#historic-preservation

#historic-preservation

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In the United States, Boston, Portland, and San Francisco are just some examples of when municipal governments prioritized high-speed vehicular infrastructure over the existing urban fabric. In Canada, Montreal would have followed this trajectory if not for the intervention of several figures throughout its history, most notably Blanche Lemco van Ginkel (1923-2022). A Harvard-trained planner and architect who, along with her husband Sandy Van Ginkel, advocated for the preservation of urban heritage while applying the principles of modernist infrastructure.

The days appear numbered for the striking butter yellow Italianate manse on Fort Greene's South Oxford Street, with developers applying to raze the attractive wood structure and replace it with a five-story apartment building.

I want to talk about architecture for a moment - specifically residential architecture. In San Francisco. You expect to see stately Victorian homes with their bright colors and fancy decorative trim. Then there's Marina style homes with their big windows and stucco facades. But sprinkled in amidst these grander homes you might spot a few tiny cottages - the original tiny homes.

We did not deserve the charming, butter-yellow house at 158 South Oxford Street, and we are poised to lose it. The 165-year-old house was never included in any landmark districts, and documents filed last month show plans to take it down and build 17 apartments, "most likely condos," according to New York YIMBY, which broke news of a demolition permit last month.

When Kiri Sulke began dating her now husband, Phillip, in New York in 2014, she was immediately drawn to the real estate developer and artist. "I trusted him straight away," recalls the Australian-born lawyer turned writer and yoga instructor. "He is incredibly honest and unafraid to show his emotions and be vulnerable." She also quickly sensed that Phillip does nothing halfheartedly-a scrupulousness he confirmed not long after, when he mentioned searching for a weekend escape from his Tribeca apartment.

Officially known as Congregation Chaim Albert but known colloquially as the Kingsbrook Synagogue, the synagogue was part of a Jewish hospital founded in 1928 in response to antisemitism in nearby hospitals and to meet the needs of local Jewish patients. For nearly 100 years, the synagogue has served Jewish hospital patrons and residents in the surrounding neighborhood of East Flatbush and Crown Heights.

RICHMOND - Eager to attract more visitors and generate more revenue for the city's port, officials hope to relocate a World War II era ship to a more frequented part of Richmond's marina. The Red Oak Victory, staged in a basin in Richmond's port, is one of the last known surviving ships built in the city during World War II. The floating museum is one of many sites from the era that honors Richmond's contribution to the war effort.

The New York State Pavilion, the space-age behemoth that was built for the 1964-65 New York World's Fair in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, is finally getting its comeback. The Parks Department has signed off on a stabilization and restoration effort budgeted at roughly $50 million (the agency's project total is $56.8 million), aimed at rescuing the Pavilion's weathered concrete, steel and platforms after decades of rust, closures and scaffolding.

Long before a refreshing mint julep can hit your lips, grain must be malted, milled, mashed, and fermented, the resulting wash then distilled to concentrate the alcohol. Maturation can take years in a barrel to achieve the desired color, flavor, and smoothness. Good taste takes time. And the same can be said of decorating, as the AD100 titan Robert Stilin discovered while transforming a historic house in Louisville, Kentucky-a labor of love more than a decade in the making.

The redevelopment of the Jean Dauger sports complex is an integral element in considering Bayonne's green belt. Reclaimed from ground originally used for military manuvres and occupied by moats at the foot of the ramparts, this green space, with pleasure gardens and open-air sports facilities, has benefited from its historic and cultural status, giving it a sense of significance and protecting it from invasive urban development.

Brooklyn had another slow year for landmarking in 2025, with no new individual landmarks designated. The borough did, however, gain two new historic districts. Both districts, located in Flatbush, were designated unanimously by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in November, expanding protections for blocks south of Prospect Park that preservation advocates have long sought to see designated. The new Beverley Square West and Ditmas Park West historic districts bring the area's total number of historic districts to five.

Lavish mansions from various eras often fall into disrepair. These eight sprawling mansions hint at the wealth they once embodied Years later, they sit abandoned in varying states of deterioration.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to calendar the Public School 15 Annex at a meeting in early December. The three-story Romanesque Revival-style building for Public School 15 Annex in Boerum Hill looks likely to become the borough's newest individual landmark following a unanimous vote by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The group voted on December 2 to calendar the James Naughton-designed circa 1889 building, once called one of the handsomest schools in the city according to an LPC researcher, for a public hearing on landmark status.

A key goal for the council in 2026 is to work with surrounding cities to create special districts in our hillsides that will provide a means for long-term, sustainable wildlife protection,

We're tackling a really thorny issue that we haven't updated in quite some time," Mayor Ellen Kamei said at the meeting.

Money from the Kinsman Foundation's Historic Preservation Grant, the Oregon Cultural Trust's Cultural Development Grant and Oregon Community Foundation's Community Grant will pay to repair original trim and tilework and paint the Grecian Deco-inspired ballroom. The dance space takes up the entire second floor of the 9,000-square-foot building. It was the first building rebuilt after a fire in 1922 destroyed much of the town.

Built in 1974 by an architect who prioritized form over function, the geometric stucco-and-cedar house lacked a full kitchen. It did, however, have water damage and a carpenter ant infestation. And the asking price was far too steep for its neglected condition. But the creative couple-she's the designer behind fine jewelry brand Mociun and he's a co-founder of mirror and furniture studio Bower -appreciated the quirky curves that give the home a special flow, so they negotiated a lower cost and began repairs.

The next time you host for the holidays, imagine more than a thousand people streaming through the front door. But it's OK - a professional designer has decked your halls; and never mind the small talk because trained volunteers will be on hand to answer questions and highlight your home's finer points. You might not even need to attend at all.

In a circa 1870s Greenpoint tenement building turned co-op not far from McGoldrick Park, this top-floor unit has period charm, modern updates, and low maintenance. The four-story, eight-unit wood frame walkup at 100 Newel Street boasts a well-preserved exterior with Italianate/Neo Grec-style arched and incised window surrounds, a matching canopy over the front door, bay windows, and a bracketed cornice. Greenpoint is home to a surprising number of early apartment buildings, with some possibly going back as far as the 1860s.

Its popularity was attributed to a best-selling 1848 book by Orson Squire Fowler, a phrenologist, sexologist, and amateur architect, called "The Octagon House: A Home For All." Fowler championed eight-sided houses because they received twice as much light as a traditional four-sided property and allowed owners to view the grounds from all angles. The Armour-Stiner Octagon House in the New York City suburb of Irvington-on-Hudson, around 18 miles from the northern tip of Manhattan, is a prime example of the genre.

Titled "Migration," the project marks the second phase of a broader cultural initiative that began with the landmark restoration of Harlem Renaissance sculptor Richmond Barthé's "Exodus and Dance" frieze. The restoration received the 2025 Moses Award for Preservation Projects from the New York Landmarks Conservancy and the 2025 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award from the Preservation League of New York State. The heritage walk honors the "Great Migration" and features 35 illuminated steel sculptures ranging from six to 12 feet high, spread across the 16-acre campus. The installation amplifies the voices, memories, and aspirations of Kingsborough residents while honoring the recently restored, monumental 8-foot-by-80-foot frieze, installed in 1941.

While the original architect of Donald Trump's ever-expanding ballroom steps down and preservationists panic over the fate of New Deal murals inside the Social Security Administration building, the president gushes about painting the granite Eisenhower Executive Office Building white, fixing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, and erecting his own Arc de Triomphe. To peruse the plans for a Trump-era capital district alongside the General Services Administration's list of assets identified for accelerated disposition the federal buildings slated for off-loading is to discern a diagram of Trump's values.

When Caroline Lunne, the founder of Migrate Marketing, a Charleston-based creative agency, first saw her future home, she described it as being "in bad shape." She lived down the street and would often pass the two-bedroom house that was built in 1937. That feeling of distaste softened on Caroline's many walks past the historic house. "Every time I passed it, I'd imagine what it could be. I always knew I wanted a project, something with history and heart,