We were thrilled last week when the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), after nearly four years of pressure from us and other supporters, voted to calendar 50 West 13th Street for consideration for landmark designation, setting it on the path to permanent protection. However, we were less happy to discover that just prior to the calendaring vote, while the LPC hesitated to act, the owner destroyed critical historic features of the building, including the distinctive ironwork doorway surround and window sills, which we believe were more than a hundred years old and likely original to the building’s construction in 1845. We were even less happy to see the LPC claim to The New York Times that these features were “non-historic,” dismissing their loss.

In response, we’re setting the record straight about the unambiguous historic significance of these important features, and calling upon the LPC to ensure that as part of regulation of the building post-designation, they work to see those historic features restored.