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Apple shows love to New York's historic neighborhoods and the Landmarks Conservancy takes notice

Apple shows love to New York's historic neighborhoods and the Landmarks Conservancy takes notice

The New York Landmarks Conservancy is honoring Apple with its 2016 Chairman’s Award. The award, to be given at a fundraising luncheon where individual tickets start at $500, honors the company for “their contribution to preserving, restoring, and repurposing notable historic structures in New York City.”

Although Apple’s New York flagship store, on Fifth Avenue between 58th and 59th streets, is recognized widely for its modern glass cube, the company has four stores in historically significant locations around the city. Apple has a shop in Grand Central Terminal, a New York City landmark, and stores within the Soho, Gansevoort Market, and Upper East Side historic districts. With 700,000 travellers passing through Grand Central Terminal, that store is the most heavily trafficked of the historic four, Apple Insider speculates.

In March, the NYLC will recognize the company’s commitment to historic preservation (or locating stores in historic areas, as there is no explicit preservation agenda in the stores’ design). The Chairman’s Award was started in 1988 to recognize “exceptional commitment to the protection and preservation of the rich architectural heritage of New York.”

The NYLC is different from the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission: the latter is a city government group that decides which districts and structures receive recognition for the historic, cultural, or architectural merits and subsequent protection under local historic preservation laws. The former is a nonprofit advocacy organization that protects the architectural heritage of New York City by advocating for preservation-friendly policy at the state, local, and national level; running workshops and providing technical assistance; and providing loans and grants for preservation of individual structures, sites, and neighborhoods.


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