The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted today to landmark the Strand, despite vigorous opposition from its owner, who said that the designation would doom the store’s survival in an age of e-commerce booksellers.
The 11-story Renaissance revival building at 826 Broadway, which dates back to 1902, was one of seven properties on Broadway south of Union Square selected for landmark status consideration. Although most preservationists supported including the Strand, which opened there in 1957, for landmark status, the store’s third-generation owner Nancy Bass Wyden said the regulations involved with maintaining a city landmark would be too costly and burdensome.
"Now, we’re in a bureaucratic straight jacket," said Wyden, who held a press conference in front of the Strand on East 12th Street, immediately after the decision. "If I want to make any changes to the building, I’ve got to go through them."
Wyden, who inherited the building from her father, called the city's landmarking process a "completely unfair process," adding, "Once they target you, and put you on the calendar, they just shove it through."
Her protest drew in scores of loyal Strand customers, including writers who credited the bookstore for being a creative haven and source of inspiration.
At the first public hearing, novelist Gary Shteyngart called The Strand "the best second home anybody could ever ask for."
But the commission's staff repeatedly argued that Wyden's concerns were unfounded and that the city could offer assistance as well as grants toward maintaining the building. They also said that not landmarking the building would leave it imperiled to future destruction or redevelopment.
In a twist, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation also criticized the commission’s decision because the city did not include a larger swath of nearly 200 buildings in the neighborhood that it argued was worthy of landmark designation. Andrew Berman, the group's executive director, accused the city of "cherry picking" only a small number of buildings in order to placate preservationists but not impede development.
Berman has protested the stream of commercial development in Lower Manhattan, often at the expense of older buildings. Last year, he and other community groups opposed the city's rezoning of a site at 120 East 14th Street for a 21-story tech hub, saying it would open the door to further commercial development south of Union Square.
"The landmarking of these seven buildings, none of which (unlike many of their neighbors) are currently endangered, comes nearly a year after the City Planning Commission and City Council approved the upzoning nearby for a 'Tech Hub,'" Berman said in a press release. He also criticized Councilmember Carolina Rivera, whose district includes the East Village, for failing to deliver on a promise to preserve more of the area following the rezoning.
A spokesperson for Councilwoman Carlina Rivera said in a statement that "while Councilwoman Rivera is proud that these seven buildings were officially designated today by LPC, she will continue to collaborate with the Commission and local stakeholders on additional opportunities to recognize the architectural and cultural treasures in our neighborhoods."
In February, as part of a last ditch effort to prevent the building from being landmarked, owner Nancy Bass Wyden proposed that the city instead accept a preservation easement, a voluntary agreement by the owner that would ensure that a building or its facade be preserved in perpetuity.
Ultimately, however, the commission remained unpersuaded.
During the hearing, Commissioner Michael Goldblum said that the huge opposition to the landmarking of the Strand represented a "failure" on the part of the commission.
"The preponderance of misinformation surrounding the perils of landmark designation so pervades this incredibly articulate, well informed body of New Yorkers [...] is shocking to me and deeply disappointing," he said.
With Adwait Patil
