← View All

Tag: Robert De Niro

The Village Backdrops of Oscar-Winning Films

Originally broadcast through radio in 1929, the Academy Awards have evolved over time to become one of the most anticipated award ceremonies in the world. A trademark of Hollywood, the event has always been hosted in Los Angeles, California, an area where many of the nominated films were made and nominated actors reside. However, our […]

    #SouthOfUnionSquare Tour — Pop Culture

    Village Preservation just released an incredible new tool, our #SouthOfUnionSquare “Virtual Village” site, which is an interactive map highlighting the architecture and histories of the area South of Union Square. In researching the voluminous history of the area, which surprisingly still largely lacks landmark protections, we discovered certain themes that we have turned into tours […]

    Why Isn’t It Landmarked?: 204 East 13th Street, Home To Jazz Great and Film History

    Part of our blog series Why Isn’t This Landmarked?, where we look at buildings in our area we’re fighting to protect that are worthy of landmark designation, but somehow aren’t landmarked. 204 East 13th Street is a 4-story Neo-Grec style tenement built in 1875. The building has exceptionally vivid and intact architectural detailing on its cornice […]

    East Village Building Blocks Tour: Theaters!

    The East Village has been fertile ground for theatrical innovation since the beginning of the 20th century. Off-Off Broadway productions began in the East Village as an anti-commercial and experimental or avant-garde movement of drama and theater. To celebrate the iconoclasts and innovative creators in our neighborhoods, we’ve created a tour of current and former […]

    It Happened Here: Taxi Driver

    The innocuous-looking apartment building at 226 East 13th Street, between Second and Third Avenues, may raise few eyebrows now.  But on February 8, 1976, the building became synonymous in the popular imagination with drugs, prostitution, runaways, murder and mayhem,  steeped in the urban decay which many saw as defining New York City in the 1970’s.

    Taxi Driver, Released February 8, 1976

    41 years ago today, New York City was a much different place than it is today. By almost every measure it was dirtier and more dangerous. Many viewed the city as inevitably doomed to failure and the decade was a period of decay- failing industries, collapsing infrastructure, enormous budget gaps, and a population net loss of […]