February 20 & 27, March 5, 12, 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. & Field Visit

Curious about one of New York’s wonderful buildings, or maybe an entire neighborhood? Unleash your inner Sherlock Holmes. New York boasts more resources for tracking building histories than any other American city. Join our Urban Genealogy seminar and learn how to uncover architects’ names, construction dates, clients, tenants, photos, maps, and more. Instructor: Anthony Robins, former Director of Survey at the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Continue Reading>>

Today, MAS urged the City Council through testimony and individual letters to take the full extent of the time for review of the Columbia University expansion allowed under ULURP in order to fully examine the complexities of the plan.

MAS’ effort comes as the City Council scheduled a vote that appeared to cut short a full public approval process. The announcement of the vote was made without ample notice to the public and with time still available for review of the project under ULURP. To read the full press release, click here.

On December 10, 2007, the Municipal Art Society awarded its highest honor – the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal – to Wade F.B. Thompson and Elihu Rose in recognition of their outstanding efforts in saving and restoring the historic Seventh Regiment Armory on Park Avenue.

Today, the organization they formed in 1993, the Seventh Regiment Armory Conservancy, is restoring and revitalizing the armory to allow full public access to one of the most important collections of 19th century interiors in the city.

To watch a slideshow of the event, click here.

Margaret Sanger’s first birth control clinic, at 46 Amboy St. in Brownsville, Brooklyn, was the city’s first clinic promoting birth control. For 9 days in 1916, women and men thronged the sidewalk outside of a 3-story tenement at 46 Amboy St., waiting to learn about contraception from Margaret Sanger and her sister Ethel Byrne, both nurses. Learn was the operative word. Just disseminating information about birth control (a term Sanger later coined) was then illegal. Continue Reading>>

The 2007 Brendan Gill Prize was awarded on Monday evening, December 3, to actor, playwright and poet Sarah Jones, for her Tony-award winning one-woman show “Bridge & Tunnel.” The newly built Diker Pavilion in the National Museum of the American Indian, a transformed landmark — formerly the U.S. Custom House built by the legendary Beaux-Arts architect Cass Gilbert — on Bowling Green, was the stage for the presentation.

In an exhilarating performance, Ms. Jones selected excerpts from her play which celebrates the city’s diversity with all its idiosyncrasies, conflicts and humor through the voices of fourteen immigrant characters. Continue Reading>>

MAS President Kent Barwick offers a brief history of the Moynihan Station project and explains how principles for the development of a great new Penn Station would put the public interest first, would ensure an efficient transportation portal and a great new work of contemporary civic architecture; would protect the character of the historic Farley Post Office; and make the station the fulcrum of a great new Moynihan Station district.

MAS has signed on to the Friends of Moynihan Station Principles, which consider even more planning, preservation and transportation issues. You can read those principles in full by clicking here. Continue Reading>>

Come and participate in a special dialogue about the future of Flatbush. The Flatbush Development Corporation (FDC) and the Municipal Art Society (MAS) are inviting you to take part in Imagine Flatbush 2030 — a community visioning and dialogue process—designed to get you together with other Flatbush community members to collectively create a more sustainable neighborhood. If you care about the environment, community health, protecting diversity, ensuring affordable housing and a whole host of other community issues, this is the meeting for you! Continue Reading>>

Kick-start your holiday gift buying and receive 20% off – as an MAS member – all purchases at Urban Center Books on Wednesdays, December 5, 12 & 19, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. Enjoy refreshments as you browse and take advantage of this special opportunity.

Over 6,000 titles available! Here are just a few: Continue Reading>>

Thursday, November 29, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m., at The Municipal Art Society MAP
Accompanying the publication of Anthony Wood’s new book Preserving New York: Winning the Right to Protect a City’s Landmarks, this panel will explore the theme of changing perspectives on preservation from the 1940’s and 50’s — when hundreds of potential landmarks were demolished in the absence of protection mechanisms, to the present — when many of the buildings that replaced them are now themselves of interest for landmark designation. Continue Reading>>

Wednesday, November 28, 6:30 p.m., at Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue at 104th Street  MAP
Hilary Ballon of New York University will moderate a panel including Nathan Glazer of Harvard University, Kent Barwick of MAS, and Fred Siegel of the Progressive Policy Institute to explore whether modernism in architecture and urban design has failed our cities. For reservations and program information: (212) 534-1672, ext. 3395.