Robert B. Tierney, chairman of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, has the difficult job of deciding which parts of city are worthy of preservation, and which parts need to make way for something new.
Tierney, along with the 10 unpaid commissioners who sit on the board -- most of them architectural experts -- hold the power to subjectively distinguish and designate landmarks from run-of-the mill geriatric architecture and, touchier still, the power to preserve them, even without consent from their rightful owners.
Needless to say, often times the commission's decisions are controversial. But Tierney doesn't shy away from it.
" 'There is just an enormous responsibility to keep intact what we already have, keep it healthy, used, and animated,' he says. 'That said, we make discretionary decisions all the time. You can't designate everything. Choices have to be made.' "
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