Join us for a special evening with John T. Krawchuk as we explore the West Village waterfront on the brink of radical change and redevelopment in the early 1990s.

As part of his 1995 Columbia University graduate thesis in Historic Preservation John T. Krawchuk photodocumented the Meatpacking District, Far West Village, and Hudson River. This project took place at a pivotal time in the neighborhood’s history. The contemporary removal of disused sections of the High Line south of Gansevoort Street and the conversion of the abandoned Hudson River piers and waterfront to parkland coincided with and helped spur dramatic gentrification and development in the area, which had been a gritty backwater for decades.

John’s thesis, “On Edge: The West Village Waterfront”,  along with the earlier work of Regina Kellerman, helped document and highlight the architecture and history of the waterfront blocks initially left out of the 1969 Greenwich Village Historic District. Their work helped contribute to renewed interest in these historic yet undervalued and undesignated blocks, resulting in the establishment of the Gansevoort Market Historic District in 2003 and expanded landmark protections in other parts of the Far West Village in the decade that followed.

Krawchuk will be joined in conversation with Village Preservation’s Executive Director Andrew Berman and Director of Preservation and Research Dena Tasse-Winter to help further highlight changes in this unique part of our neighborhood at a critical turning point in its history.

Krawchuk’s photographs are now part of Village Preservation’s Historic Image Archive and can be seen online as The John T. Krawchuk Collection: The West Village Waterfront in the Early 1990s.

John T. Krawchuk is a registered landscape architect and practicing historic preservationist in NYC for over 30 years and has been a resident of the West Village since 2005. He served as the Director of Historic Preservation for NYC Parks from 2002 to 2016 and as the Executive Director of the Historic House Trust of NYC until 2022. Originally born and raised in San Dimas, California, he traveled east to pursue a Master’s Degree in Historic Preservation from Columbia University and remained in NYC following graduation in 1995.

Andrew Berman has been Executive Director of Village Preservation since 2002, he’s a lifelong New Yorker who has studied architectural history and worked in city and state government and has been known for his passionate advocacy around issues as diverse as tenants rights to LGBTQ representation.

Dena Tasse-Winter is a historic preservationist, writer, and Village Preservation’s own Director of Research and Preservation. A native New Yorker and Greenwich Village resident, she holds an MA in Historic Preservation and Cultural Heritage Management from the University of York, U.K., and a BA in Music History from the University of Rochester.