2 Modern NYC Interiors Landmarked

Of the tens of thousands of properties under the purview of the LPC, interior landmarks comprise a minority—just one-third of one percent. Most of the 38,000 landmark properties are located within the 157 historic districts spread across the five boroughs. Individual Landmarks are fewer, numbering 1,465, but the total number of interior landmarks is only 125. (The smallest category is Scenic Landmarks, which includes Central Park and eleven other sites.) The LPC is the only body in the NYC government that has a say in how a building looks: changes to landmarks and properties within historic districts go before the commissioners for approval. While this process tends to maintain the exterior appearance of existing buildings, the spaces behind those facades can be maligned or destroyed if their interiors are not protected. The most notable recent loss, at least in the vein of modern architecture, was Alvar Aalto's Kaufmann Conference Center near the United Nations.

Logically, most Interior Landmarks are found within Individual Landmarks, like with the Rose Reading Room at the New York Public Library and the main concourse of Grand Central Terminal. Curiously, before the former Whitney Museum of American Art was designated an Interior Landmark on May 20, it was not an Individual Landmark. Instead, the exterior of the building at 945 Madison Avenue gained landmark protection through geographical circumstances: it is located within the Upper East Side Historic District, designated in 1981. Fittingly, this week's vote makes the former Whitney both an Individual Landmark and an Interior Landmark. 

The impetus for the vote was the Whitney's sale of the building to Sotheby's in 2023. Although the Whitney moved out of Marcel Breuer's 1966 building in 2015, decamping for a new building designed by Renzo Piano in the Meatpacking District, the museum leased out its old building first to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and then to the Frick Collection. Sotheby's subsequent announcement to work with Herzog & de Meuron on renovating the interior raised concerns over the loss of notable interior elements, including the lobby, the lower level adjacent to the “moat,” and the main stairwell at the front of the building. While these spaces were included in the interior designation, the gallery floors on the upper levels were omitted, regardless of numerous preservationists testifying for their inclusion. Regardless, Herzog & de Meuron's restoration of the Park Avenue Armory, just a few blocks away from the former Whitney, points to a likewise sensitive approach for Sotheby's. “Similar to our work on the Park Avenue Armory project,” Jacques Herzog said last year, when it was announced his firm would be transforming the building from a museum to an auction house, “we will be approaching the Breuer project with excitement and with respect for its original vision.”

Just over a mile south of the former Whitney sits another modern building just named an Interior Landmark. The Modulightor Building, designed by Paul Rudolph between 1988 and 1993, and built in phases before and after his death in 1997, was designated an Individual Landmark in 2023 and then designated an Interior Landmark on May 6, 2025. The building at 246 East 58th Street is owned and occupied by the Paul Rudolph Institute for Modern Architecture, which hosts exhibitions and holds regular open houses. Rudolph designed the building as a showroom for the Modulightor lighting company that he created in 1976, an office for his architectural studio, and with two duplex rental apartments. 

LPC's announcement of Modulightor's interior designation indicates that, thanks to the Rudolph Institute's open houses, “the Modulightor Building Apartment Duplex is the only publicly accessible interior designed by the architect in New York City.” These words draw attention to the fact Rudolph's own residence at 23 Beekman Place was designated an Individual Landmark in 2010—but not an Interior Landmark. While Rudolph's “Quadruplex” addition stands out among its neighbors on Beekman Place, its residential interiors were arguably more important than those inside the Modulightor Building and therefore would have been an excellent candidate for protection. But given that a subsequent owner modified the interior a few years after Rudolph's death (a later owner then restored the interior closer to Rudolph's original), only the exterior appearance of 23 Beekman Place is covered by the LPC. As such, the Modulightor Building can be seen as a way of preserving Paul Rudolph's legacy and, given the semi-public nature of the building, allowing people to see Rudolph's residential architecture in its original form.