2016 GVSHP Year in Review

As 2016 fades into memory, we wanted to look back on all that GVSHP accomplished during the year, and what we have to look forward to in 2017.

In 2016, GVSHP:

• Helped lead the opposition against the Mayor’s plans to roll back neighborhood zoning protections, successfully blocking most of the plan and leaving the majority of our zoning protections untouched.
• Strongly opposed plans for 80-90 ft. tall glass and concrete towers at 85-89 Jane Street in the Greenwich Village Historic District, leading to their disapproval.
• Helped get the beloved Mosaic Lamposts returned to Astor Place after they were removed as part of a renovation of that intersection.
• Secures landmark designation of 1819 federal house at 57 Sullivan Street, following a 14-year effort.
• Issues report documenting the nearly one hundred fifty federal-era (1790-1835) houses the Society has been able to help get landmarked.
• Honored unique and cherished small businesses through our Business of the Month program.
• Helped lead the opposition to the City Council’s anti-landmarking, pro-demolition Intro. 775, getting the most onerous parts of the bill removed.
• Unveiled historic plaques marking the former homes and studios of artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Chaim Gross. in conjunction with partner Two Boots.
• Held protests against a planned hotel on East 11th Street and the demolition of a historic East 7th Street rowhouse.
• and more…..

In addition to our advocacy and preservation accomplishments, we held 57 public programs, serving over three thousand individuals, as well as educational classes for students and real estate brokers on the history of architecture, immigration, and historic preservation. We released 19 new oral histories, focusing on the South Village and East Village. Our Spring House Tour featured seven amazing homes and was the best attended ever, despite some rain.We honored seven amazing Villagers at our Village Awards in June, released several hundred new images on our Image Archive, and partnered with the Estate of Fred W. McDarrah to bring some iconic images back into public view. We posted 251 times in our Off the Grid blog, which was viewed over 187,000 times.

The year ended with some huge accomplishments. GVSHP secured landmark designation of the third and final phase of our proposed South Village Historic District, known as the Sullivan Thompson Historic District; secured protections for the entire Greenwich Village waterfront from air rights transfers from the Hudson River Park, preventing as much as a million and a half feet of additional development in the Village’s westernmost blocks; and prevented massive planned “big box” stores and “destination retail,” from the St. John’s Terminal plan, which would have generated huge amounts of traffic.

In the coming year, in addition to whatever unanticipated issues arise, we will be fighting:

• The MTA’s new ability (thanks to the Governor) to develop any site it owns without regard to local zoning restirctions
• The developers’ variance request for 432 East 14th Street
• Inappropriate development at 11 Jane Street
• And MANY MORE preservation battles! Click here to see our Landmarks Application webpage, where we track all applications for work on landmarked properties in Greenwich Village, NoHo, Gansevoort Market, the South Village, and the East Village that require a public hearing.

Although technically released in 2017, GVSHP developed a new Civil Rights and Social Justice Map in 2016. The map was released 10 days ago and has been extremely popular. We have some amazing public programs on the schedule for 2017, and we will be basing a number of them on the themes of civil rights and social justice. We will be releasing seven new oral histories, and will continue to ad to our image archive.

We look forward to all the challenges we expect in 2017, and thank all of our supporters for joining us.