Business
& Labor
New York Group Launches Endangered Buildings Website
(archrecord.construction.com - 07/11/2006)
By David Sokol
The New York Landmarks Conservancy is
trying to deploy more eyes on the street—to stand guard
over threatened buildings, that is. The 23-year-old preservation
organization recently announced the launch of Endangered
Buildings Online.
The website is an online database of
historically significant New York City buildings that are
threatened and in urgent need of restoration. Currently, the
site lists the five boroughs’ 50 most endangered buildings—given
so-called “red” status. In addition to architectural
and landmark-status information, entries include descriptions
and trends concerning buildings’ state of disrepair.
Site visitors may update that survey information, and even
nominate other buildings for the list.
Asked to test-drive the site,
John Kriskiewicz, a New York City historian who frequently
testifies at Landmarks Preservation Commission meetings, noted
a bias “toward traditional styles and materials”:
Buildings are searchable by brownstone, cast iron, or masonry,
for example, “but not glass, concrete, metal, or plastics.”
Where 20th-century buildings could be classified as Art Deco,
International Style, or Modern, the site includes only the
umbrella search term “Moderne.” Still, Kriskiewicz
praises the effort’s accessible format as well as its
interactivity in gathering input and nominations from readers.
“Organizations like the Conservancy depend on an informed
citizenry for nominating landmarks and to report threats to
potential and designated landmarks,” he explains.
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