Westbeth Loft Tour A Huge Success
 This past Sunday several hundred people participated in a first-of-its-kind tour of Westbeth. Twenty-three individual artists lofts and five communal spaces including studios and a rooftop deck were opened, all designed by Richard Meier in the late 1960s and located within the old historic Bell Telephone Labs, built between the 1860s and the 1930s. The event celebrated Westbeth’s 40th anniversary and GVSHP’s 30th anniversary — see photos of the event HERE and read about it at the Observer and Curbed. We are deeply grateful to the scores of volunteers who made the tour possible, and to our partners in organizing the event, the Westbeth Artists Residents Council.
GVSHP has been working with Westbeth on a variety of issues, including documenting the history of the complex’s conversion to an artists’ space, oral histories with some of its founders and prime movers, getting the complex onto the State and National Registers of Historic Places, and seeking New York City Landmark status for the complex. Of all these projects only NYC landmark status awaits completion, as a hearing was held at the beginning of this year but the Landmarks Preservation Commission has not yet scheduled a vote to approve the designation, though one was supposed to take place before the end of the year.
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Photo courtesy of Bob Estremera.
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