It's the Brian Laird Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. I'm Bridget Bergen, senior reporter in the WNYC and Gothamist Newsroom, sitting in for Brian today. Now we're turning to a building on the Upper West Side.

On the corner of 86th Street in Amsterdam, there's a church that's over 130 years old that's at the risk of being demolished.

And many people are trying to save it from the wrecking ball.

For context, the West Park Presbyterian Church was designated as a

landmark in 2010, which means that it's protected by the city from demolition because of its

historic significance. So in order to tear it down and to sell the land to a developer, which is

the church's goal, the city's landmarks preservation commission needs to approve what's

called a hardship application. That's more or less what it sounds like. The church is saying that

to the commission, listen, we can't afford to run this place anymore. The building has fallen into

disrepair where we are not able to fix it. Please take away this landmark designation so we can

offload the land.

The church has already made plans to sell to a developer who intends to build luxury high rises with a carver for a small theater in the basement and a small social justice fund,

which would mostly go to supporting other churches across the city.

But there's been a big swell of support in the community to

save the crumbling building from being demolished because it has for decades served as an

affordable arts and community center. There are a number of high-profile celebrities who have

joined the fight to preserve the building, including my guest, Mark Ruffalo, who is well known for his activism on a range of issues.

We're also joined by Peg Breen, the president of the Landmark Conservancy, who's been another leader in the fight to protect the church and keep it an affordable arts center.

Mark, Pegg, welcome to WNYC. Thanks so much for joining me.

Our pleasure. Thank you. Thanks for having us.

And Mark, I want to first ask you about your relationship to the building. It's been an

affordable arts and performance space for decades. This is your neighborhood. Can you

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