The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) will hold a public hearing on the proposal to landmark the entire Westbeth complex in the Far West Village on Tuesday, January 12th.

In 2005, following the effort to extend landmark protections to the Far West Village led by GVSHP, the LPC promised to consider landmark designation for the Westbeth complex, along with eight other individual sites and two historic districts. While the two districts were designated in 2006, progress on the individual sites has been slower, with only half designated. Late last year, however, GVSHP successfully nominated Westbeth for listing on the State and National Register of Historic Places, after an exhausting three-year research project funded by the J.M. Kaplan Fund.  After providing the LPC with the research report, they moved ahead with considering landmark designation for Westbeth.

Westbeth was for many years the home of the Bell Telephone Laboratories, where the transatlantic telephone and the first “talkie” (movie with sound) were created. After Bell moved their labs to New Jersey, it was converted to the country’s first subsidized housing for artists and the first large-scale adaptive re-use of an industrial building for residential purposes, to the designs of a then-unknown Richard Meier. Westbeth’s rebirth as artists’ housing not only changed the Far West Village forever, but changed the possibilities for post-industrial neighborhoods and cities throughout the world.

HOW TO HELP:

Write to the Landmarks Preservation Commission urging that they designate Westbeth a NYC landmark, as well as the three remaining sites in the Far West Village which were promised for landmark designation in 2005. Come to the hearing on Tuesday, January 12 at 9:30 am at the LPC hearing room, One Centre Street (at Chambers Street), 9th floor. Use our sample letter for testimony as well; just sign up to speak when you arrive. Westbeth photo courtesy of Barry Munger.