FOUNDING VISION: the common
In 1973, Saint Peter’s Church sold its historic site and adjacent property at 54th Street and Lexington Avenue to First National City Bank of New York. Real estate deals of this sort were not uncommon. They followed a typical pattern: a for-profit entity would purchase religious property and the community would move elsewhere with funding to build
anew, or it ceased to exist all together, with funds often channeled to regional judicatories. The people of Saint Peter’s decidedly rejected this model. Instead, a unique church-corporate partnership emerged: Saint Peter’s and Citicorp agreed that a planned 59-story Citicorp building and a planned 3-level (completed as a 6-level) office/shopping/public atrium complex would be designed to provide space for a freestanding church and a public plaza.
Citicorp Center was a bold and brave investment. The City was teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, with President Ford determined to provide no federal assistance.
Saint Peter’s decision to stay in Midtown embodied “its commitment to New York and to the belief that New York is, and will remain, a vital urban area—one where the Church has an important role.” It resolved to build “a center for service that extends beyond its pastoral and liturgical life. ... To be a point of outreach toward the urban environment, and become an active force—one concerned with improving the cultural and spiritual quality of life for the concentrated working and residential populations of the city.” (The Common: A Prospectus, August 1976)
Toward this purpose, Saint Peter’s established The Common as a separate institution, with its own governing body and with an image compatible to Saint Peter’s: “that of providing common space for urban involvement and human advancement, (with the Church as) a committed but not controlling partner.” (Prospectus)
A place for people
Completed in 1978, when very few large buildings were being erected in New York City, Citicorp Center was a standout. New York Times critic Ada Louise Huxtable called it a “suave blockbuster” and Paul Goldberger viewed it as a “remarkably intelligent synthesis of a number of architectural themes.” Reporter David Dunlap described Saint Peter’s as “New York’s most architecturally successful postwar sanctuary.” In an expansive article published in Architectural Record (June 1978), Mildred R. Schmertz, captured the founding vision come into fruition: “a truly humane space which actually invites ordinary people to use it, offering them such small pleasures as comfortable places to meet and sit, and bring their own food.”
Under the leadership of Edmund Anderson, the first executive director of The Common and a close friend and collaborator of Duke Ellington, programming launched and flourished. With traditional barriers between corporations and churches decidedly broken, The Common collaborated seamlessly with both major owners of Citicorp Center under the structure of licensing agreements and short-term rentals.
From the very beginning, The Common presented jazz concerts, book and poetry readings, art installations, lectures, dance performances and more in both church-owned and bank-owned public space. In particular, office workers, unhoused individuals, residents and tourists found The Living Room housed within the church unit—once integral to and accessible from the public atrium and the tower—to be a place to rejuvenate, eat a meal, talk with friends and enjoy a rich array of arts and cultural programming offered by The Common.
The Common provided a pathway for musicians, dancers and artists to access an array of church-owned rehearsal and teaching studios, as well as performance spaces, at little to no cost. In the early 2000s, The Common launched Jazz on the Plaza, New York City’s favorite outdoor community-based jazz festival held in the Center’s public plaza. The Common operated either independently or in conjunction with other companies The Theater at Saint Peter’s, producing the U.S. premiere of The Elephant Man—the first of hundreds of subsequent productions until closure in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic followed by a 2021 NYC water main break that destroyed this and other key arts spaces.
for the future: The Conservancy
A shift from Common to Conservancy has been in the wings for a decade. In 2016, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated Citicorp Center (now 601 Lexington Avenue) a Landmark Site as much for its architectural significance as for its innovation in urban planning, noting the “special character and special historical
and aesthetic interest and value as part of the development,history, and cultural characteristics of New York City.” In 2025, the Church alone was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a first step toward designation as a State and National Landmark. Almost organically, and with all the requisite legalities, The Common has become The Arts and Architecture Conservancy at Saint Peter’s.
If expanding the mission to include preservation and conservation of this architectural and cultural treasure led to a name change, the 2021 water main break compelled a shift in organizational structure to support greater responsibility. Church resources and a modest insurance claim allowed for the rebuilding of the highly-flexible and acoustically isolated Sanctuary, a key public performance space for The Conservancy. The remaining public spaces, fully built out and paid for by Saint Peter’s in 1977, require a different approach. In order to remain accessible to artists and with programming available to the public at no or nominal charge, significant investment is needed from corporate and family philanthropy, individual donors, and foundations, as well as government arts-funding sources.
Recognizing the limitations of the previous licensing agreement model for programming public arts and cultural events in the church-owned spaces, in 2025 Saint Peter’s extended to the Conservancy a 49-year lease of nearly 20,000 square feet in order to ensure it continues to be used for community-based, public arts and cultural programming.
Once again, New York is at an inflection point. And so, too, are Saint Peter’s and The Conservancy. Just as the original Saint Peter’s / First National City Bank of New York partnership was an intentional, unprecedented plan that brought revitalization and flourishing at an otherwise uncertain time, today’s efforts are guided by confidence in the city. A new name, a recalibrated structure and a durable lease allow the Conservancy to channel the success of the last 50 years into a Center for Community, Arts and Culture, securing vitality for the future.