Social Diary 11/06/03 - Last night at the Plaza in the Grand Ballroom, the New York Landmarks Conservancy held its 10th annual Living Landmarks Celebration

The rain didn't slow us down last night

Last night outside the Plaza. 8:15 PM. Photo: JH.

Last night at the Plaza in the Grand Ballroom, the New York Landmarks Conservancy held its 10th annual Living Landmarks Celebration. The Conservancy is one of the largest preservation organizations in the country. The Conservancy does great work protecting New York architectural heritage through restoration, maintenance, financial and technical programs to inform and assist the citizens on conserving this great city.

The late Brendan Gill was a co-founder who needed a hook to hold a benefit to raise funds for the conservation activities. The idea for “Living Landmarks” came from Governor Hugh Carey, a friend of Peg Breen (who is the President of the Landmarks Conservancy), is said to have remarked, “Make me a Landmark so I can stay just the way I am.” And so it was.

Last night they celebrated the induction into the realm of the Living Landmarks of New York: Louise and Henry Grunwald, John Kander and Fred Ebb, Elaine Kaufman, Peter G. Peterson, Elaine Stritch and Victor Gotbaum. And was it fun. Liza (with a “Z”) was there and sang for her old friends of whom she said: “they invented me when I was 17,” and so it was. She sang (Kander and Ebb’s) “Liza with a Zee,” “And the World Goes Round,” and finished off the evening with a rousing ... guess what? ... ”New York, New York.”

Living Landmark Liz Smith was the rousing and irreverent emcee and Living Landmark Peter Duchin, with his orchestra and vocalist Roberta Fabiano, was the rousing music. Was it fun? Was it fun?!! It was a party, black tie and all, and it was New York, New York, it was!

More tomorrow and with pictures!

Last night at The Plaza for the Landmarks Conservancy's 10th annual Living Landmarks gala

Elaine Kaufman

Louise and Henry Grunwald

Pete Peterson

Liza with Kander and Ebb

Toni Goodale and Victor Gotbaum

Elaine Stritch

Meanwhile, while on the subject of landmarks, last week I went to a luncheon at The Pierre for the World Monuments Fund.

While some of us humanoids are actively (which others are passively) tearing apart the creations of mankind in civilization, some of us humanoids are making an intense (and sometimes desperate) effort to save those creations that are, in the words of Herbert Muschamp of The New York Times, “ ... much more than a plea to protect history. It is itself history: a record of the growth of consciousness in a shrinking world.”

A growth of consciousness in a world growing smaller and smaller by the day, and more and more dangerous to every thing, every body is what the World Monuments Fund is doing with their World Monuments Watch.

Eugene and Clare Thaw

It’s a subject I never gave a thought to until I started attending these luncheons a few years ago. The organizations members are a lofty and eclectic bunch. John Julius, Viscount Norwich is the Honorary Chair. Ronald Lauder and H. Peter Stern are the vice chars. Among the board are Mica Ertegun, Ashton Hawkins, Prince Amyn Aga Khan, Lois de Menil. Its benefactors include Donna and Bill Acquavella, Gail and Parker Gilbert, Agnes Gund, Jo Carole Lauder (and her husband), Anne and John Marion.

And the benefit committee reads like any society benefit’s wish list – for example: Irene Aitken, Maisie and Jamie Houghton, Nan Kempner, Dr. Mathilde Krim, Frederick Melhado, Richard Oldenburg, HRH Princess Firyal and Lionel Pincus, Sam Reed, Marie Helene Weill. Its patrons for this year’s luncheon included American Express, Mary Mills Dunea, Mrs. Randolph Hearst, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation.

These are names that in New York spell can-do, success, and activity. The luncheon is a major fundraiser and draws a lot of the 24-carat glitterati and at it they present someone with the Hadrian Award. The Award is presented annually as an honor to an international leader whose patronage has greatly enriched the appreciation and conservation of art and architecture in the world.

Lyn Nesbit

Several years ago when I first started attending these luncheons, I didn’t quite get it. It seemed like a lofty ambition of a lofty crowd, often privileged, often-rich individuals who were supporting a kind of worldwide open-museum of the landmarks of antiquity (and just plain age) – a nice but almost private activity for the realm of the very rich.

9/11 changed my perception of all that. The World Monuments Fund was, it turned out, farseeing and ahead of the rest of us. Civilization and its history is drawing close to the end of its tether. Many of those of us humanoids who have the means and passion to press on, instead of destroy-destroy are doing their work through the WMF. We’re talking about the safety net of civilization; an affirmation of the creative spirit of mankind.

The WMF has a list of the 100 most endangered sites in the world. They include things that may seem obscure such as Ghana’s Larabanga Mosque to the Great Wall of China or the 65 landmarks in six historic districts of Lower Manhattan. The funds raised are restoring, protecting, conserving.

This year the Hadrian Award went to Eugene V. Thaw for his contribution to the worlds of art and architecture which has enriched many institutions (and lives) here and abroad. Mr. Thaw has had what appears to be a charmed life, as an art and antiques dealer, collector and benefactor of the arts.

Lee Thaw

His interests have associated him with the adobe architecture of New Mexico, the Great Court of the British Museum, the J. Pierpont Morgan Library, the Fenimore Art Museum, the Met, MoMA, the (Jackson) Pollock-(Lee) Krasner Foundation to the Glimmerglass Opera Company in Cooperstown. Mr. Thaw and his devoted and supportive wife Clare has made many gifts to these and all kinds of institutions in his care and promotion of cultural heritage.

Viscount Norwich flew over from London to tell us about his friend Mr. Thaw, who is one of those men who has had the good fortune to always love his work, love the people he’s worked with, and whenever possible was helpful to his friends. Then Michel David-Weill, last year’s honoree, presented the award.

Mr. Thaw has a professorial air. He does indeed seem like one of those men whose lives have winnowed like great wine and reflects a kind of joy of life; not necessarily free from care but blessed with the pleasure of the beauty and wonder of it all. If I am beginning to sound a bit lofty about all this, it's thanks to the optimism of the minds of men like Mr. Thaw, and Viscount Norwich and M. David-Weill, and so many others who participate the World Monument Funds.

Someone asked me after lunch if Mr. Thaw was related to Harry Thaw, the man who shot the New York architect Stanford White ninety-seven years ago over his affair with Mr. Thaw’s affair with (before his marriage to his) his wife Evelyn Nesbit. I said I didn’t know but assumed all those Thaws were related.