Why Mark Ruffalo and Wendell Pierce are fighting for a crumbling church

For years, a conflict over whether or not to tear down one of New York City’s historic churches, a 19th-century Romanesque Revival building on the Upper West Side, has been cast in epic terms as a battle between the small folks and the big corporations.

In this case, those who see themselves as representatives of the little people include a growing list of New York celebrities.

And big business? That would be a real estate company working with the small congregation of West Park Presbyterian Church, which says they can’t afford to refurbish the dilapidated building and hopes to sell it to a developer to build new luxury apartments on the site. to build.

What followed is a bewildering tug-of-war over the moral high grounds, set against the backdrop of a long-running conflict over who feels in control of the city’s future.

“It’s about the people versus the businesses in this town,” as Mark Ruffalo, the actor and a church neighbor, said at a public hearing this month. He advocated preserving the church building, which has stood on the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and West 86th Street since the 1880s.

Roger Leaf, the chairman of West Park’s administrative committee, which was established by the New York Presbytery in 2020 to help the church manage the space and find a buyer, says the congregation of about a dozen people has lost its financial resources. bleeding wants to stop and use the proceeds from the real estate deal for better causes, including serving needy people in the city.

“It’s ironic that the wealthy neighbors of this church, who have millions of apartments, who have windows facing this space, claim that they are the little guys,” he said.

The actual story is long, complicated, and acrimonious, with an ongoing litigation, several conflicting technical assessments, and allegations of bad faith from both sides.

It is another example of how houses of worship, faced with declining membership, have turned to private development to rejuvenate themselves.

And, more broadly, it represents New York City’s many fraught attempts to balance growth and preservation, a conversation that has become more consistent as the city grapples with a housing shortage and officials scramble for places to build new homes. building – even luxury.

But the participation of Mr. Ruffalo and a number of celebrities – the actor Wendell Pierce, the comedian Amy Schumer, the rapper Common and more – in the battle for the Church more than two decades after it first began has taken an unusual turn. . to a common urban conflict.

Mr. Ruffalo even cornered Mayor Eric Adams at the Tribeca Film Festival this month to plead his case. The meeting led to another, more formal gathering on Thursday with members of City Hall, including deputy mayor for housing, economic development and labor, Maria Torres-Springer, and church leaders, who find it baffling that their attempt to destroy the building turned into a high-profile political melodrama.

All parties agree on the storied history of the church and its architectural significance. The Monuments Commission praised the “extraordinarily deep color of the red sandstone cladding” and its “monumental and distinguished presence”, making it “one of the most important buildings of the Upper West Side”. West Park became known in the 1970s and 1980s as an early ally of the anti-war movement and LGBTQ people, Leaf said.

But around the same time, the church became a focal point in the city’s real estate battle.

As early as the 1980s, West Park fought conservative regulations that would restrict the use of its property, arguing that it should be excluded from a nearby historic district.

Church members had been looking for developers to shape a new future for their run-down building since 2001, said Marsha Flowers, a West Park ruling elder who Member of the congregation for 30 years.

In 2010, as the church was about to close a deal to build housing on the site, conservationists successfully got the building designated as a city landmark. Landmarks are strictly regulated and usually prevent owners from making major or even minor changes that alter the appearance of their buildings.

Mr Leaf said conditions in the building were getting worse. Estimates for how much it would cost in total to renovate are about $50 million, including $14 million to address crumbling facades and $4 million to comply with building and fire code violations.

Last June, the church filed a new application with the Landmarks Preservation Commission, essentially saying the deteriorating building and its landmark status posed a hardship to the church, which has no funds to sustain it. They asked the commission to redevelop it.

But the commission has granted such applications just 13 times since its inception in the 1960s, suggesting the odds are in favor of conservationists.

Nevertheless, Mr. Leaf is optimistic. He said if the application is approved, a developer, Alchemy Partners, has already signed a contract that would pay the church more than $30 million to demolish the building and build luxury apartments there.

“That would fund food banks, soup kitchens, heating centers, early childhood education centers, homeless shelters and so on,” he said.

Alchemy would also pay the church $8 million to furnish a new space in the building.

Preservationists dispute many of the church’s characterizations of her predicament, saying she exaggerates the dollar numbers needed. On par with them is a non-profit organization called the Center at West Park, a tenant that holds art shows and other events at the church.

(The West Park congregation itself went virtual during the pandemic; another congregation, the Lighthouse Chapel, holds weekly services there.)

Some even accuse the church of deliberately letting the building fall into disrepair.

“If the committee were to grant this application, it would give every owner of a landmark building in New York City a roadmap on how to get your building destroyed,” said Michael Hiller, an attorney representing the center.

Mr Ruffalo said in an interview that the neighborhood “breathed a sigh of relief” when the church was designated a landmark.

He said he regularly attends events there and had been considering hosting an event himself when he heard about the church’s application a few weeks ago.

“This is what I do, man,” he said. “I use my platform to speak up for people who are being abused by a system that has kept them out, that doesn’t give them a voice and that we never hear from.”

He said he enlisted other friends and celebrities, and he dismissed the idea that the situation was an example of wealthy New Yorkers using their power.

Mr. Ruffalo and others are running their own campaign to raise money for the building. A crowdsourced fundraiser raised approximately $16,000 toward their $250,000 goal — including a $1,000 donation from Mr. Ruffalo.

“I wouldn’t have made it as an actor without spaces like that,” Mr Ruffalo said. “Without these places, there is no theater in New York City.”

Debby Hirshman, who became the center’s executive director this spring, said anonymous donors are willing to pay for necessary repairs to remedy the hardship — as much as $50 million. However, the church said it had not received detailed information about such a proposal.

It’s not clear what will happen next with the church’s application, or when the committee will make a decision.