A Forum for Diary Entries, Essays, Observations, Poetry, News, and Reviews
June 4th, 2025
How on earth did the Old New York become New New York sixty years ago? The answer lies in the creation of the Landmarks Preservation Commission as a branch of New York City government. In assembling a roster of architectural critics and knowledgeable aficionados of historic landmarks preservation versed in the processes and political difficulties of saving historic buildings and neighborhoods Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel has produced and edited twelve essays that comprise a thought-provoking compendium from which the author of the following review excerpts passages that shed light upon the meanings of the steps undertaken and results achieved by landmark restorers and the nature of the political and economic forces with which they contend. READ MORE >
May 10th, 2025
To say that Central Park is a “Work of Art” is to state the obvious. Think of a great painting in terms of the composition of foreground, background, and middle-ground and their linkage through the range of harmonious colors on the artist’s palette. Central Park’s site was, in large measure, a ready-made scene for a painter’s brush, and its original design can be aptly described as a great work of landscape art. Subsumed within this designation is the fact that, although the park’s original design was fundamentally naturalistic, within the boundaries of its 830 acres, the Park has numerous structures, which are evidence of certain architects’ blueprints according to their original designs and harmony with their surroundings. Architect Jean Phifer and her partners in the firm Buttrick White & Burtis were essential members of the Central Park Conservancy’s first team of landscape restoration professionals as evident here. READ MORE >
May 7th, 2025
To turn my vision of a rebuilt Central Park into a reality when the park was in a state of dire destruction from misuse and rampant vandalism in the 1970s I was fortunate to be able in the early 1980s to find four qualified landscape architects to form a management and restoration planning team under the aegis of the newly formed Central Park Conservancy. Their collaborative congeniality and holistic approach provided the groundwork – in the most literal sense – for the Conservancy’s team of trained landscape architects who are staff members today. READ MORE >
April 4th, 2025
The impulse to capture history-in-the-making in images as well as with words is universal and timeless. Going beyond sketchbook artistry in terms of facile documentation, photography has been the prevalent medium of expression in this regard for the past century-and-a-half. As a subject for both professional and amateur photographers, the building of Central Park as a fusion of nature and art ranks high on the scale of place-focused photographic output during this time. To appreciate the fact that for the past forty-five years, the transformation from dereliction to renewed beauty of this world-famous landscape by the Central Park Conservancy has been systematically recorded by the civic organization’s own official photographer Sara Cedar Miller. READ MORE >
March 26th, 2025
My online dictionary defines the word “organization” as 1) “an efficient and orderly approach to tasks” and 2) “an organized body of people with a particular purpose, especially a business, society, association, etc.,” thus implying a consensual approach within the workplace, as opposed to the structural nature of hierarchy, which is defined as “a system or organization in which people or groups are ranked one above the other according to status or authority. “Collegial,” which, on the other hand, is defined as “shared responsibility, as among a group of colleagues” is the term I would most associate with the social tenor of the Central Park Conservancy; however, the name “Collegium” which refers almost exclusively to “a society of amateur musicians, especially one attached to a German or US college,” would not have been an appropriate moniker for the public-private partnership that has evolved under the name “Central Park Conservancy. The fact that the dictionary definition of “conservancy” as “a body concerned with the preservation of nature, specific species, or natural resources: the Nature Conservancy” is partially apropos, and my choice of this name for the successor of the Central Park Task Force is a source of pride for me. It is important to note that the Central Park Conservancy has never been an activist organization giving public voice to prod city government to provide for the entire upkeep. Instead, thanks to the collegial relationship forged between me as the organization’s founder and Pam Tice, whose professional management skills as chief executive officer helped steer the course of this civic organization’s first five years of existence. READ MORE >
March 10th, 2025
How does a fledgling not-for-profit civic organization assume responsibility for the permanent horticultural care of a 830-acre public park in which lawns and meadows need regular mowing and periodic re-sodding; shrub beds call for regular weeding, composting, and replanting; and trees demand to be pruned and inspected for insect-borne diseases? Geri Weinstein, The Central Park Conservancy’s first head of horticulture, hired and oversaw the work of other employees in these areas of sound landscape maintenance. Her story in her own voice is that of a savior. READ MORE >
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