Every year the New York Landmarks Conservancy designates a group of Living Landmarks, citizens who have made significant contributions to the life of the city. The latest group was inducted this month. We honor them, and since we focus on homes, buildings, interiors, we’ve paired each one of this year’s honorees with an actual structure or location — we salute both the people and the places for all they do to enhance the city.
A former Board Chair of the Landmarks Conservancy, Stephen Lash has been active in preserving many notable NYC structures and serves on the boards of several museums and institutes. Among his favorite landmark sites are the monumental Georgian structures of Snug Harbor.
A remnant of the city’s 19th century heritage, once a home for aged sailors, a 83-acre park on Staten Island’s north shore includes 26 examples of historic architecture and is considered the borough’s crown jewel.
A champion of garden landscaping, Lynden Miller is a professor and painter who has designed public gardens in all five boroughs, most notably the Conservatory Garden in Central Park. She happily recalls seeing a businessman appreciate her work in Bryant Park by dropping his briefcase and doing a cartwheel.
Named for a glass-walled building that once stood on its site, the flower-filled six acres beyond the mammoth Vanderbilt Gates is Central Park’s only formal garden. Reviving it in the late 1980’s after it fell into disrepair, Miller applied a high-style mixed planting that introduced estate garden style to urban parks.
Art, dance, education, parks are among the interests supported by active philanthropists Jeff and Liz Peek. Jeff is on the board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Liz Chairs the FIT Board of Trustees. Both have backgrounds in finance and Jeff is currently Vice Chair of Bank of America
Located at One Bryant Park, Bank of America‘s NYC headquarters merges the ethics of the green building movement with a 21-st century aesthetic of transparency and re-connection. The fifth tallest building in NYC, completed in 2010, its emphasis on daylight, fresh air, and a connection to the outdoors creates a high quality modern workplace.
Actress, dancer, singer Chita Rivera is a Kennedy Center Honoree who holds a Presidential Medal of Freedom Tony nominated 10 times for Broadway roles, she won for The Rink and Kiss of the Spider Woman and also holds a Tony Lifetime Achievement Award. She remains partial to the Winter Garden Theater where in 1957, playing Anita, she was a star in the opening production of West Side Story.
Built in 1896 to be the American Horse Exchange, the structure was later redesigned as a theater by the Shubert Organization. Al Jolson starred in its original production, Jerome Kern’s “La Belle Paree.” Eventually almost 7,500 performances of Cats were performed in a junkyard setting created on its wider than customary stage. After Cats closed the interior of the Winter Garden Theater was restored to its 1920’s design.
Surgeon-in-Chief-Emeritus of the Hospital for Special Surgery Dr. Thomas Sculpo has performed over 20,000 knee and hip replacements and other operations. Author of three books and over 350 papers, he has pioneered minimally invasive surgical techniques. Affiliated with several professional organizations, he is on the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Hall.
One of the world’s most prestigious venues for classical and popular music, the Renaissance Revival Hall was built in 1891 by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Credited with its original design was architect William B. Tuthill consulting with Richard Morris Hunt and Dankmar Adler. Other distinguished firms, Henry J. Hardenbergh, James Stewart Polshek & Partners, and Cesar Pelli & Associates, have contributed to Carnegie Hall‘s design and renovations.
Deeply committed to using color and design to help at-risk youth, award winning designer Ruth Lande Shuman founded Publicolor, which helps disadvantaged students to paint the walls of their schools. Volunteers participate in the painting activities and provide workshops in college counseling, summer job placement, tutoring and mentoring.
Modeled on the original college-prep school in Harlem, the Fredrick Douglass Academy III boasts a rainbow Publicolor plaza designed and painted by students.
Noted legal scholar Michael I. Sovern, current president of the Shubert Foundation, has a has a long time affiliation with Columbia University. A graduate of the college and law school, he served as President from 1980-1993.
Expanding beyond the college’s stately traditional grounds, Columbia University’s new Manhattanville Campus, designed by Renzo Piano, incorporates an art gallery, forum, arts and wellness centers.
Former head of Metro North and the MTA, Peter Stangl coordinated with community support and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to implement to oversee the rescue and renovation of Grand Central Terminal.
Covering 48 acres with 44 platforms, the station built by the New York Central Railway during the pinnacle of U.S. train travel is renowned for its monumental spaces and meticulously crafted detail. A U.S. National Historic Landmark, it is one of the most visited tourist attractions in the world.