Preservationists Rush to Protect Historic Buildings With Downtown redevelopment plans tentatively calling for a new transportation hub near the northeast corner of the World Trade Center site, and a transit corridor under Fulton Street, preservationists are rushing to protect nearby historic buildings from demolition or alteration as new large-scale projects are built. Last month they began an effort to persuade the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission to designate part of the area a historic district. The Historic Districts Council, which works to preserve the city’s historic neighborhoods, submitted a preliminary proposal to the commission for a John Street–Maiden Lane historic district, encompassing from half a block to two blocks east of Broadway between Liberty and Fulton streets. The area includes noted 19th-century structures such as the Corbin Building, at the northeast corner of Broadway and John Street, designed by Francis Kimball and built in 1888–89, and the Cushman Building, one block south, designed by C. P. H. Gilbert and constructed in 1897–98. “This area should be looked at very carefully, so when the transportation hub, which is very important, moves forward, it is planned and designed to do all the great things we want it to do, without destroying all the great architecture,” said Hal Bromm, the Historic Districts Council’s president. “When you walk in that area, you feel a strong sense of place created by the ensemble of all the buildings and their relation to one another,” he said. Some preservationists fear that the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which is overseeing the redevelopment of the trade center site and surrounding areas, will use the power of eminent domain to condemn architecturally significant buildings. Eminent domain would trump even the protections provided to buildings in a historic district. At recent meetings with Community Board 1 members, Sherida Paulsen, the Landmarks Commission’s chairwoman, expressed support for the new district, and was reassuring about the planning process. “Since 9/11, Landmarks has been called in pretty early by whatever entity is looking at Lower Manhattan,” she said last month. The commission’s Designation Committee was scheduled to consider the proposal this month. If it approves the plan, the commission will hold a public hearing and vote on the proposal. The City Council also must approve new historic districts.