Frequently Asked Questions

  • The Center at West Park (CWP) is a secular, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides affordable, accessible space for artists and community programs on the Upper West Side and serves New Yorkers across the city.

    Founded in 2016 by local community members in partnership with congregants of West Park Presbyterian Church, CWP operated in the NY Landmark West Park building from 2017 until July 2025. During that time, it carried forward the building’s long history as a home for the arts and community life, hosting rehearsals, performances, classes and other programs that served tens of thousands of New Yorkers.

    CWP continues its programming at other venues while working to preserve NY Landmark West Park. Its goal is to reopen the building’s seven spaces for arts and community use and restore the landmark over time, giving New Yorkers a lasting place to create, collaborate and gather.

  • The Landmarks Preservation Commission called NY Landmark West Park “one of the Upper West Side’s most important buildings” when it designated the church a landmark in 2010. That recognition reflected its architectural significance. CWP’s work gives its preservation a continuing public purpose: seven spaces under one roof for affordable arts and community use.

    Artists need room to develop an idea, rehearse, experiment and build something before it is ready for an audience. Audiences of all ages need artistic experiences that fit their budgets, and neighbors need accessible places to learn, participate and come together. CWP has already made that possible through subsidized rehearsals, performances, classes and community programs, and wants to build on that work.

    Renowned artists from Mark Ruffalo to Laurence Fishburne to Marisa Tomei have told us how important spaces like NY Landmark West Park were to their development long before they were household names. New York City needs affordable spaces to support future generations of artists and audiences, and community spaces for New Yorkers of all backgrounds. When spaces like this disappear, they are difficult to replace.

  • You can help by volunteering, attending CWP programs, becoming a member or donor, spreading the word through culture and arts organizations, and connecting CWP with potential partners.

    Visit our How You Can Help page for details and ways to get involved.

  • Stay informed about upcoming CWP programs and the future of West Park by signing up for the CWP newsletter and following CWP on social media. Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

 

CWP’s benefit reading of Network at NY Landmark West Park in April 2025.

 

  • West Park’s owners, the West Park Presbyterian congregation, have entered into a contract with Alchemy Properties that would replace the landmark church with luxury housing. The owners are seeking permission from the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to demolish the building through a financial hardship application.

    The LPC has held several public hearings over the past four years on the proposed demolition and hardship claim and is expected to make a preliminary decision soon. It is considering whether the application meets the legal requirements for hardship, including whether the existing property is incapable of earning a reasonable return.

    If the LPC makes a preliminary determination of hardship, it would begin a 180-day process to seek an alternative purchaser or tenant willing to preserve the building on reasonably equivalent terms. That preliminary finding would not itself authorize demolition or guarantee CWP the right to purchase NY Landmark West Park.

    CWP is working to acquire and preserve the landmark, reopen its seven spaces for affordable arts and community use, and restore the building over time.

  • The hardship process could create CWP’s very first opportunity to purchase the city landmark, reopen its seven spaces and complete necessary restoration work.

    CWP has received private donations and pledges toward acquiring NY Landmark West Park. That effort builds on years of operating the building and providing affordable arts and community programs. Elected officials have also directed public funding to CWP’s programming and subsidized rental space.

  • Yes. The building has been determined to be structurally sound, and its restoration needs can be addressed in stages. CWP has raised sufficient funds for addressing the facade work needed to remove the sidewalk shed. The LPC’s consulting engineer has estimated that this facade work could be completed within months once permitted and begun.

    The seven spaces can reopen immediately upon acquisition, while additional repairs and longer-term restoration proceed.

  • CWP could resume programming immediately. The building is structurally sound and safe for public gathering. Repairs and restoration can proceed while CWP brings those spaces back into regular use for affordable arts and community programs.

  • The sidewalk shed has remained because of concerns about the deterioration of decorative sandstone façade elements. It was installed in 2001, before West Park’s landmark designation in 2010 and CWP’s tenancy. The owners never completed the necessary repairs. In 2024, CWP made attempts to repair the facade, but the owners prevented that work.

    The LPC’s consulting engineer has estimated that the necessary facade repairs which would enable the shed to be removed could be completed within months once proper permits are in hand and the work is able to begin.

 

Manhattan Rhythmics celebrates a decade at NY Landmark West Park in June 2025

  • Preserving West Park would protect a significant New York City landmark and return seven spaces under one roof to affordable arts and community use. Its distinctive architecture contributes to the beauty and character of the city and reopening it would allow New Yorkers to once again experience what’s inside.

    For artists, that means room to rehearse, experiment, develop new work and perform. For New Yorkers, it means access to classes, concerts, theater and community gatherings. CWP demonstrated those possibilities during its years in the building, serving tens of thousands of people.

  • Founded in 2016 by local community members and West Park congregants, CWP moved into the church building in 2017 and became the building’s prime tenant responsible for maintenance and stewardship in January 2018 under a five-year lease with an option to renew for another five years. In January 2022, the owners disputed the renewal option and later sued to invalidate it. Following a court decision in the owners’ favor, CWP was required to leave in July 2025.

    CWP’s commitment to continuing its mission has never wavered. It has developed programming at venues across Manhattan, including St. Paul & St. Andrew on the Upper West Side, Harlem School of the Arts, OneTaste Gallery in East Harlem, New Stage Performance Space in Manhattan Valley, Dixon Place and Abrons Arts Center on the Lower East Side, and Urban Stages in Midtown.

    These venues allow CWP to continue serving New Yorkers but can accommodate only a fraction of the programming it could offer at NY Landmark West Park.

  • Yes. Numerous building and engineering experts on both sides of the issue have inspected the building and found it structurally sound and safe for public assembly. Three-dimensional scans of the building have been created, hand soundings and close inspection of the facade have been performed, and extensive structural inspections of the building from basement to roof have been undertaken.

    Certain building systems, such as climate control and lavatories, should be updated. Some roof work is needed, and decorative sandstone facade elements should be repaired and replaced, but the church is structurally sound and safe.

Ballet & Beyond in NY Landmark West Park’s Third Floor Studio in July 2024.

  • CWP is dedicated to supporting affordable access to the arts for audiences and artists alike. We carry out this mission by:

    • Offering pay-what-you-can ticket options for all CWP events

    • Providing sliding-scale rental opportunities, including $10/hour subsidized rehearsal space.

    • Uplifting emerging artists through the Center for New Work Development, providing free performance space, rehearsal space, technical & marketing support and more to participants in the CWP Evolution Festival, CWP Launchpad Reading Series, CWP Object Movement Puppetry Festival, and more.

    • The Sanctuary: A 375-seat venue for theater, concerts, dance, opera, film, worship services, and large community events, with theatrical lighting, sound and a raised stage.

    • Pushkin Hall: An intimate black-box theater for plays, smaller productions and experimental performances, with a history of use by Theater 86 (formerly Russian Arts Theater & Studio)

    • Chapel: A flexible gathering space for classes, workshops, rehearsals, meetings, support groups and community events.

    • Third Floor Studio: Space for dance and movement rehearsals, instruction and creative development.

    • Second Floor Studio: A smaller room for intimate rehearsals, coaching, workshops and small-group work.

    • Third Floor Art Studio: Space for visual arts, classes, workshops and collaborative creative projects.

    • First Floor Dance Studios: Space for dance rehearsals, movement instruction and development of performance work.

    You can experience these spaces in our drone tour of West Park, narrated by Christian Slater.

  • CWP offers $10/hour subsidized rehearsal space for eligible artists and groups, along with sliding-scale rates for qualifying events, performances, workshops and other uses. Rates vary by space and type of use. Affordability is a key pillar of our mission.

    Visit our rentals page to inquire about availability and rates.

  • CWP’s affordable space and programming are supported by multiple sources of public funding and private donations, including funding from the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Council, and private donors.

    This support allows us to offer rehearsal space at $10/hour, as well as sliding-scale rentals for events, performances and more. All CWP programming, including performances and workshops, has pay-what-you-can options available for audiences with financial need.

 

Dreamcats! The Musical in NY Landmark West Park’s Sanctuary as part of the 2024 Evolution Festival

  • If you’ve never been inside the NY Landmark West Park, you might not know that the building has seven unique spaces, including a 375-seat Sanctuary with theatrical lighting and sound, three dance studios, an 80-seat black-box theater, and more. These spaces accommodate rehearsals, performances, classes and community gatherings under one roof. They also sustain a business model where full-price tickets and rentals for commercial producers, film shoots and other uses help support subsidized access for students and young artists.

    In 2024, CWP offered thousands of pay-what-you-can tickets and hundreds of hours of $10/hour rehearsal space while generating a surplus.

  • A small brick chapel on the site was originally designed by prominent architect Leopold Eidlitz in 1883 and completed in 1885. In 1889, the growing congregation commissioned Henry Kilburn to design a large new church and to redesign Eidlitz’s facade, creating a unified Romanesque Revival-style church complex, finished in 1890.

    West Park was designated a New York City landmark in 2010 in recognition of its architectural significance. The resulting building is a monumental structure that is considered one of the best examples of a Romanesque Revival-style religious structure that is exceedingly rare in New York City.

  • NY Landmark West Park is one of New York’s most distinctive architectural landmarks, recognized for its Romanesque Revival design and unmistakable red sandstone façade. In its 2010 designation report, the Landmarks Preservation Commission described the church as “one of the Upper West Side’s most important buildings” and recognized it as one of the city’s finest remaining examples of exceedingly rare Romanesque Revival religious architecture.

Kenneth Lonergan addresses the crowd before Network in NY Landmark West Park’s Sanctuary in April 2025

  • The Landmarks Preservation Commission is the largest municipal historic preservation agency in America. It was formed in 1965 to identify, protect and regulate New York City’s irreplaceable historic places and buildings. It currently regulates over 38,000 buildings (approximately 4% of NYC’s buildings).

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission has the authority to issue a demolition permit for a landmark property if the property’s circumstances meet all the requirements of a hardship finding, one of which is that the property cannot make a reasonable annual rate of return on investment.

  • The owners decided to pursue selling NY Landmark West Park during the COVID shutdown in 2020, about two years after CWP became the building’s prime tenant under a five-year lease with a five-year renewal option.

    Since 2022, the Landmarks Preservation Commission has held several public hearings on the proposed demolition and hardship claim. Public testimony has demonstrated strong support for preservation, and Manhattan Community Board 7 voted to recommend denying the hardship application in November 2025 and previously in 2022. The LPC is expected to make a preliminary decision soon. Separately, a December 2025 hearing for public testimony had an overwhelming majority in favor of stopping the demolition.  

    If the LPC determines that the hardship requirements are met, it will issue a preliminary finding of hardship, beginning a 180-day process to seek an alternative purchaser or tenant willing to preserve the building on reasonably equivalent terms. That preliminary finding would not itself authorize demolition.

  • Thousands of New Yorkers have signed the petition to save West Park, and hundreds have testified in support of preservation over the past four years. Supporters include elected officials, such as former Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Council Member Gale Brewer, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, former NYS Assembly Member Daniel O’Donnell, NYS Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, NYSAssembly Member Eli Northrup. Support also comes from dozens of community and preservation organizations and renowned artists, including Mark Ruffalo, Matt Dillon, Fisher Stevens, Laurence Fishburne, and Scarlett Johansson.

    Their support reflects both the building’s architectural and historic significance and what it makes possible: affordable space for artists to create, audiences to experience their work, and communities to gather. Preserving West Park would protect that history while sustaining its role in New York City’s cultural future.

  • A donation to CWP supports our mission to provide affordable, accessible, inclusive, and diverse programming for New Yorkers. Please visit our donation page.