Exhibit Opening – Change Preservation

Join us at 6:00 PM for the opening of Change Preservation!

Curated by architects Wes Hiatt and Violette de la Selle, the exhibition brings together the material of Changing Change, a research project shown in two chapters at Citygroup in 2024 and 2025 on how buildings in Manhattan’s Lower East Side and Chinatown endure through constant alteration. Patterns of Change layers current conditions over 1940s tax photographs and permit application drawings held at the Municipal Archives, documenting blocks and buildings as they were and as they are. Keep the Change illustrates that history with articulated composite drawings that present each building’s many lives at once.

Presented at the NYC Department of Records & Information Services, where the source information is held, the drawings read as both evidence and argument. The drawings advocate that the centuries-old buildings of the Lower East Side stand as manifestos for a mode of preservation that contrasts with the one in effect: unconstrained by a particular historical appearance — pristine and immutable — they contribute meaningfully to their communities, taking on different aspects as they adapt to the changing circumstances that keep them in use. What if preservation frameworks could embrace and even facilitate degrees of change rather than requiring high-fidelity restorations?

At 7:00 PM, immediately following the opening, there will be a live podcast interview with Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz, the commissioner of the NYC Department of Records & Information Services (DORIS).