NY Historical Society Agrees to Preserve History

Back in 2006, the New York Historical Society was seeking $10 million for a renovation of their 170 Central Park West building (fair enough) and a developer to finance and build not only a 5-story annex at 7-13 West 76th Street but a $100 million, 23-story glass condo complex behind the museum! Today the NY Times reports that the controversial idea has been abandoned, and the Society has let go of their lofty ideas. Instead, they'll spend $55 million and three-years on renovating their galleries, entrance and facade. Some local preservationists say the NYHS has helped preserve their character with the move...but will history repeat itself? As Curbed notes, they also had a similar proposal in 1984 -- so they may just try, try again.

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Comments (4) [rss]

I learned about historical preservation at the NYHS, and was shocked at the chutzpah of this plan.

Historical Society repeats itself.

that takes balls.

I hope they're spending as much effort in planning to digitize their collections. that is the kind of preservation that will be of real service to future generations.

Why don't they simply demolish the Historical Society, replace it with a supertall glass and steel condo tower and call their new permanent exhibit "New York: The Bloomberg Era"?

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