Commissioners

Commissioner Sarah Carroll, Chair

Sarah Carroll serves as both the Chair and a commissioner of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), which is the largest municipal preservation agency in the United States. Chair Carroll was first appointed in October 2018, and reappointed by Mayor Eric Adams on August 5, 2022. As LPC Chair, she manages a staff of approximately 80 architects, archaeologists, preservationists, historians, attorneys, and administrators, whose mission is to protect more than 37,000 architecturally, historically, and culturally significant sites in all five boroughs, and identify and designate new landmark buildings, sites, and districts.

Chair Carroll is a life-long preservationist and a native New Yorker with more than two decades of professional experience protecting historic resources in New York City. She started her career at LPC, where she has served in various capacities over the past 24 years, including Landmarks Preservationist, Deputy Director of Preservation, and Director of Preservation. Prior to her appointment, she served as Executive Director managing the agency's operations and working closely with the Chair to develop policy and strategic planning agency-wide. As Executive Director, she oversaw the successful designation of more than 4,000 buildings and sites in the city, the implementation of numerous transparency and efficiency measures, including new website features that provide information and access to the agency's work, and the development of a new internal permit tracking database that increased efficiency and staff accountability in the application process.

Prior to that, as Director of Preservation, she led the creation of the agency's first comprehensive instructional manual on how to file permit applications; created the FasTrack permit process to expedite applications for certain work types; and developed historic district master plans and rules to allow applicants to more easily navigate LPC's regulatory process.

During her time at LPC, Chair Carroll has managed a wide range of preservation projects and overseen the application, implementation and modification of the agency's regulatory policies. In 2012, she received the Sloan Public Service Award for her outstanding work at the Commission.

A preservationist by training, Chair Carroll has a Bachelor's Degree in Art History from Bates College and a Masters of Fine Arts Degree in Historic Preservation from the Savannah College of Art & Design. She lives in Queens.