CHN Preservation efforts protect historic buildings, landmarks, and human-scale of the neighborhood.
About Us
Carnegie Hill Neighbors has a long history of shaping our community’s character through preservation. As preservation is main focus of our mission— it has been a tool in the creation of historic districts, designation of individual landmarks, and the down-zoning of our major avenues and streets. We support contextual renovations, but when a project proposal is out of context with the streetscape or when a development project is out of scale, we take seriously our options to change the outcome. We initiate letter-writing campaigns, sign petitions, and question the way policy is administered.
We speak up at Community Board meetings and support other preservation organizations. We engage experts, propose solutions, and use the media to make our position known.
In the past year, we have been involved in the unrelenting scourge to the City’s skyline — the proliferation of super tall buildings. Last spring, we mounted a zoning challenge against the developer DDG, for the 550-feet tall tower it is seeking to build at 180 East 88th Street.
To get involved in our preservation efforts, contact us.
Designation Reports
Explore Carnegie Hill Designation Reports from our archive:
Individual Landmarks
Explore landmarks in Carnegie Hill:
History
Carnegie Hill received its name early in the 20th century, but the known history of the area begins more than 500 years ago.
This section of Manhattan now noted for its historic architecture was once dotted with dwellings made of bent trees, the homes of the Wechquaeesgek Indians.
These gave way in the mid-17th century to Dutch farmland, which was divided and sold in parcels beginning in the 1800s when the erection of private wooden houses made the first stake in the community. Today four of these wooden dwellings are preserved in Carnegie Hill, surrounded by the more permanent structures that followed including survivors from the age of rowhouses in styles ranging from Neo-Grec to Renaissance Revival, many early 20th Century mansions beginning with Andrew Carnegie’s pioneering move, and finally luxury apartment buildings.
Currently, the Carnegie Hill catchment area extends from 86th Street to 98th Street, from the east side of Fifth Avenue to just west of Third Avenue. The map highlights the historic districts within Carnegie Hill. The two original designations between 91st and 95th streets were made in 1974. In 1993, an expanded district was made to incorporate the two into a larger whole, the jewelbox district of Hardenbergh-Rhinelander was designated five years later, and last, in 2014, the Park Avenue Historic District was extended from below 86th Street to 91st Street.
Read Carnegie Hill's full History.
Zoning & Landmark Projects
Working closely with New York City agencies, the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the Board of Standards and Appeals, we ensure only appropriate modifications are made to landmark designated buildings, contextual blocks, and rear yard spaces.
We present regularly at government hearings and when called upon, offer testimony in support of landmark preservation issues in the city. Our success in these projects and other efforts has served to encourage developers of new construction projects to heed community concerns.
Carnegie Hill Neighbors frequently deals with zoning issues on the Upper East Side within our catchment area and beyond.
Zoning challenges for mammoth developments pits us against well funded developers and requires us to hire both zoning consultants and land use attorneys. This use of outside experts is costly but absolutely essential if we are to have an impact.
Read the 13 articles which address The Zoning Resolution and the New York City’s zoning regulations that impact land use and development.
