{"id":66566,"date":"2025-12-10T11:24:32","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T11:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/66566\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T11:24:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T11:24:32","slug":"fate-of-uws-west-park-presbyterian-church-pushed-back-to-early-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/66566\/","title":{"rendered":"Fate of UWS West-Park Presbyterian Church Pushed Back to Early 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>West-Park Presbyterian Church on the Upper West Side. WSR.<\/p>\n

By Gus Saltonstall<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the city\u2019s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) heard testimony on the West-Park Presbyterian Church\u2019s request to strip the more than 130-year-old Upper West Side house of worship of its landmark designation. If the commission eventually grants that request, made in the form of a \u201chardship application,\u201d the church plans to sell the property to a developer, who would demolish the structure to make way for a high-rise apartment building.<\/p>\n

But an LPC decision is still pending. Even before public testimony began on Tuesday, a commission member announced that the application will face further consideration in \u201cearly 2026,\u201d when the church will be asked to respond to questions from the public and the commission.<\/p>\n

At that point, if there is no other fact-finding needed, members of the commission will finally vote on whether to remove the landmark status of the church at the corner of West 86th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most helpful and relevant testimony you can provide is whether the applicant has satisfied the hardship criteria,\u201d Mark Silberman, general counsel for the LPC, said before Tuesday\u2019s testimony. \u201cTestimony about the good work of the church or the importance of art to the Upper West Side or how much you appreciate the historic building is not relevant to the Commission\u2019s ultimate resolution on this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speakers who presented testimony on Tuesday repeated points that have been made throughout the many months of debate on the fate of West-Park Presbyterian. Those in favor of granting the hardship application, which includes the Presbytery \u2014 the church governing body \u2014 argue that the application is justified because of the poor physical condition of the church and the amount of money it would cost to restore the building, including removal of the more than 20-year-old sidewalk shed. Those arguing that the church building should be preserved \u2014 which includes the Center at West Park, a nonprofit arts organization that operated out of the church for years until this summer \u2014 spoke to the importance of saving the historic structure that could continue to serve as a community, theatrical, and religious facility.<\/p>\n

Upper West Side City Councilmember Gale Brewer, who played a large part in getting the church landmarked, testified on Tuesday that it was the commission\u2019s duty to \u201cdo everything possible to preserve buildings in New York City, and this is a building that can and must be saved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Actor and Upper West Sider Mark Ruffalo, who is a longtime supporter of the church and The Center at West Park<\/a>, also testified.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m also really an Upper West Sider. My kids were raised there. I love it there. I believe in us as a community,\u201d Ruffalo said. \u201cWe\u2019re here to oppose this hardship request. Yes, I\u2019m a celebrity, but behind me are a thousand young actors who were just like me, who came to New York looking for a dream. And these spaces fulfill that ability. We can\u2019t let them go.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can watch the more than three hours of presentation and testimony on the hardship application for West-Park Presbytery Church, below.<\/p>\n

Read More:<\/p>\n

Subscribe to West Side Rag\u2019s FREE email newsletter here<\/a>. And you can Support the Rag\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West-Park Presbyterian Church on the Upper West Side. WSR. By Gus Saltonstall On Tuesday, the city\u2019s Landmarks Preservation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,33868,31828,9,24,63,129,131,130,34675],"class_list":["post-66566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-gale-brewer","tag-mark-ruffalo","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news","tag-west-park-presbyterian-church"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}