By Richard Magat

Oct. 7, 2015:  As the world mourns the destruction of ancient monuments by the Taliban, it is worth recalling that even in the West, revered monuments may be endangered.

In our lifetime, for example, plans to demolish Grand Central Station were floated in l954. A proposal for installing bowling alleys within Grand Central were fought off, but even the passage of a landmark preservation law and the picketing by Jane Jacobs and the noted architect Philip Johnson would not prevent the three-year demolition in the 1960s of the soaring 1910 Beaux-Arts masterpiece that was Pennsylvania Station.

Other architectural icons that were destroyed were the Biltmore Hotel, the lavish Brokaw Mansion across from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

But despite the passage of the landmarks law, many buildings are vulnerable to the blandishments of real estate developments, even so simple a structure as the Donnell Library on West 53rd Street to make way for a high-rise hotel. A similar fate overtook the 1964 Gallery of Modern Art on Columbus Circle.

Pressures are relentless. A $1.1 billion lawsuit was recently filed against the de Blasio administration, city council, and the developer of a 1,500-foot office tower on the grounds that the city's granting of permission to build the tower deprived Grand Central Terminal's owner of property rights and rendered the air rights over Grand Central Terminal worthless.

Notwithstanding the lawsuit, the Manhattan skyline continues to grow. There are several new towers going up on or near "billionaires' row" in Midtown--217 West 57th Street, which will be only one foot shorter than 1 World Trade Center; an ultra-luxury tower at 53 West 53rd Street, with condo prices between $3 million and more than $50 million; 220 Central Park South, a 950-foot structure that already has over $1 billion of commitments for its condominiums; and 432 Park Avenue, which will be the tallest residential building in the world (until 217 West 57th Street is built).

Officially designated landmark buildings in the city number 65,000.