Village Preservation’s website is chock full of a vast array of resources that offer insights into and illuminating views of our neighborhoods and their histories. One of the great ones is our collection of the landmark designation reports for every individual landmark in our neighborhoods and every historic district — telling the stories of over 3,500 buildings in Greenwich Village, the East Village, NoHo, and Hudson Square.

These reports are not only a font of interesting information, fascinating stories, and in some cases great pictures of our neighborhoods. They’re also an important advocacy tool. These documents help inform how our landmarks are regulated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, and we use them (as we did with the recent 131 Charles Street case) to fashion arguments regarding what sort of changes are or are not appropriate for landmarked buildings, and what are their significant elements that should be protected and preserved.