Exhibit Opening: Change Preservation

Join DORIS for the opening of Change Preservation, a new exhibit located in the first-floor alcove of 31 Chambers Street!
About this Event

On Wednesday, October 21st, the NYC Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS) presents Reflecting on NYC History: A Community Forum, a full day of programming at the historic Hall of Records.

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). To RSVP for this event, click here.

For more information about the rest of our October 21st programming, click here.

About the Curators:

Violette de la Selle, RA, LEED AP, is a founding member of the collective Citygroup. As an architect, she is committed to adapting buildings for continued use, as demonstrated by transforming Marcel Breuer’s Armstrong Rubber Company Building in New Haven into an energy-efficient hotel. She teaches at the Yale School of Architecture and Cornell AAP.

Wes Hiatt, AIA, NCARB, is an assistant professor of architecture at Lehigh University and co-director of Lehigh’s Small Cities Lab, where his research focuses on coalition building, urban change, and community-led design visioning projects. As an architect, Hiatt is the managing principal of Jaff Hiatt Architecture, D.P.C., an architecture practice based in Brooklyn, New York.