text: Photos marking the 50th anniversary of New York City's Landmarks Law look at the devastating architectural losses that led up to the law and how it has helped preserve beautiful old buildings as new construction sprouts up around them. Saving Place, which opens Tuesday at the Museum of the City of New York, highlights what is widely seen as a watershed moment in the city's preservation movement, the 1963 demolition of the old Beaux Arts-style Pennsylvania Station to make way for Madison Square Garden. 'Nobody really believed that a building of such civic importance would be demolished,' said Meenakshi Srinivasan, an architect and chairman of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. 'It really created the coalescing of all factors to come together to save buildings important to New York City's identity.' Scroll down for video . A new exhibition from the Museum of the City of New York shows the former landmarks that were destroyed before they could be preserved by the city's Landmark Law, which turns 50 on Sunday. Above, the beautiful Pennsylvania Station before its 1963 destruction . The loss of the old Penn Station, which was replaced by Madison Square Garden, helped lead to the establishment of a commission that can designate historic places as landmarks and prevent them being demolished . The metal pillars of the old Pennsylvania station stand before bulldozers during its demolition. A new exhibition looks at the lead up to the preservation measures . The ornate sculptures and elaborately designed fixtures of the former Pennsylvania station lie in a heap of rubble to make way for a basketball arena and concert venue . St John's Chapel, which was built in the area now called Soho in 1807, was demolished in 1918 as the city moved to widen the street next to it . The law was signed by Mayor Robert Wagner on April 19, 1965, and upheld by the Supreme Court in 1978 following a campaign led by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to save another iconic railroad station — Grand Central. The Landmarks Preservation Commission was given a mandate to preserve buildings and places of cultural, architectural and historical significance. Owners of properties given the designation must get permits from the commission before making restorations, alterations or additions, though some still say that the agency does not have the funds it needs to look at and preserve all worthy sites as the city builds to ease an affordable housing crisis. The Randall Memorial Church (left) in Snug Harbor, Staten Island, fell into disrepair and was demolished by 1952. The Snug Harbor Music Hall (right) and other buildings in area built in the 1890s have been preserved by the city and still stand today . The City Hall Post Office, designed by A B Mullet on City Hall Park, was widely criticized as 'Mullet's monstrosity' after it opened in 1880 and was torn down in the late 1930s . The Ziegfield Theatre, one of early 20th century New York's movie palaces after it was built in 1927 (left), was torn down in 1966 to make way for an office building. The theatre later reopened nearby and still hosts film premiers, but lacks its former distinctive architecture . The TWA Flight Center (pictured in 1978) at John F Kennedy Airport is on the list of historic and culturally significant sites protected by New York City's Landmarks Law. Both its exterior and interior, designed by Eero Saarinen in the 1960s, are preserved . The Pieter Claesen Wyckoff House, which was built in 1652 and is the oldest building in New York state, was designated a historic landmark in 1968, preventing its demolition for street improvements . In its first five years, it designated 300 to 400 buildings, over a dozen historic districts and reviewed 800 applications. Today the commission's work is increasingly bigger. Over the last five years alone, it reviewed nearly 67,000 applications. Famous buildings given such designation include Radio City Music Hall, St. Bartholomew's Church, Federal Hall, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the New York Stock Exchange, Coney Island's Parachute Jump, and the Alice Austen House on Staten Island. Historic districts such as those in Greenwich Village and Brooklyn Heights make up the majority of the 33,000 properties with landmark status. The NYC Landmarks50 Alliance said there are 1,400 individual landmarks in the five boroughs in addition to interior landmarks and ten scenic landmarks at popular parks. The exhibition traces the trajectory of the preservation movement in New York City, from the end of the 19th century up to the present day. Carnegie Hall in Midtown was opened in 1891 after being financed by 19th century industrialist Andrew Carnegie. It still regularly holds concerts in the present day (right, in 2007) New York City's Landmarks Law has protected a large number of buildings in central and southern Manhattan, though it is also used to protect 19th century homes in Washington Heights (pictured) and historic places in the outer boroughs . The Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Park, Queens, was built for the 1964-1965 World's Fair by the US Steel Corporation as a symbol of world peace. It is protected by the  Landmarks Law . Documents, photos, models and drawings also are used to chronicle the landmarks' development and the losses of important structures in the 1950s and 1960s. Fragments from the destroyed Penn Station and other buildings also are on display. 'The goal of the exhibition is to show the preservation movement in a contemporary slant and its relevance today,' said Donald Albrecht, the museum's curator. Landmarking has never been about freezing the city or making the city into a museum, said Andrew Dolkart, exhibition co-curator and director of the historic preservation program at Columbia University. Rather, as the exhibition shows, preservation allows for both lively new architecture and saving the past for future generations. New York's Grand Central Terminal and its Main Waiting Room was at one point slated to be destroyed to make way for an office building before a campaign by former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis . The statue of George Washington on the steps of Federal Hall faces the facade of the New York Stock Exchange. Both buildings are  protected by the city's Landmarks Law . The Coney Island parachute jump (left, in 1952) is protected by the Landmarks law and now towers over the Brooklyn Cyclones' baseball stadium on the southern coast of Brooklyn (right, 2011). Former New York City Mayor Robert Wagner (center), who served from the late 1950s to the mid 60s, signed the Landmarks law 50 years ago as of Sunday, April 19 .
target: Demolition of beautiful Beaux Arts Pennsylvania Station in 1963 led to Landmarks Preservation Commission .
  There are now more than 33,000 properties with landmark status, mostly in historic districts throughout New York .
  Exhibition shows the architectural losses that occurred before the law and the buildings that have been preserved .