Municipal Art Society bestows preservation award on Bruce Ratner

From Capital New York:

A venerable preservationist group will on June 11 honor a developer deplored by preservationists, and the resulting intra-preservationist controversy has boiled over into a proper, public scrum.

On Monday afternoon, the Historic Districts Council sent out an email to the press declaring itself “appalled” by the actions of its colleagues over at the Municipal Art Society for their decision to bestow the coveted Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal on Bruce Ratner and Maryanne Gilmartin, the executive chairman and president and C.E.O, respectively, of Forest City Ratner Companies, the real estate concern that gave us MetroTech, Atlantic Yards, Atlantic Center Mall and New York by Gehry at 8 Spruce Street.

“Conflating the company’s record of bulldozing neighborhoods with Mrs. Onassis’s pivotal role in preserving New York City’s Landmarks Law is something H.D.C. feels should not go unnoticed,” reads the email.

“It’s not like they’re building great spaces,” said Simeon Bankoff, the group’s executive director, in a follow-up interview.

To register its displeasure this time around, the Historic Districts Council will host a screening of a film chronicling Ratner’s Atlantic Yards exploits, Battle for Brooklyn, the same night as the gala. Afterward, the group will host a panel discussion featuring Atlantic Yards critics.

One critic that will not be participating? The Municipal Art Society.

During the height of the Atlantic Yards controversy, the society's leadership criticized Ratner for project delays it said could blight the neighborhood.

Ron Shiffman, a Pratt Institute professor, Atlantic Yards critic and a recipient of the Jane Jacobs Medal, which is administered by M.A.S., argued that the nonprofit's pursuit of money was clouding its judgment.

“It says that they needed money,” said Shiffman. “But there’s a point at which principle has to trump need when it comes to these kinds of things.”