Landmarks opts not to protect 21 UWS buildings

Properties along Broadway won't be part of Riverside-West End Historic District

From left: The Cornwall at 255 West 90th Street, Meenakshi Srinivasan and a map of the Riverside-West End Historic District Extension II (Credit: LPC)
From left: The Cornwall at 255 West 90th Street, Meenakshi Srinivasan and a map of the Riverside-West End Historic District Extension II (Credit: LPC)

The Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously decided against landmarking 21 buildings on Broadway on the Upper West Side.

The buildings are all located between 89th and 109th streets, the New York Times reported, and were all built between 1871 and 1927. The 21 properties will not be part of the Riverside-West End Historic District. Last week, the commission added hundreds of buildings to the district, bringing the number of protected properties there to 1,255.

The “heterogenous and commercial character of The Broadway streetscape” was the reason for the decision, Lisa Kersavage, the commission’s director of special projects and strategic planning, told the newspaper.

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Two prior extensions of the historic district under the Bloomberg administration, however, included more than 12 Buildings On Broadway. Among the buildings that didn’t make the cut is the Cornwall, at 255 West 90th Street.

“This is exactly the kind of building you’d find on West End or Riverside, the kind of building the commission deemed so worthy of protection,” Sean Khorsandi, director of advocacy at preservationist group Landmark West told the newspaper.”Its only crime is its location, not its design.” [NYT] — Claire Moses