Letter from League president Paul S. Byard to Mayor David Dinkins – March 1990

The Architectural League invested in historic preservation work in the 1970s, and continued that work intermittently in the ensuing years. This was particularly evident during the presidency of Paul Byard, a lawyer and architect who served in this capacity from 1989 to 1994. Over the course of his career, Byard was involved in the preservation of several of New York City’s most important landmarks, such as Carnegie Hall, the Cooper Union Foundation Building, the State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division Courthouse on Madison Square, and the old Custom House on Bowling Green. As president of the League, Byard elevated the organization as an advocacy platform regarding the preservation of New York City’s historic building fabric, work that also animated his time as an architect, president of the National Center for Preservation Law, and director of Columbia University’s Historic Preservation program, where he served until his passing in 2008.

Byard penned this letter to Mayor David Dinkins in 1990 to encourage the mayor to appoint a chair to the Planning Commission, which had been without leadership for some time following the resignation of Sylvia Deutsch, the influential chairwoman whose tenure marked the beginning of the redevelopment of Time Square. In this letter, Byard noted his displeasure with the Planning Commission’s orientation over the preceding decade, and encouraged the mayor to chart out a new direction for the commission with this coming appointment.

This document represents the first in a series of archival documents that we will post in the coming months whose digitization was made possible by a 2024 grant from the New York Preservation Archive Project. NYPAP is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of archival collections that highlight historic preservation work in New York City. This grant has allowed the League to digitize its extensive archive related to historic preservation work, facilitating much greater access to this valuable collection by researchers and others interested in the history of the League. It also serves as a timely reference to our February 6, 2025 Mentorship Program event, hosted by Paul Byard’s namesake firm Platt Byard Dovell White Architects, and generously sponsored by the Richard Hampton Jenrette Foundation.