This is a really interesting and exciting project, if it gets off the ground. from lohud.com Historians preparing architectural survey of Yonkers buildings By Ernie Garcia • elgarcia@lohud.com • May 26, 2009 YONKERS - Two historians are preparing an inventory of the city's homes and buildings to identify historic or architectural landmarks. The representatives from TKS Historic Resources of Babylon, N.Y., are poring over maps in the city's Planning Department and developing paperwork they will use to categorize and describe homes, buildings and neighborhoods. The city hired the company to produce the survey for the Landmarks Preservation Board, which would use the information to consider landmark applications. The landmarks board also needs an updated survey of old structures so it can make informed decisions on demolition permits it must review. In July, Mayor Phil Amicone issued an executive order requiring that all buildings over 75 years old be reviewed for landmark protection before they can be razed. Yonkers has a partial inventory of vintage buildings. A survey in 1980-81 was incomplete because the project ran out of funding. Other surveys have been done of neighborhoods where residents have proposed historic districts, but some older areas of the city have remained unexamined. The current survey's budget is limited to $50,000, so the landmarks board will have to decide which parts of the city most urgently need review. Sarah Bean Apmann and Karen A. Kennedy of TKS told the landmarks board at a meeting May 18 that they will focus their survey on structures built before 1935. The process will take about a year. The TKS team plans to return to the landmarks board in July or August to give a final presentation on how the survey will proceed. At that time, the landmarks board is expected to tell Apmann and Kennedy where in the city they should begin their survey.