During the 1960s New York City saw a great deal of change in the Urban fabric such as the original Penn Station being demolished in 1963 and other now landmark buildings being threatened of meeting the same fate. It was in 1965, that The Landmarks Law was enacted. The Landmarks Law defines a landmark as a building, property, or object that has a special historical, cultural or aesthetic value important to the development of the city that has been designated by the LPC.

The LPC is a city agency that is responsible for identifying, designating and regulating changes to the city’s landmarks and historic districts. The LPC consists of 11 commissioners who are appointed by the mayor as well as 80 preservationists, researchers, architects, historians, attorneys, archaeologists and administrative employees on staff.

1. An individual (or exterior) landmark: a building, property or object that has its exterior protected by the landmarks law, such as the Grand Army Plaza

2. An interior landmark: interior spaces that are accessible to the public, this does not include private homes and houses of worship an example is the interior of the Guggenheim Museum

3. Historic districts: an area designated by the LPC, usually consisting of structures that have special character of historic or aesthetic interest and represents one or more periods or styles typical of one or more eras in the city’s history such as Carnegie Hall Historic District

4. Scenic landmark: usually city-owned landscape feature or parks that have been designated such as Central Park

On the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission website, under designation there is a maps tab. Click either map and it will show you all of the landmarks in all boroughs, to look up a specific area type in the address. The legend shows what type of landmark designation it is, but when clicking on highlighted objects it will link to the designation report.

Your building is a part of collection of buildings that are significant to New York City. Most times individual landmark buildings fall within historic districts. If your building is in a historic district that does not mean it is individually landmarked, if it is that is a separate discussion. Regardless, if your building is in a historic district you are required to obtain permits from the LPC for most types of alterations done to the exterior of the building or interior for interior landmarks as well as if there is new construction wanting to be done.

To get a permit, you first must file a completed application that has documentation consisting of photographs, architectural plans and a presentation that shows the proposed work. The LPC has a permit guidebook that can help prepare you on completing the application. It is not until the application is complete then a permit can be up for review. To submit the application the LPC uses Portico for an easy way to upload all documentation as well as an easy way for multiple people to see the application. Portico also has a questionnaire to see which exact permit is qualified for the project.

Besides using the NYC LPC map, the New York City Zoning & Land Use (Zola) map is another tool that has every single building listed. Zola has many resources ranging from general information to connecting you to the Building Information System (BIS) page. BIS is an extremely helpful tool to see what type of permits were permitted in the past. Another tool to use is to look at NYC Fire Insurance maps that are available through the New York Public Library. To find historic images, the New York City Municipal Archives has Tax photos from the 1940s and 1980s. To search for a specific building, use the block and lot number of the building which can be found using the Zola map.

Once everything is submitted into Portico, the LPC will assign a LPC staff preservationist who will examine and evaluate the work that wants to be done. The LPC staff preservationist will then determine if the work is qualified for staff-level review and approved once the application is complete. Sometimes the LPC staff preservationist may ask applicants to clarify details such as materials or meet with you and your architect depending on the complexity of the project. If approved at staff level the LPC will issue the permit as quickly as possible. If the LPC staff preservationist finds the application not eligible for staff-level approval there is the option to present your proposal to the Commission at a public hearing.

The proposal could not be approved by LPC staff preservationist, and now the Commission will decide whether to approve the application. But before the hearing can be presented to the LPC the proposal needs to be presented to the local Community Board. It is up to the applicant to contact the Community Board and setting up the meeting. The presentations should be reviewed by the LPC staff before presented to the Community Board. The presentations should be the same for the Commission. The Community Board recommends to the LPC on whether to approve, deny or modify your application.

After this is done, then the LPC hearing will be held. Here applicants will explain why the proposal should be approved. This is also where the public can have an opportunity to testify about the application. If any questions or points arise, the applicant has the choice to respond. After the presentation and public testimony then the LPC Commissioners will discuss the work being proposed, the applicant then can answer any questions that come about before the Commissioners make their decision. The Commissioners then vote whether to approve, deny or ask to modify your proposal. If asked to modify then the applicants have another chance to return to the LPC for approval with the changes made. To have an application approved or denied six out of eleven Commissioners must vote for either one. If approved, applicants must wait until the permit is received to begin work.

Public Hearings are open to the public and are held on every Tuesday starting at 9:30 AM. The LPC has an online calendar which shows when the public hearings will be held as well as what application will be heard. Applicants’ presentation materials will be available the Wednesday before the public hearing. There are different options to testify, it can be in person, on zoom, written or submitted digitally. If submitting digitally then it must be submitted through the LPC’s online form or email it directly to testimony@lpc.nyc.gov. If written the commission must receive it before 12PM the Monday before the hearing. To testify in person or on zoom, you must sign up on the LPC website and pick which application you are testifying for. If you just want to listen to the hearings the LPC also live streams them on YouTube.