Andrew Berman is executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP), an organization the Daily News calls "one of the most vocal and influential special-interest groups in New York City".The GVSHP impacts local real estate, starts protests, lobbies politicians, rallies Village residents, and strives to keep developers, the City Planning Commission and the Landmarks Preservation Commission in line.
Berman has taken on Donald Trump, New York University, Julian Schnabel, St. Vincent's Hospital, bad architects -- and anyone who would rend the architectural fabric of Greenwich Village.
The local landmark designation of the Gansevoort Market Historic District in 2003, insuring its scale and architectural integrity, is seen as a signal victory for the GVSHP.
The GVSHP now seeks to landmark the unprotected South Village.
If developers had their way, says Berman, all of the South Village would look like the glass residential tower on Sullivan Street, at the site of the demolished theater where "The Fantasticks" ran for 42 years.
Around the corner on Bleecker St., the Circle in the Square Theatre has also been demolished, its marquee the only thing that remains.
Berman calls what happened to these buildings "a travesty".
The South Village corner where Bleecker meets Carmine is believed to have inspired Edward Hopper's painting "Early Sunday Morning".
The buildings on that corner -- dating from the early 19th Century -- lean, which could give a developer a "hardship" claim -- as recently used by St. Vincent's Hospital.
The St. Vincent's case points up the fact that Greenwich Village is not protected forever, says the Bronx-born Berman.
The South Village is characterized by tenement buildings and modest row houses where the city's earliest immigrant populations -- "the poorest of the poor" -- once lived.
Because the district is not landmarked, these buildings can be modified out of all recognition, as happened at 142-144 W. Fourth St., whose owner put up a medieval facade.
The GVSHP has also criticized New York University's development arm for not saving more of the Edgar Allen Poe House.
NYU is now set to demolish the Provincetown Playhouse, theatrical home to Eugene O'Neill and Edna St. Vincent Millay, for a faculty building, saving no more than 6% of the theatre.
Robert Tierney, Chair of the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission, holds Berman in high regard, characterizing the GVSHP as in "the top tier" of advocate groups city-wide and Berman as "knowledgeable and persistent" and a "terrific leader".
Tierney calls the South Village "tremendously important" and an "extremely promising" candidate for landmark protection.
Berman has the following advice for community activists:
- Get organized, form coalitions and make noise.
- Get the support of your elected officials.
- Consider pursuing landmark designation for historic neighborhoods.
- Learn about zoning.
- Seek allies.
- Get media-savvy.
The article from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/real_estate/2008/11/14/2008-11-14_protest_proud_south_village_landmark_mov.html
