City Landmarks Commission Tackles Backlog

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday as it tries to tackle a backlog of properties nominated for landmark status.

A few of the 95 properties have been under consideration for as long as 50 years.

Some preservationists are concerned that clearing the backlog all at once could leave the commission taking on too much. Justin Davidson, architecture critic for New York magazine, said in an interview with WNYC that valuable properties could be demolished.

"Our sense of what is historically or architecturally valuable changes over time," he said. "So something that looked insignificant 15 or 30 years ago looks significant today, sometimes vice versa."

The properties are a mix of commercial and residential.