Landmark West!

Here’s to continuing the fight for the beauty, history, and identity of the UWS! 🌆

#PreserveUWS #HistoricPreservation #UpperWestSide

From saving irreplaceable landmarks to empowering community voices, young and old, our work has always been about honoring the past while shaping a more thoughtful future.

Thank YOU—our supporters, neighbors, and preservation partners—for 40 years of advocacy, passion, and progress.

🎉 Landmark West! turns 40! 🎉

This is a BIG year. Not only is it 60 years since the Landmark's Law, but also the 40th birthday of Landmark West! For 4 decades, we have been proud to protect, preserve, and celebrate the historic architecture and heritage of Manhattan’s Upper West Side. 🏛️❤️

Samuel D. Gruber Ph.D., has led the documentation and preservation of historic Jewish sites worldwide for 35 years. He spearheaded initiatives to preserve Jewish architectural heritage, authored two books, and maintains a lively blog, Samuel Gruber's Jewish Art and Monuments.

The building of impressive synagogues uptown was both a sign of continuity with cultural traditions and their successful acceptance into NY's ethnic and religious pluralism. This talk will examine the development and design of approximately a dozen synagogues on the UWS.

Free Event!
May 7 @ 7 PM
7 W. 83rd St.

LW! invites you to celebrate the art and architecture of the synagogues of the UWS. Our friends at Rodeph Sholom have graciously offered to host this special event. This FREE illustrated lecture is part of LW!'s 40th Anniversary.

Including a new name, as pointed out in the press conference on April 6th, the “Metro” sign is not part of the landmark status. Many parties interested in its revitalization have come and gone over the years. We hope this most recent acquisition sees the return of an UWS gem.

The theater underwent a renovation in 1986, which saw the auditorium sliced in half to create two screens. The Art Deco interiors were still intact; however, in 2005, the LPC granted the demolition of the interior. This new acquisition could see some changes to the theater.

According to the New York Times, the landmark movie theater that closed 20 years ago was sold to a nonprofit after it received $3.5 million in discretionary grants from Gov. Hochul. Plans include a five-screen theater, a lobby lounge and a public cafe.

Its sleek design incorporated elements of Art Deco and Moderne with the Greek masks of Tragedy and Comedy displayed on the medallion bas-relief fixed to the facade above the marquee. The new theater connected Depression-era Americans to the colorful world of film.

At the time of the Metro’s designation in 1989, 4 of those 18 theaters were still in operation and open to the public. Now, only one remains standing, the Metro. The architectural firm of Boak & Paris created a neighborhood movie theater with global ties in 1933.

If one were walking up Broadway on the UWS in 1934, one would have had the choice of 18 theaters in which to see movies, incl. The Circle Theater, The Colonial, The Yorktown (later New Yorker), The Stoddard, The Alden and Metro.

The Metro Theater’s recent acquisition signals the long-awaited revival of an UWS staple. But little is known about how long renovations will take to allow the public in once again, or what the renovated theatre will look like in the end. To read more, visit the Boulevard page!

It's back! Tom Miller's long awaited "Stubborn Survivors: The Holdouts of West End Avenue" is rescheduled! Join us 3/26 to hear about WEA's eccentric leftovers—once refined rowhouses now vised between soaring apartment buildings in a suprising streetscape. landmarkwest.tickets...

Image 1. Ricardo Scofidio. Courtesy of Diller Scofidio + Renfro
Image 2. The Rooftop Illumination Lawn. Courtesy of Glenwood.
Image 3. Julliard School/Alice Tully Hall. Courtesy of Iwan Baan via ArchDaily.

Ricardo Merrill Scofidio was born on April 16, 1935, in New York City. He attended Cooper Union School of Architecture and then Columbia University. He began teaching at Cooper Union in 1965.

The firm spent a decade reimagining Lincoln Center, including incorporating a tilted grassy roof on the North Lawn, and stripping away the opaque base of the Alice Tully Hall building, originally designed by Pietro Bellushchi, to reveal the hall's outer glass shell.

Ricardo Scofidio (1935-2025)

Landmark West! is saddened by the loss of visionary architect Ricardo Scofidio. He is known most for his work with the firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, which he co-founded alongside his wife, Elizabeth Diller, and partner, Charles Renfro.

On 3/12, Dr. Paula Uruburu takes on the true crime podcast! An expert in historic places and their scandals, she offers aforensic analysis of Only Murders in the Building and its place in the cultural phenomenon of the true crime podcast. landmarkwest.tickets...

When the Wollaston Goes, So Does Another Piece of UWS History A 1900 ad for the Wollaston. Photo from The New York Tribune By Pam Tice Demolition was announced last summer

When it opened in 1900 the Wollaston was said to be in “the choicest and most convenient section of the West Side.” www.westsiderag.com/2025/02/21/w...

Mark your calendars for our next event! Join us on the 27th at 6pm as historian Rob Garber reconstructs a slide from money to murder in Bloomingdale. Get your tickets here: landmarkwest.tickets...

Click the link in our bio to read our #BlackHistoryMonth blogs!

From Seneca Village to San Juan Hill, Thelonious Monk to James Baldwin, Black history has shaped the Upper West Side. Unfortunately, while many of these significant sites no longer remain, they are immortalized by those determined to remember!

Celebrate #BlackHistoryMonth on the Upper West Side by heading to our blog! There you'll read about the often-forgotten (sometimes by design) history of Black neighborhoods, artists, and entrepreneurs that flourished on the West Side.

Happy #AdoorableThursday! This week, let's celebrate with the beautiful ionic columns outside 300 West 107th Street, aka 955 West End Avenue. This Renaissance Revival apartment building was designed by George F. Pelham and built between 1898-1899. www.landmarkwest.org/building/bui...

Join us on Zoom on the 30th for a special behind-the-scenes look at the hidden sculptures on St. John the Divine's unfinished South Tower! Photojournalist Robert F. Rodriguez will show us his rare documentation of these carved treasures. landmarkwest.ticketspice.com/voices-of-th...

Tarr said of the commission, “The prime requisite was to make a valid work of art. For eons, people have been building obelisks with somebody’s name on a plaque, but this is very personal.” www.landmarkwest.org...

Resembling a printer’s block, it bears quotations, initial letters, and dates that mark the milestones of King’s life. This work abstractly conveys the biography and spirit of his achievements rather than present a physical or figural likeness.

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, let's explore this memorial to his works and legacy right here on the Upper West Side. William Tarr designed this massive cube momument at his namesake high school on West 66th Street in 1973.

#OnThisDay in 1755 (or maybe it was 1757), Alexander Hamilton was born. Of course, many people know his story through the hit musical about his life. But did you know that he also has a statue in Central Park? It was donated by Hamilton's son John in 1880. www.landmarkwest.org...