Crain’s NY (print) reports in their May 16 edition that Landmark West! (a group that sounds like they were formed about eight minutes ago — not unlike this one — but their website claims a far grander lineage) has hired The Advance Group, credited by Crain’s as “the consulting firm that helped union workers at The Plaza Hotel rescue more rooms from condo conversion.”
I guess they figure that a Historic Register designation would save all those union jobs doing exactly what, currently? Shoring up the cyclone fencing enveloping 2 Columbus Circle? Really, if we ever needed any more evidence that preservation is the province of the idle middle class, this is it. Though I doubt anyone, excepting the workers and their immediate dependents, thought the Plaza fight was primarily about jobs, it was one of those uncomfortable moments of ‘alliance building’ that we don’t deserve in any case. If it weren’t apparent that the converted condos wouldn’t sell like hotcakes, or if The Plaza was bursting with patrons, we would have never ended up in that fight to begin with. But we get what we deserve, and in the end, a handful of jobs were ‘saved’ though I don’t doubt for a moment that those braying about preservation would sacrifice every union job on the Upper East Side to keep their Eloise fantasy intact.
So their angle is going to be interesting, with no jobs to save, no prospect of investment from another source (yeah, there’s a good idea, Bob: if you like the building so damn much, why not get Disney to buy it?) or even suggestions for reuse, this is going to be one of the more interesting struggles in preservation: a building that almost no one finds attractive, no one has any nostalgic attachment to, without any alternative plans, and decidedly unlike any notion of what a ‘preserved’ building looks like is supposed to win the hearts of New Yorkers (or, really, the LPC and Historic Register) enough to justify keeping it mothballed another twenty years.
On the flip side, Brad Cloepfil is doing his best ‘aw-shucks’ bit — while also managing a nice shout out to his continental peeps (which Solomon misses completely, clearly not familiar enough with his CV, but that’s because everyone looks provinicial from the fishbowl on 43rd). He talks like he has nothing to lose, probably because he doesn’t. A small foothold in the city, pocketing fees with none of the complexities of actually building, and musuem commissions piling up all over the place while Holly Hotchner fumes at every biddy on the Upper West Side. He doesn’t need to make it here, because he’s already making it everywhere.
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We’ll call it stoner chic.
Crain’s NY (print) reports in their May 16 edition that Landmark West! (a group that sounds like they were formed about eight minutes ago — not unlike this one — but their website claims a far grander lineage) has hired The Advance Group, credited by Crain’s as “the consulting firm that helped union workers at The Plaza Hotel rescue more rooms from condo conversion.”
I guess they figure that a Historic Register designation would save all those union jobs doing exactly what, currently? Shoring up the cyclone fencing enveloping 2 Columbus Circle? Really, if we ever needed any more evidence that preservation is the province of the idle middle class, this is it. Though I doubt anyone, excepting the workers and their immediate dependents, thought the Plaza fight was primarily about jobs, it was one of those uncomfortable moments of ‘alliance building’ that we don’t deserve in any case. If it weren’t apparent that the converted condos wouldn’t sell like hotcakes, or if The Plaza was bursting with patrons, we would have never ended up in that fight to begin with. But we get what we deserve, and in the end, a handful of jobs were ‘saved’ though I don’t doubt for a moment that those braying about preservation would sacrifice every union job on the Upper East Side to keep their Eloise fantasy intact. So their angle is going to be interesting, with no jobs to save, no prospect of investment from another source (yeah, there’s a good idea, Bob: if you like the building so damn much, why not get Disney to buy it?) or even suggestions for reuse, this is going to be one of the more interesting struggles in preservation: a building that almost no one finds attractive, no one has any nostalgic attachment to, without any alternative plans, and decidedly unlike any notion of what a ‘preserved’ building looks like is supposed to win the hearts of New Yorkers (or, really, the LPC and Historic Register) enough to justify keeping it mothballed another twenty years. On the flip side, Brad Cloepfil is doing his best ‘aw-shucks’ bit — while also managing a nice shout out to his continental peeps (which Solomon misses completely, clearly not familiar enough with his CV, but that’s because everyone looks provinicial from the fishbowl on 43rd). He talks like he has nothing to lose, probably because he doesn’t. A small foothold in the city, pocketing fees with none of the complexities of actually building, and musuem commissions piling up all over the place while Holly Hotchner fumes at every biddy on the Upper West Side. He doesn’t need to make it here, because he’s already making it everywhere.