Beyond Architecture: The NEW New York

“These reflections set out to explore the impact, legacy, and future of architectural preservation in New York City, to inspire as well as inform.” —Mark Favermann, The Arts Fuse

Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel has been a leading voice during the last sixty years on some of the defining urban issues of our time. As the first director of New York City’s newly created Department of Cultural Affairs, she brought the first public art exhibit to Bryant Park and the first public performance by the Metropolitan Opera to Central Park. She was appointed to the board of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum by President Reagan and President Clinton appointed her to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. As President Obama’s appointee, she served on the American Battle Monuments Commission, and was named chair of their New Monuments Committee. In 2022, President Biden appointed her to the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts.

The longest-serving commissioner of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, and chair of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Foundation, she created and commissioned the now-standard Street Name signs and Markers/Maps programs, which identify NYC’s historic districts. As chair of the Historic Landmarks Preservation Center, she created the Cultural Medallions program to commemorate notable New Yorkers. In 2007, she was appointed to the New York State Council on the Arts, where she was vice chair and then chair and CEO. In 2023, she was appointed by New York’s Governor Hochul to the City University of New York board of trustees.

The recipient of four honorary doctorates, numerous honors and awards—including her election as an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects—and with service to many boards, Diamonstein-Spielvogel earned her doctorate from NYU. A long-term board member of PEN America, she was also elected an honorary member of PEN Slovakia. She has shared her scholarship through many books about art, architecture, photography, crafts, design, and public policy; numerous museum exhibitions; and as a television interviewer and producer for local and national networks. Her book Handmade in America was the basis of the first exhibition of crafts in the White House; her Landmarks of New York inspired an exhibition that toured with the U.S. Department of State to 82 countries.