WEPS’ Road to Designation

On March 18, 2009 WEPS formally submitted our Request For Evaluation for a West End Ave Historic District to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). Included was our letter to Chair Robert Tierney, a bound copy of Andrew Dolkart’s 260 page West End Avenue Survey and copies of the signatures collected though our petition for designation.

Separately, a letter, in support of this proposal and signed by our Elected Officials was hand delivered to the LPC by the Manhattan Borough President’s office. We are grateful to have the support of our Elected Officials in this mission.

WEPS initially requested that West End Avenue from 70-107th Streets be designated as a historic district. Much to our surprise and delight, the map LPC revealed at the owners meeting in September 2010 was more than we could have imagined. The study area included: Riverside Drive, West End Avenue, parts of the west side of Broadway and all cross streets from W 70th- W 109th St.

Due to the large area, LPC divided it up into three historic district extensions. On November 16, 2010 the LPC unanimously voted to place the West End-Collegiate Historic District (HD) Extension, the Riverside-West End HD Ext I and the Riverside-West End HD Ext II on their calendar.

All public hearings for the extensions took place in 2011. Our first hearing was for the Riverside-West End HD Ext I in March. This was due to the imminent demolitions we faced in that historic district. The West End-Collegiate HD Ext followed that June and by October 2011 the trio of public hearings was complete.

Designation votes were to follow, some taking longer than others. In each case, the Commission voted unanimously to designate. Only one historic district extension, our first, was designated as it was calendared. The other two saw modifications made to the boundaries.

Riverside-West End HD Ext I: June 26, 2012 as calendared
West End-Collegiate HD Ext: June 25, 2013 slightly modified
Riverside-West End HD Ext II: June 23, 2015 boundaries changed from originally calendared version