The Landmarks Preservation Commission is expected to decide soon whether to revoke the landmark designation on the dilapidated West Park Presbyterian Church on Amsterdam Avenue and West 86th Street, a move the small congregation says is necessary to allow the building’s sale and demolition for a new development that would include modern performing-arts space.
The West Park Administrative Commission plans to file an appeal, possibly this week, asking the commission to remove the 2010 designation on hardship grounds. Church leaders and their advisers say the 135-year-old structure has deteriorated to the point that it would require as much as $40 million in repairs to remain standing and usable. They have reached a conditional deal to sell the property to developer Alchemy for $33.5 million, and say demolition and redevelopment are the only economically viable options.
Preservationists, elected officials and members of the arts community have urged the LPC to preserve the building, citing its architectural and cultural value. Former Manhattan Borough President and current City Council member Gale Brewer, as well as actors including Mark Ruffalo, Laurence Fishburne and Matthew Broderick, have publicly argued for retaining the landmark designation. Opponents of revocation contend the structure could be rehabilitated and reused for arts programming.
The dispute has roots in a decade-long struggle over the building’s condition and ownership. The church won landmark status in 2010 while it was largely vacant and in disrepair. In 2018 the congregation signed a five-year lease with a small performing-arts organization called the Center at West Park (CWP). The church later said it needed larger, more reliable revenue to preserve the property and engaged Alchemy in 2021 to evaluate sale and development options.
In late 2021 the church discovered emergency structural problems with the sanctuary’s south wall and said it lacked funds for the repairs. In 2022 the congregation asked the LPC to revoke the landmark designation and moved to terminate the arts group’s lease when it expired. CWP disputed the termination, asserting it had renewal rights, and legal proceedings followed. A State Supreme Court judge allowed the church to void the lease in February 2024; the Appellate Division unanimously upheld that decision, after which the church refiled its appeal to the LPC and CWP relocated to St. Paul and St. Andrew at 263 West 86th Street.
Roger Leaf, head of West Park’s administrative arm, told reporters the building was in poor condition when it received landmark designation and has declined further since then. At the time of designation, he said, the structure “stood empty and in disrepair, surrounded by a sidewalk shed for over a decade and owned by a congregation with almost no financial resources to maintain it.” Current visible conditions include uneven interior floors, an unstable roof and weathered sandstone with visible gaps and damage, according to recent inspections and on-site observations.
The church says it cannot finance the repairs and that maintaining the landmark designation would condemn the building to indefinite scaffolding and decay. Critics of the congregation’s plan counter that landmark protections have preserved many Upper West Side buildings and that alternatives to demolition — such as fundraising, adaptive reuse or public-private partnerships — have saved other houses of worship and cultural sites.
The history of New York preservation includes high-profile rescues of religious properties converted to arts use. Supporters of preservation have pointed to past philanthropic interventions that transformed decayed churches into performing-arts centers. Church officials and Alchemy say no comparable benefactor has emerged for West Park despite public attention to the building’s plight.
The proposed buyer, Alchemy, has said its projects have included incorporating houses of worship into new developments, citing a tower at 125 West 57th Street that would include a new home for Calvary Baptist Church. Opponents of the sale have raised concerns about the scale of a new tower and its potential impact on light, views and the neighborhood character. Some members of the CWP board who opposed redevelopment live in adjacent buildings at 165 West 86th Street, which critics say could present conflicts tied to potential blocked views.
CWP’s executive director, Debby Hirshman, has said the group raised funds to address urgent repairs. The West Park Administrative Commission has questioned those claims, saying it has not seen documentation of more than $5 million in fundraising and noting that CWP’s most recent publicly filed financial statement from 2023 showed about $121,000 in funding. CWP did not respond to requests for comment on its fundraising figures.
The LPC must weigh competing claims about the building’s historical significance, feasibility of repair and the hardship asserted by the owner. The commission has preserved scores of Upper West Side buildings in recent decades, and its decision will have implications for how the city balances preservation law with practical constraints on small congregations and aging structures.
If the LPC denies the revocation request, the church’s backers have warned that the property will remain landmarked and may stay in a deteriorated state if adequate funding cannot be secured. If the LPC revokes the designation, the congregation plans to proceed with the sale and demolition to make way for new construction that would include modern performance space as part of a larger residential project.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The church said it would file its formal appeal with the LPC imminently, and parties on both sides of the dispute have signaled they will continue to press their cases at the upcoming hearing and in public forums.
