Why Preservation?

The Lower East Side Is A Living History that’s a special part of New York City’s soul. It’s a collection of legendary neighborhoods. It’s beautiful old buildings and streetscapes that form a unique architectural and human synergy. But Its Physical Fabric – Its Buildings And Streetscapes – Is Under Attack. Read More

There’s nothing ordinary about the Lower East Side.
The LES has long been a cauldron of cultures, people, and ideas, and once the densest place on earth—more densely populated than what was then Calcutta. From the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, as we document here, the LES was simultaneously a confounding challenge of immense poverty and human need and a hotbed of social ferment and vaulting idealism. Read More

Jacob Riis—author of How the Other Half Lives, the powerful 1890 anti-tenement tract—was such an effective propagandist that even today his work obscures the vitality, significance, and beauty of many historic Lower East Side streetscapes and buildings. Read More