This Fall, FRIENDS celebrated Kent L. Barwick at our 40th Anniversary Ambassador to the Upper East Side Award Dinner. A lifelong civic agitator, public servant, preservationist, and New Yorker, it often seems as if there’s more than one Kent Barwick. In upstate New York, he’s championed parks, trails and waterways, and led preservation efforts up and down the Hudson Valley. And the impact of his planning, design and preservation efforts in New York City – whether Grand Central, South Street Seaport, or the city’s 141 historic districts and 520 miles of coastline – would take thousands of words to describe, but is undeniable. For FRIENDS of the Upper East Side, Kent played a special role as Chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission when the Upper East Side Historic District was designated in 1981 and soon after, as an instigator in the founding of FRIENDS as President of the Municipal Art Society.