The Historic Districts Council convened its 2026 annual conference around a question the preservation community has rarely placed at its center: whether the movement built to protect New York City’s buildings should also help protect the industries that once filled them. Titled “Making It in New York: The Preservation of Manufacturing,” the conference examined how landmark and historic-district advocacy intersects with a manufacturing sector the council described as squeezed between competing pressures on the city’s land.

According to the conference description circulated by the council, manufacturing has long been an integral part of New York City’s success, with businesses, makers, suppliers and others forming a network that supplies both the city and the world. The council pointed to the Garment District and the historic industries lining the New York waterfront as examples of places that, in its words, imbue neighborhoods with an irreplaceable character while also providing crucial jobs and goods.