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Testimony:

I strongly support the South of Union Square Historic District as proposed by Village Preservation. This area is incredibly rich in history and architecture, and the current lack of historic district protections has allowed much of that varied heritage to be destroyed.

This neighborhood has played an incredibly important role in the civil rights movement, women’s suffrage movement, LGBTQ+ rights movement, labor movement, and critical artistic, musical, literary, film, and theater history that made New York the cultural capital of the world. Its architecture is a stunning collection of 19th- and early 20th-century architecture by some of our city’s and country’s most prominent and renowned architects. Places like these deserve to be recognized and preserved.

The lack of landmark protections for the area South of Union Square has led to demolition of historic buildings and out of context new construction. The historic St. Denis Hotel at 799 Broadway, where the telephone was first demonstrated in New York and where Marcel Duchamp made some of his greatest works of art, was destroyed and replaced with a still-not-filled glass office tower. No. 86 University Place, a nearly 200-year-old landmark with a rich history connected to LGBTQ+ rights, Prohibition, and some of the most important civic institutions in New York City, is set to be destroyed to make way for just seven huge ultra-luxury condos.

Historic district designation would honor and help preserve the rich history of this neighborhood, while allowing for change and appropriately designed and scaled new development. The lack of historic district protections means that we will continue to see places where the course of history was changed in our neighborhood destroyed forever.

I urge you to support the proposed South of Union Square Historic District.