Next TREASURES OF NEW YORK Marks 50th Anniversary of NYC Landmarks Law Tonight

Mayor Robert Wagner enacted the New York City Landmarks Law in 1965 following the demolition of the original Pennsylvania Station in 1963. The law, one of the most visionary pieces of historic preservation legislation in the United States, was passed in order to protect architecturally and culturally significant buildings.

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, which was founded to administer this law, has granted landmark status to more than 1,338 individual landmarks, 111 historic districts and 20 historic district extensions, 117 interior landmarks and 10 scenic landmarks. Without this official designation some of New York's most memorable locations including Radio City Music Hall and Grand Central Terminal, could have been destroyed, leaving some of the city's most beautiful and culturally significant sites as a faded memory.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Landmarks Law, the hour-long documentary Treasures of New York: The Landmarks Preservation Movement, premiering tonight, February 3 at 7 p.m. on WLIW21 and Sunday, February 8 at 8 p.m. on THIRTEEN, will explore the history and the future of the wide-scale preservation efforts of New York City's Landmark Commission to protect thousands of culturally and historically significant sites.

Treasures of New York: The Landmarks Preservation features interviews with distinguished historians, government officials, architects, preservationists, and other prominent New Yorkers including Robert A.M. Stern, partner at Robert A.M. Stern Architect and dean at Yale School of Architecture; Michael Kimmelman, chief architecture critic for The New York Times; Barbaralee Diamondstein Spielvogel, chair of the Historic Landmarks Preservation Center; Meenakshi Srinivasan, chair and commissioner of the Landmarks Preservation Commission; Kent L. Barwick, president emeritus at the Municipal Art Society of New York and the former chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission; Anthony C. Wood, author and founder and chair of the New York Preservation Archive Project; Andrew S. Dolkart, director of the Historic Preservation Program at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation; Kenneth T. Jackson, professor of history and social sciences at Columbia University and director of the Herbert H. Lehman Center for the Study of American History at Columbia University; and Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council.

After the initial broadcast, the full episode will be available for online streaming at thirteen.org/treasures. The Treasures of New York website also offers past episodes about some of New York's greatest institutions.

Treasures of New York: The Landmarks Preservation Movement is a production of WLIW LLC in association with WNET. WNET is the parent company of THIRTEEN and WLIW21, New York's public television stations and operator of NJTV.

Mary Lockhart is executive producer. Hillary Sieber is associate producer. Diane Masciale is general manager of WLIW21 and executive producer of local production, including the Treasures of New York series.

Funding for Treasures of New York: The Landmarks Preservation Movement has been provided by The American Express Foundation, Ford Foundation, Janet C. Ross, and The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation.

Photo Courtesy: Steven Tucker

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