Time to Designate

Designated…Or De-Calendared?

Will the IRT Powerhouse be next?

Back in February 2016, we breathed a sign of relief that the former Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) Powerhouse – designed by the same architects as the late great Pennsylvania Station and opened in 1904 to power New York City’s first subway system – was among the handful of longstanding landmarks-in-waiting “prioritized for designation” by the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC).*
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The taste of this “victory” was considerably soured by the fact that the LPC also voted to slash about 60 other “backlogged” sites from its calendar, stripping them of protections and making them immediately vulnerable to demolition.

Then, in June, we watched in agony as City Council passed the single-most significant and destructive change to New York’s Landmarks Law in 50 years. Among Intro. 775’s anti-landmarks features is an 18-month deadline for the LPC to act on all currently pending designations, or else they, too, will be removed from the calendar…and soon sacked.

Eight more of the remaining twenty-one sites from the LPC’s “prioritized for designation” list will be heard on Tuesday, June 28th. IRT will not be among them, but rather the bakers dozen of stragglers after Tuesday. The IRT Powerhouse was first heard on September 11, 1979–it’s time for a decision!

Click here to learn more about the IRT Powerhouse and advocacy to save it.