More sad news to pass along in the closing days of another tragic year as The New York Times is reporting that influential preservationist and urban planner Donald H. Elliott passed away at his home in Brooklyn this past Thursday.

Elliott was chairman of New York’s City Planning Commission for a number of years through the early 1970s and was instrumental in leading a shift away from the Robert Moses-led planning mandates that were a hallmark of the region in the decades following World War II.

As chairman of the commission, Elliott oversaw the successful effort to save the South Street Seaport from redevelopment in addition to spearheading a host of other significant initiatives including the rezoning of midtown’s retail-friendly Fifth Avenue and the division of the city into over 60 individual community districts, the legacy of which is still in place today. 

Elliott was born to socially-minded parents in Manhattan in 1932 and later went on to study at Carleton College before obtaining his Juris Doctor from NYU in 1957. Elliott then went on to work for, and eventually help elect, mayor John Lindsay, who placed him in charge of the mayoral transition and later the city’s antipoverty programs before eventually appointing him to the Landmarks Commission in 1966. 

Writing to the Times, Paul Goldberger remembered him as a “realist who believed in making a more livable city, and he used inventive legal tactics to try to balance the forces at play in New York. New York’s entire approach to planning changed, and he played a key role in almost every innovation.”

Some of those inventive tactics included the introduction of the aggressive use of Air Rights in high-density urban development schemes as well as additional efforts derived from his mastery of land use regulations that led to the acquisition of the Gateway National Recreation Area and eventual completion of Mayor LaGuardia’s master plan from 1938. 

He was an unheralded figure in a bygone era that radically changed the way New York City arranged itself and spoke to the rest of the world. He will be remembered for his service and leadership in city planning efforts and is survived by his sons Drew, Steven, and Douglas. 

Donald Elliott was 89 years old.