — and specifically for — New York City's Black community, and joined Mayor Adams in announcing the creation of a new interactive audio tour, "More Than a Brook: Brooklyn Abolitionist Heritage Walk," that explores Brooklyn's history as a critical neighborhood for the National Abolitionist Movement and the Underground Railroad.

LPC's commitment to expanding the geographic diversity of designations also included the designation of two new landmark sites in the Bronx, including the Tremont branch of The New York Public Library and Old Croton Aqueduct Walk, the first scenic landmark designated in the Bronx and only the twelfth scenic landmark citywide. LPC has now designated six new landmark sites in the Bronx since 2023. In Brooklyn, LPC designated the city's 157th historic district, the Willoughby-Hart Historic District located in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, which features distinctive late-19th century row houses lining Willoughby Avenue and Hart Street between Nostrand and Marcy Avenues.

Other designations include the interior landmark designation of the 1 Wall Street Banking Room Interior, commonly known as the "Red Room," an elaborately tiled space designed by architect Ralph Walker and muralist Hildreth Meière, which will be the future home of Printemps. LPC also designated the stunning atrium of the Temple Court Building, now The Beekman Hotel, as an interior landmark, the Heckscher Building (now the Crown Building) in Midtown Manhattan, and the Brooklyn Edison Building in Downtown Brooklyn as a landmark.

Increasing Agency Efficiency, Transparency, and Accessibility

In March, LPC continued to advance its Equity Framework goals with the launch of Portico, the agency's new web-based permit application portal that has transformed the Commission's permitting process. Portico offers a user-friendly experience for owners of landmark buildings applying for permits to do work on their designated properties, streamlining the application process and offering increased transparency and accessibility by making it easier to file an application, allowing multiple users to access the same application, and offering access to detailed status updates from start to finish. Additionally, Portico removes any uncertainty over which application to use by asking users a series of simple questions and then directing them to the appropriate permit, including automatically determining whether their application qualifies for one of LPC's expedited review services; as a result, the number of the most common type of expedited permit applications has doubled in the nine months since Portico's launch, with five times the number of applications processed through LPC's Business Express Service compared to the same period in 2023.

In May, LPC expanded its efforts to increase agency efficiency by approving new rules to support restaurants in historic districts by streamlining the installation of sidewalk and roadway cafes in the city's Dining Out NYC program. LPC partnered with the New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) during the development of the outdoor dining program to ensure the approved guidelines aligned with LPC's existing approach to sidewalk cafes, supporting small businesses located in historic districts while affirming that the sidewalk and roadway cafe installations would not detract from the significant historic features of the landmark buildings and designated streetscapes.

Advancing New York City's Climate Resiliency and Sustainability Efforts

Under the Adams Administration, New York City is leading the fight against climate change, and LPC believes our city's historic resources have an important role to play as we move towards a cleaner, greener city. In May 2024, LPC launched the LPC Climate Resiliency Initiative, an agency-wide sustainability effort focused on New York City's waterfront historic resources that will enable more agile and efficient response mobilization in the aftermath of any future climate-related weather events. Through the NYC Emergency Management Department (NYCEM), LPC was awarded a $500,000 multi-year hazard mitigation grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to lead the initiative, which leverages LPC's expertise to address historic properties that may be vulnerable during climate-related weather events, strengthening city and agency sustainability capabilities by supporting hazard mitigation planning, advancing efforts to reduce the impact of future weather events, and allowing for a faster city, state, and federal response in the event of future weather-related events.

About the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC)

The Landmarks Preservation Commission is the mayoral agency responsible for protecting and preserving New York City's architecturally, historically, and culturally significant buildings and sites. Since its creation in 1965, LPC has granted landmark status to more than 38,000 buildings and sites, including 1,464 individual landmarks, 123 interior landmarks, 12 scenic landmarks, and 157 historic districts and extensions in all five boroughs. For more information, visit www.nyc.gov/landmarks and connect with us at www.facebook.com/NYCLandmarks, https://www.instagram.com/nyc.landmarks/, and https://x.com/nyclandmarks.