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When New Yorkers talk about landmarking, they often think of genteel town houses on tree-lined streets or distinguished cast-iron buildings. But concrete high-rises built in the 1960s?
Today, the Landmarks Preservation Commission is expected to schedule hearings on preserving I.M. Pei's Silver Towers, a modernist courtyard of concrete high-rises that rises above Greenwich Village.
"Even though this tower in the park superblock model was, for the most part, a failure, this was one of the most sensitive and well-designed ones," said Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, which has pushed for protecting the structures for five years. "The complex weaves itself more sensitively into the neighborhood than most, and it is one of the few superblocks in the country designed by one of the greatest architects of his era."
Berman also noted that...