The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission will soon decide far more than the fate of West Park Presbyterian Church on the Upper West Side. It will decide whether a NYC landmark designation still means protection — or whether an owner who lets a historic building decline can claim “hardship” and win permission to demolish it.
New York adopted its landmarks law because historic buildings are part of what makes New York great. Today, more than 38,000 landmarked buildings provide homes, jobs, and cultural spaces and spur economic activity, while occupying less than 4% of the city’s land. In more than 60 years, demolition under the law’s hardship provision has been allowed fewer than 15 times, because the standard is intentionally demanding — the rare exception, not an escape hatch.
The owners of West Park want to make it the next exception. They have not come close to meeting the legal standard.
Built in 1889 and landmarked in 2010, West Park is one of the city’s finest examples of Romanesque Revival architecture. For more than 135 years it has served as sanctuary, theater, meeting hall, and home for organizations serving New Yorkers in need. God’s Love We Deliver was founded in its kitchen during the AIDS crisis. Until recently it hosted worship, community groups, performances, and long-term nonprofit tenants. Then those tenants were evicted.
The hardship application fails for two key reasons.
First, an owner must demonstrate that the property cannot earn a reasonable return, even after accounting for necessary repairs. The owners claim restoration would cost more than $50 million. Yet the commission’s own independent consultant concluded the necessary work would cost a fraction of that. Using realistic repair costs and the building’s demonstrated earning potential, the property generates a return on owner investment that negates a hardship claim.
Even more troubling, the application assumes the church should survive on rental income alone. Nonprofit institutions routinely rely on fundraising, philanthropy, and grants alongside leases — as West Park itself did for decades. If the commission accepts an analysis that ignores how nonprofits actually operate, it will hand every landmarked nonprofit in New York a blueprint for claiming hardship regardless of its true financial condition.
Second, the law requires proof that the property can no longer serve its intended purpose. West Park hosted religious and community services until its owner evicted the organizations that filled it with life. Emptying a building and then pointing to the vacancy as evidence is not hardship.
West Park is worth saving for everything it has contributed to the city for more than a century. Hardship cannot be manufactured through neglect, inflated costs, and owner-created vacancy. Otherwise, none of New York’s 38,000 landmarked buildings is truly secure.
Supporters of redevelopment argue that replacing West Park with luxury condos helps address the housing shortage. But West Park holds approximately 85,000 square feet of transferable development rights generated by its landmark status, and the City of Yes initiative has significantly expanded opportunities to transfer them. Other New York churches have used this tool to finance restoration while enabling new development nearby. So can West Park. The city can gain housing without sacrificing an irreplaceable landmark.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission was created to protect the buildings that define our history, architecture, and civic life. Demolishing West Park would empty the very word “landmark” of its meaning. The commission should deny this application.
Lima is president of James Lima Planning + Development. Breen is president of the New York Landmarks Conservancy.