Op-Ed: West Hollywood Planning Commission Must Remember What ‘Planning’ Actually Means and Not Let Developers Destroy Its Fabric

Good Evening Commissioners,

This past week a John H. Beyer of Beyer Blinder Belle, celebrated architect in Manhattan passed away. He and his firm championed an unwavering commitment to historic preservation and adaptive reuse and helped safeguard the city’s past over the past 50 years even as developers raced to push the city into the future.

Mr. Beyer and his firm drew particular inspiration from journalist Jane Jacobs whose 1961 book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, inspired a groundswell of nationwide support of historic preservation. Ms. Jacobs praised the firm for putting her notable ideas into action. “They were looking at the fabric of the community”.

In subsequent decades the most sought after firm exhibited sensitive renovation and expansion projects. In their hands, what had been considered eyesores became civic jewels.

Grand Central Station, the Whitney Museum, New York Public Library Main Building, the Frick Collection and Henri Bendel as well as new residential buildings and projects in Washington, D.C. Lastly the firm developed site plans for rebuilding World Trade Center which they considered their most important work of late.

“We ask that the public understand what “planning” means: the relationship among terrain, infrastructure, building mass, building use and open space”. This is the foundational element regardless of city size whether it be West Hollywood or Manhattan. West Hollywood had an excellent established blueprint which sensitive planners could easily have augmented through adaptive reuse in neighborhoods and along main corridors to thoughtfully retain the original structures and promote an evolution of neighborhoods through design.

The Historic Preservation Ordinance was meant to be a respected tool rather than be reduced to an artifact on its own. Many current developers unfortunately have used the Housing Accountability Act as license to build thoughtless, opportunistic structures that destroy the fabric of our communities. West Hollywood has been usurped producing a tragic result that didn’t need to occur.

-Lynn Russell

West Hollywood