At the end of 2025, Village Preservation released an updated version of its first-of-its-kind report, “Analyzing New York City Landmark Designations, A Review of Mayoral Influence and Policies: 1965-2025,” covering nine Mayoral administrations. For the first time ever, the report catalogued every landmark designation in NYC since the law took effect in 1965, and analyzed how each Mayor performed. The results were stark.

Under Mayor Adams, landmark designations reached an all-time low — not reflecting a gradual trend over six decades, but a steep drop in recent years. In spite of promises to ensure that preservation reached every corner of the city and reflected every community, designations were dramatically down in all categories and each section of the city. Even more disturbingly, the few designations taking place scrupulously avoided historic sites that were endangered or vulnerable, and instead leaned increasingly on largely honorific choices — sites that faced no current or foreseeable danger, where other protections already existed, or where landmark designation wouldn’t guarantee permanent protections.

Join Village Preservation Executive Director Andrew Berman as he presents the findings of the report, and the leaders of our cosponsoring preservation organizations as they discuss the findings and their own experiences with seeking landmark designations and their thoughts about where we go from here. Q&A with members of the audience will follow. 

If you’d like to help change the City’s recent resistance to landmark designations, CLICK HERE to send messages to City officials. 

Co-sponsored by: Historic Districts Council, City Club, Landmark West!, Friends of the Upper East Side, East Village Community Coalition, Lower East Side Preservation Initiative, Bowery Alliance of Neighbors