NEW YORK, NY.- The Museum of the City of New York presents SAVING PLACE: 50 Years of New York City Landmarks, a comprehensive exhibition exploring the roots and impact of a landmark preservation movement that has transformed the City and been an engine of New York’s growth and success.

“Saving Place and the history of the landmarks law underscores how civic and business leaders, grass roots activists, and design professionals have come together to create a contemporary New York City that blends old and new in a dynamic urbanism,” said Susan Henshaw Jones, Ronay Menschel Director of the Museum of the City of New York. “As we celebrate the law's 50th anniversary, this exhibition is not just about preserving the past, it is also about how landmarks are a vital contribution to the city‘s future for generations to come.”

New York’s landmark preservation movement developed over many years, but was galvanized by large historic losses in the early 1960s, most notably the demolition of the world famous and architecturally significant Pennsylvania Station in 1963.

Many believe New York’s pioneering landmarks law--which Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. signed on April 19, 1965--was a key factor in the rebirth of New York in the final quarter of the 20th century. It fostered pride in neighborhoods and resulted in preservation in every borough, connecting and motivating residents and bringing new economic life to older communities. The law was unprecedented in its scope and became a model for cities and towns around the world.

Through original documents, drawings, paintings, photographs, building pieces, and more, the exhibition surveys how the landmarks movement developed in New York, going back to early preservation efforts in the beginning of the 20th Century.

The intense legal challenges to the law in the 1960s and 1970s are chronicled, focusing on the Grand Central Terminal case that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and involved high profile activists including Jacqueline Kennedy. Never-before-seen drawings of architect Marcel Breuer’s proposed tower above the terminal will be exhibited.

The exhibition looks at contemporary design in the city in the context of additions to landmarks, not only of building elements on individual landmarks but also new buildings in historic districts.

Innovative preservation technology and ways to accomplish restoration are shown, and a timeline of the history of the preservation movement wraps around the gallery.

The exhibition, whose own dramatic, modern design style mirrors the show’s theme of the effective combination of the old and the new, shows the expansion and evolution of the landmark law over time.

Designations of publicly accessible interiors were added (of which the New York Public Library was the first and Radio City Music Hall a later example) and scenic landmarks began with Central Park. Today, more than 31,000 buildings have been designated as landmarks, as well as more than 100 historic districts.

At large tables in the center of the exhibition gallery, visitors will see models and building samples showing the restoration of landmarks all over the city, the creation of new architecture in historic districts, and the addition of new buildings atop or next to landmarks. Examples include models of Diane von Furstenberg’s offices in the Meatpacking District and Norman Foster’s glass skyscraper atop the Art Deco Hearst Building.

To show landmarks in the context of the modern city, the Museum commissioned Iwan Baan, the renowned Dutch architectural photographer, to do a series of panoramic photographs of current-day New York that show the intertwining of old and new architecture, and they are prominently displayed.

Also included in the exhibition are architectural fragments from the destroyed Pennsylvania Station and other buildings, maps, infographics, and interactive opportunities to explore landmarks in the city.

The exhibition looks at the ambitions and achievements of the law, as well as its controversies. Debate has continued about what is a landmark and the place of new construction within historic districts, and the changing considerations are examined in the exhibition and related public programming.

Co-chairs who helped organize the exhibition are: Frederick Bland, James Hanley, Hugh Hardy, William Higgins, John J. Kerr, Richard Olcott, Raymond Pepi, Frank Sciame, and Robert B. Tierney.

Honorary Chairs include all former Chairs of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, Kent Barwick, Laurie Beckelman, Gene Norman, Sherida Paulsen, Jennifer Raab, Beverly Moss Spatt, Robert B. Tierney, and the current Chair, Meenakshi Srinivasan.

Saving Place is curated by Donald Albrecht, the Museum’s Curator for Architecture and Design, and Andrew S. Dolkart, the Director of the Historic Preservation Program at Columbia University, with consulting curator Seri Worden, formerly Director of the James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation.

“Saving Place traces the trajectory of New York’s preservation movement, highlighting the contributions of a dynamic group of people from grass-roots preservations to government officials and celebrated architects,” said Albrecht.

“The law has been a success beyond the dreams of its early advocates,” said Dolkart. “Landmarking is about creating a city where old buildings contribute to vibrant neighborhoods and where new construction in historic districts reinforces an area’s special character.”

The accompanying book, Saving Place: 50 Years of New York City Landmarks, edited by Albrecht and Dolkart, contains essays by prominent architects and historians, including Françoise Astorg Bollack, Claudette Brady, Adele Chatfield-Taylor, Dolkart, Robert A.M. Stern, and Anthony C. Wood. It is illustrated with many photographs by Baan and published by The Monacelli Press.

“Much of what we love about New York today we owe to the law and its administering body,” Stern writes in the introduction of the book. “Much of what is contentious about contemporary development and redevelopment can also be laid at the feet of the landmarks law and the Landmarks Preservation Commission.”