"Unsung Heroes" are those individuals and institutions who—in some way, shape or form—help to advance the cause of preserving our neighborhood’s special architecture and sense of place. In 2012, we're paying homage to a band of worthy New Yorkers whose impressive works for historic preservation outlive them, continuing to shape the Upper West Side , our city and impact our quality of life for the better: the "Great-ful Dead".

And the 2012 honorees are…

(1926-2010)
Combining the highest expertise, contagious enthusiasm, and effective gadfly-ism,
Bob Makla led the way for saving 19th-century New York.
Click to meet Bob


(1932-2008)
Friend, neighbor, teacher, counsel to the NYC Planning Commission for two decades,
Norman Marcus created a legacy that continues to shape New York’s skyline
Click to meet Norman


(1936-2008)
“A fierce, immovable stickler” and guardian of New York’s Landmarks Law,
Dorothy Miner inspired generations of advocates with her rigor, intelligence and nurturing enthusiasm
Click to meet Dorothy


(1926-2009)
Artist Nancy Spero’s enduring installation of brilliantly colored glass-and-ceramic mosaic murals
in the 66th Street/Lincoln Center subway station enriches the lives of all who pass through
Click to meet Nancy
           

(1915-2008)
A plain-speaking no-nonsense leader, architect David Todd used his tenure as Landmarks Preservation Commission Chair to designate thousands of landmarks on the Upper West Side and beyond
Click to meet David

Robert Makla (1926-2010)    Gadfly noun ‘gad-flī’ - a person who stimulates or annoys especially by persistent criticism. This word – a whole-hearted compliment in our book – describes Bob Makla to a tee.  So do the words “authority,” “leader,” “guardian,” and “force of nature,” all attributes that made Bob such an effective marshal of efforts to preserve elements of 19th-century New York that we take for granted today.  Without Bob, a founder of the Park Slope Civic Council in the 1950s, many parts of historic “Brownstone Brooklyn” would not survive (or, indeed, the Upper West Side, where Brooklyn’s seeds of revival eventually blew).  Nor would Central Park and Prospect Park, at least not as we know and love them.  With seemingly boundless energy and enthusiasm, Bob cultivated broad public interest in the landscape architecture of Frederick Law Olmsted.  A lawyer by profession, he poked and prodded groups like the Central Park Conservancy and Prospect Park Alliance, as well as the NYC Parks Department, to uphold their preservation missions and eschew short-sighted, donor- and commerce-driven projects that would have undermined the parks’ historic and democratic integrity.  In the 1980s, Bob’s Greensward Foundation (better known as Friends of Central Park and Friends of Prospect Park) called the City’s hand on its removal of 16,000 delicately patterned, 120-year-old Minton tiles from the Arcade at Central Park’s Bethesda Terrace.  It took Bob 20 years of persistent and authoritative gadflying, but the tiles were finally restored and reinstalled in 2007.  From tiles to trees to townhouses, because of Bob New York is New York.

Norman Marcus (1932-2008)    Friend, neighbor, counselor, colleague, teacher…Norman built a legacy that continues to shape New York’s skyline.  His materials were not bricks and mortar, but rather ideas and language.  As General Counsel to the New York City Planning Commission for two decades from 1963 to 1985, Norman drafted much of the intricate zoning legalese intended to preserve the character of our city’s neighborhoods.  Among his innovations were plans to transfer air rights from above Broadway’s historic theaters and Grand Central Terminal to nearby sites, thus preventing their destruction by tower development.  Norman liked to quote the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission’s 1968 rejection of a project to develop the Grand Central site:  “to balance a 55-story office tower above a flamboyant Beaux-Arts facade seems nothing more than an aesthetic joke.”  He applied this same logic in strenuously opposing a 2002 proposal to build a 14-story tower on the rowhouse midblock immediately adjacent to the Congregation Shearith Israel landmark on West 70th Street and Central Park West (against his advice and citywide opposition, the Landmarks Commission ultimately approved a 9-story tower, not yet built).  He called Shearith Israel’s attempt to raid the “vulnerable underbelly of the historic district” a “harbinger of importance to the Upper West Side” and became a close advisor to Landmark West’s 2007 Central Park West Skyline Study.  Alarmed by the identification of 10 parkside sites where similar development might take place in the future, Norman left us with yet one more idea:  an “institutional air rights conservancy” (see www.landmarkwest.org/cpwskylinestudy.html
for more information).

Dorothy M. Miner (1936-2008)    In New York preservation lingo, there is only one “Dorothy” (no “Miner” required).  The Landmarks Preservation Commission chair* who hired this seemingly shy young lawyer as Counsel in 1975 soon realized that “Dorothy would rarely be quiet again.”  Her voice carried through the halls of government, the courts, and classrooms at Columbia University and other institutions where she inspired generations of preservation advocates.  Her rigor, brilliance, integrity, and nurturing enthusiasm raised the bar for professional and volunteer preservationists alike.  A master in her field, she was, at heart, “a fierce, immovable stickler” (as aptly described in The New York Times).  She guarded New York’s 1965 Landmarks Law through its adolescence, assisting in defending its constitutionality before the US Supreme Court in the all-important 1978 case that saved Grand Central Terminal (and the Law, which stood as a model for the nation) and in her daily confrontations with developers, politicians and others.  She helped devise the legal framework that preserves Lower Manhattan’s 17th-century Dutch street plan and warded off religious-freedom and property-rights challenges to the designation of St. Bartholomew’s Church on Park Avenue.  Her abrupt dismissal from the Commission in 1994, in the early days of the Giuliani administration, provoked unprecedented outcry from the preservation community, who knew that losing Dorothy put all New York City landmarks in jeopardy.  But her voice is not so easily silenced – it continues to encourage, educate, criticize and drive New York’s bravest advocates towards ever more scrupulous landmarks preservation.

Nancy Spero (1926-2009)    Most trips to Lincoln Center begin with “Artemis, Acrobats, Divas and Dancers,” artist Nancy Spero’s enduring installation of brilliantly colored glass-and-ceramic mosaic murals in the 66th Street/Lincoln Center IRT subway station.  The project, which covers much of the wallspace lining the station’s 600-foot platforms, was commissioned by the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s Arts for Transit program in 1997 and executed as part of a comprehensive station renovation by architect Lee Harris Pomeroy.  It benefited from a particularly conscientious planning and approval process.  The MTA solicited proposals from local artists and appointed a panel of community stakeholders, professionals and connoisseurs (including LW! board member and art consultant Amy Newman, as well as the project architects) to advise.  Forty-four artists submitted designs, but Nancy Spero brought down the house with iconic images of real and mythical women, performing musicians and athletes to evoke the energy and creativity of the world both above and below ground.  Working with architect Pomeroy, Nancy also responded to the historic vocabulary of the original IRT stations (Heins & LaFarge, 1904), which are defined by series of rectangular, white-tile wall panels.  Her design strikes a beautiful balance between old and new and perfectly embodies the spirit of the West Side – a combination of joy, dignity, contemporaneity and timelessness.  This was the place she chose to live first after returning to America from years abroad in Europe during the Vietnam War.  Called “the High Priestess of Hieroglyphics whose lifework is the visual equivalent of an epic poem” by ARTnews, Nancy’s life and work were celebrated with a retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2010-11.

David Fenton Michie Todd (1915-2008)    Architect David F.M. Todd served on the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission from 1985 to 1994 and led it as Chair from 1989 to 1990.  Just over one year, but oh, what a year it was…  New York was at the height of a building boom, and the real-estate industry fought landmark regulations tooth and nail.  Todd’s predecessor, Gene Norman, had increased the Commission’s staff to conduct survey work and study potential landmarks and historic districts, but the Commission and the Landmarks Law were under attack from powerful political forces.  Enter David, a plain-speaking no-nonsense leader, who completed designations started under Chair Norman, implemented reforms to tighten the agency’s operations, and reinforced the previous chair’s practice of including a clergy member on the Commission.  On his watch, two large Upper West Side historic districts were created, with LW’s support:  the Riverside-West End Historic District (1989) and the Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District (1990), encompassing close to 2,300 brownstones, apartment buildings, commercial buildings, houses of worship and other institutions.  These structures define one of New York’s – make that the world’s – most livable, valuable neighborhoods.  In similar fashion, David defied conventional real-estate wisdom that preservation stifles development by designating the Ladies’ Mile Historic District (1989), a beautiful but then almost-lifeless area that subsequently became a vibrant retail destination.  David’s lasting contribution was his ability to see preservation and development not as two conflicting forces, but as mutually reinforcing values, “without abusing the city’s architectural heritage,” as proclaimed by The New York Times when he was appointed as Chair for that one brief, shining moment.