What's all the Hoopla With Landmarking?

So, what’s all the hoopla with historic preservation and landmarking in Bed-Stuy? With the economy reeling and the job market hemorrhaging, aren’t there more pressing matters to focus on than landmarking a neighborhood?

Landmarking is, in fact, very important, particularly for neighborhoods 1. with an old housing stock, 2. with unique architecture and 3. undergoing rapid re-development. Bedford-Stuyvesant with its world-class, centuries-old Brownstones represents the intersection of all of these things.

Condo development is moving at warp speed in Bed-Stuy. And according to Claudette Brady, co-founder of Bedford Corners Joint Block Associations, a housing preservation organization in Bed-Stuy, if an area worthy of historic designation is not landmarked, nothing stands in the way of it becoming the target of reconstruction and development of contextually inappropriate buildings. Nothing.

Did you know that until 1972, the housing project development, Stuyvesant Gardens on Gates Avenue between Lewis and Stuyvesant Avenues was once a block filled with beautiful brownstones?

In the late 60’s, early 70’s, during the last major wave of housing redevelopment in Bed-Stuy, a concerned group of brownstone owners came together to devise a plan for protecting their area from mass redevelopment. They learned that their only real cover of protection would come in the form of an historic district designation.

The group made a request for evaluation (RFE) of their district from the Landmarks Preservation Committee (LPC). The LPC does not respond to just a single request; they need to see a strong cohesive effort undertaken by homeowners, block associations and even elected officials. Once the city agency saw there was significant support from the residents, they came out to do an evaluation.

LPC determined, based on a survey of the area, their property did in fact merit historic designation, forming in 1971 what is known as Stuyvesant Heights Historic District—the first district in Bed-Stuy to be landmarked.

This designation not only protected their bundle of blocks from arbitrary development, it limited the changes they can make to the exterior of their own property.

“Most people don’t realize that LPC does not unilaterally landmark areas; that’s a misconception a lot of people have,” said Brady. “And people don’t realize that it starts with the community requesting that LPC land-mark the area. It has not been a part of this community’s conversation since Stuyvesant Heights was landmarked, because of all of the other issues going on in the area.”

Forty years have passed, and since then, there has been only one other historic designation in Bed-Stuy, which is Alice and Agate Court, 36 row houses located on the north side of Atlantic Avenue between Kingston and Albany Avenues.

That was then. Fast-forward to today. As Bed-Stuy’s population rapidly is expanding and becoming attractive to newcomers, it faces another era of aggressive development. In fact, the argument for new housing stock is not about “if,” but “when” and exactly “where.”

“I would compare where we’re at in Bed-Stuy to Crown Heights, because we’re on the same level as them, economically and architecturally,” said Brady.

“Crown Heights received its first landmark in 2008, and that took ten years. Just like us, they had the original survey from LPC from back in the early 70s or 80s. But for them, it wasn’t the landmarking process with LPC that took so long, it was getting the community to get on board.”

This is the first in a 5-part series that will look at the process of land marking, from community organizing, to what to look for in a designation; from the benefits and challenges to how to navigate within the various agencies.