Harmon Hendricks Goldstone

Background

Harmon Hendricks Goldstone was born on May 4, 1911, in New York City, to Lafayette A. and Aline (Lewis) Goldstone.

Education

In 1932, Harmon received a Bachelor of Science from Harvard University. Then, from 1933 to 1935, he attended School Architecture, Harvard University, and then, he received a Master in Architecture from Columbia University in 1936.

Career

In 1936, Harmon Goldstone joined the firm of Harrison and Fouilhoux. There, he worked on developing the spiky Trylon and rotund Perisphere that symbolized the theme "Building the World of Tomorrow" at the 1939 New York World's Fair. When Harrison was named director of planning for the United Nations project in 1947, Goldstone was put in charge of assessing the organization's space requirements. Five years later, Goldstone formed his own firm, which today is known as Goldstone and Hinz. Goldstone retired in the early 1990s and devoted his time to reading. It was as a city official that he had the highest-profile.

In 1961, Goldstone, then president of the Municipal Art Society, was appointed by Mayor Robert Wagner to the Committee for the Preservation of Structures of Historic and Aesthetic Importance, a forerunner of the landmarks commission. That year, Goldstone also joined the City Planning Commission. He was the first architect to serve on the commission in a long while. Goldstone moved from the planning commission to the landmarks commission in 1968, becoming its first paid chairman.

During his tenure, 7,271 buildings were designated for preservation, both individually and as part of historic districts, according to a 1987 study by the Society for the Architecture of the City, a private preservation group. Ada Louise Huxtable, the architecture critic of The New York Times, said in 1974 that the commission had "become an unexpected and decisive force for neighborhood stabilization" and found itself "at a new threshold of power and influence." Goldstone was a member of Congregation Shearith Israel, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue at Central Park West and 70th Street, whose first sanctuary stood where his great-great-grandfather's copper business was later established.

In the early 1960s, before there was a landmarks commission, he championed the designation of the first Shearith Israel Cemetery, near Chatham Square in lower Manhattan, as a national historic landmark. In 1962, Goldstone also restored the 19th-century chapel by Calvert Vaux at the fourth Shearith Israel cemetery on Cypress Hills Street in Queens. In 1961, Mr. Goldstone, then president of the Municipal Art Society, was named by Mayor Robert F. Wagner to the Committee for the Preservation of Structures of Historic and Aesthetic Importance, a forerunner of the landmarks commission.

That year, Mr. Goldstone was also named to the City Planning Commission. He was the first architect to serve on the commission in a long while and The New York Times hailed his appointment, saying he had ''demonstrated his devotion to preservation of the aesthetic, historic and recreational values.'' On occasion, Mr. Goldstone was at odds with the commission. For instance, he voted in the minority against a proposed heliport to be built atop the Pan Am Building on Park Avenue in 1964.

Achievements

• Goldstone was an architect who helped form the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission during the early 1960s.
  
  The organization’s first full-time chairman from 1968 to 1973, he began his own architectural firm during the early 1950s and subsequently partnered with several others in the business. Goldstone wrote several books dedicated to his profession, including Lafayette A. Goldstone: A Career in Architecture and History Preserved. He also contributed writings to such works as Preservation and Conservation: Principles and Practices.

Works

More photos

• book

  • History Preserved

    (Describes the architectural and cultural importance of ne...)

    1976

Membership

Goldstone was a member of the New York City Planning Commission from 1962 to 1968.

Connections

Father:

Lafayette A. Goldstone

Mother:

Aline (Lewis) Goldstone