The Pepsi-Cola sign in Long Island City, now “prioritized for designation” as a landmark.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission has ruled, denying landmark status to more than two-thirds of the properties it considered.
It rejected 65 buildings in all. Seven broadway theaters were denied because they were covered by other agreements with city and state governments. Many other were removed from the list because of previous modifications that limited the buildings’ historic import.
Only five were rejected outright. Petitioners are free to try again for landmark status with the other 60.
A total of 30 properties passed, and are now “prioritized for designation,†including the Pepsi-Cola sign in Gantry Plaza State Park in Long Island City, the Bergdorf Goodman building at 754 Fifth Avenue and the Harlem Branch of the YMCA on West 135th Street.
All of the proposed landmarks considered in this session had been on the commission’s docket for over five years. Last June, LPC chair Meenakshi Srinivasan suggested throwing all 95 proposals out as an efficiency measure, but the idea was loudly rejected by preservationists.
Yesterday, The Real Deal took a closer look at some of the properties under consideration. [WSJ] – Ariel Stulberg