The Forests and Wetlands of New York City

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.

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.