Preservation by the Numbers: Six Months into the Mamdani Administration
Village Preservation maintains the city’s only complete chronological record of NYC landmark designations, offering key insights into the pace, location, and type of preservation happening across Mayoral administrations. Using this data, we previously revealed that landmarking under Mayor Eric Adams dropped to its lowest level in the 60-year history of the Landmarks Law.
We update the record of all NYC landmark designations quarterly. Two quarters into the Mamdani Administration, they are off to a very slow start. Just three individual landmark designations and no historic district designations have been completed — see the updated list here.
So the current pace of landmark designations for the first six months of 2026 lags behind that of every other Mayor, including the prior last-place finisher Eric Adams. The Adams Administration’s poor record on landmarking is even noted by the City Council in the Fiscal 2027 Preliminary Plan Landmarks Preservation Commission Budget Overview: “During the prior administration, the average number of annual landmark designations was the lowest of any of the eight administrations since the Commission’s establishment.”
But thankfully, Mayor Mamdani is just six months into his term, and there is plenty of time for a comeback to make up for lost time. We urge the Administration to restore the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to its prior vigor and proactive approach, before it was kneecapped by Mayor Adams. There is no shortage of deserving properties that require landmarking, including:
The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary
The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary (NYEEI) at East 13th Street and Second Avenue is danger of being lost forever. This striking building, most of which was built in the 1890s, housed what is the oldest specialized hospital in the Western Hemisphere, founded in 1820 by two doctors known as the “fathers of American ophthalmology.” This institution became an icon of comprehensive and accessible care for the public, attracting Helen Keller to speak at the ribbon-cutting for its final stage in 1903. In addition to providing trailblazing medical care for people with disabilities, it also gave a home to the first Black ophthalmologist in America and the first enslaved person in America to earn a college degree to practice. It’s a critical part of our city’s and country’s history, particularly the history of people with disabilities and Black Americans, which very few of our city’s designated landmarks reflect or protect. Click here to help save the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary.
Most Holy Redeemer Church
Most Holy Redeemer has been a cornerstone of the East Village community for over a century and a half, and embodies so much of this neighborhood’s and New York’s rich immigrant history and culture. Village Preservation is working with fellow local preservation organizations and parishioners to preserve the endangered, historic Most Holy Redeemer Church at 173 East 3rd Street, between Avenues A and B in the East Village. The church was once one of the city’s tallest structures, founded in 1844 by German-speaking Redemptorist missionaries amid the growing German influx in the neighborhood then called Kleindeutschland, and completed in 1851. The “German Cathedral of the Lower East Side” has had a major impact over more than the last century and a half, from the introduction of Gregorian chants at Catholic churches to innovations in electricity for religious structures and fire safety citywide. Click here to help save the Most Holy Redeemer Church
In addition to landmarking at-risk properties, we also call on Mayor Mamdani to:
Revitalize the LPC and Hold Property Owners Accountable!
It should come as no surprise that we support protecting landmarked buildings! But too often, historic properties are left to demolition by neglect; demolitions, large additions, or cantilevers into historic districts are approved; or misguided rezonings fail to accomplish their goals of affordable housing. The City Council’s LPC budget overview agrees with us, also noting “…a major problem the commission faces is the neglect in maintenance of landmark designated structures. Demolition by neglect leaves no feasible option for rehabilitation and repair, resulting in the loss of these historically significant structures due to a lack of proper care.”
These are just a handful of our active campaigns. Click here to see them all.