Landmarks Preservation Commission Thanks Outgoing Commissioners Michael Devonshire, John C. Gustafsson and Adi Shamir Baron for their Service
Today, LPC bids farewell to outgoing Commissioners Michael Devonshire, John Gustafsson, and Adi Shamir-Baron. The Landmarks Preservation Commission’s work has benefitted from their talent, expertise, and dedication. These volunteer commissioners attended about 35 hearings a year, to vote on potential designations and proposed changes to designated buildings. They approached the work with rigor, fairness and efficiency and helped thousands of residential, business and civic property owners realize their goals while preserving the historic fabric that contributes so much to the vitality of the City.
Michael Devonshire
Michael Devonshire has served as a public member of the Commission since 2010. He is the Director of Conservation at Jan Hird Pokorny Associates, Inc., where he has worked as an architectural conservator since 1987. He has written numerous papers and publications about restoration technology and strategy, and serves on the ICOMOS International Wood Committee, the New York State Historic Preservation Board. He has been a member of the New York State Board for Historic Preservation and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He previously served on the boards of the U.S. National Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), the Metropolitan Chapter of the Victorian Society in America and the Snug Harbor Cultural Center. He is an adjunct professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture and Planning and Historic Preservation, and at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He lectures annually at the Preservation Institute: Nantucket. His professional preservation work can be seen all of New York City and beyond, including the restoration of Schermerhorn Row at the South Street Seaport, the Morris-Jumel Mansion in Washington Heights, and the Merchant’s House Museum.
John C. Gustafsson
John C. Gustafsson has served as the Staten Island representative on the Landmarks Preservation Commission since 2014. He is a retired lawyer who has extensive experience leading organizations whose mission is preserving and sharing the architecture and history of the City of New York. He is the former Chairman of the Board of the Historic House Trust of New York City and has also served on the Audit and Finance and Governance and Nominating Committees. He also served as the former President and Chairman of the Board of the Staten Island Historical Society from 2004–2011. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Devereux Foundation, and he chairs the Finance Council at St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church (Staten Island) where he is a member of the Holy Name Society, a Lector and Eucharistic Minister. In addition to his formal affiliations and responsibilities with these organizations, he has over 20 years of experience in non-profit leadership and governance, advising and consulting in a variety of capacities for numerous other non-profits.
Before retiring in 2006, Gustafsson was a partner in the Business Trial Practice Group of the California-based law firm of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton, where he was the Administrative Partner of the Firm’s New York office. Prior to that, Gustafsson spent 7 years as in-house counsel at Honeywell International. Prior to his tenure at Honeywell, Gustafsson spent 10 years in private practice at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett where he focused on multi-jurisdictional complex litigation. Gustafsson is a member of the New York State bar, the United States District Courts for the Southern, Eastern and Northern Districts of New York, the District of Arizona, and the United States Supreme Court.
Adi Shamir Baron
Adi Shamir Baron served as historian on the Commission since 2014. She is also an architect by training and formerly served as Executive Director of the Van Alen Institute, where she led the national membership organization and fellowship research center in developing programs dedicated to promoting public architecture and improving civic life, including sponsored programs such as competitions, exhibitions, forums, conferences and publications, engaging an interdisciplinary and international array of practitioners, policy-makers, students and community leaders. While there, she established the New York Prize Fellowship program dedicated to diverse investigations related to public architecture.
Prior to her work at Van Alen, Shamir-Baron served as the Dean of Undergraduate Studies at the California College of the Arts where she directed the fine arts, design, architecture and visual criticism school divisions. Shamir-Baron has taught architecture, design and theory courses at CCAC, Rice University, U.C. Berkeley, and the College of Marin, Kentfield. Her historical research and writing explores early Modernist architectural themes in diverse cultural heritage contexts that focus on ‘public architecture’ — the intersection of civic life and public works / infrastructure, with contributions to international architectural journals as well as published books including Open House: Unbound Space and the Modern Dwelling, and the upcoming After Infrastructure: City as Frontier. Shamir-Baron is a former member of the Board of Trustees of the Brooklyn Academy of Music in NY. She is an appointed commissioner of U.S. National Commission for UNESCO.
