Preservation Leadership

Village preservation leadership is GVSHP’s most important function. The organization acts as a liaison between the Village community and the many city agencies that have jurisdiction over historic architecture and parks, maintaining relationships with the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, the Parks Department, the Department of Transportation, the Manhattan Borough President’s office, as well as numerous local block associations and civic groups. GVSHP’s professional staff helps to maintain the neighborhood’s historic districts by providing information about landmarks regulations to homeowners, reporting violations of the landmarks law to the Commission, and serving on numerous special interest committees related to architecture and quality of life. Its preservation committee monitors preservation issues, meeting with city officials and leaders from other preservation organizations to offer its resources and its point of view.

GVSHP assists the community in the restoration of Village buildings by consulting with homeowners on the hiring of preservation architects, conservators, contractors and consultants. A series of conservation workshops provides information and practical advice about restoration topics such as the restoration of historic windows, the removal of graffiti, and the improvement of stoops, sidewalks and facades.

GVSHP also sponsors projects which highlight vital preservation issues. The historic architecture of the Greenwich Village waterfront was the subject of an extensive building by building study published in 1989 by NYU Press as The Architecture of the Greenwich Village Waterfront and mounted as an exhibition at the Municipal Art Society and the Forbes Gallery. The study emphasized that areas adjacent to the Hudson River are historically and culturally significant, vulnerable to eradication, and worthy of preservation as an historic district.

The Greenwich Village Preservation Archive and Oral History Project preserves the history of the Village’s preservation movement by creating a collection of interviews, clippings, and personal effects that document fifty years of grass-roots advocacy to "save the Village." With one of the earliest organized community preservation efforts in the country, the Village serves as a model for the national historic preservation movement. The Archive provides a permanent home for the papers of Greenwich Village’s early preservation advocates, and informs the future of preservation in the Village by reminding us of past struggles. GVSHP plans to create a research library so that students, scholars, and the community will have access to this important collection.

Preservation Alert -- Proposed Fees for Landmarks Permits

New Landmarks Preservation Commission Chair Appointed

New Cooper Union Development Proposal

GVSHP Undertakes Preservation Planning for the Future

GVSHP Support for Landmark Designation of Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Building

Keeping the Landmark Ear Inn/James Brown House Safe

Some Past GVSHP Preservation Highlights

Greenwich Village Society
for Historic Preservation
232 East 11th Street
New York, NY 10003
212.475.9585
gvshp@gvshp.org