BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — Brooklyn Heights resident Frederick Bland, an architect and managing partner with Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners, has been appointed to the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC).

Bland, who replaces Commissioner Jan Hird Pokorny, who died in May at age 93 after 12 years of service, was named by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and unanimously confirmed by the City Council, LPC Chairman Robert B. Tierney announced on Friday.

“Fred will be a great asset to the commission, and I am very happy that he has agreed to lend the city his considerable talent and experience in arriving at the right design solutions for historic buildings locally, nationally and internationally,� Tierney said.

LPC spokesperson Lisi de Bourbon told the Eagle on Friday that Council Member David Yassky called the move to put him on the commission “a tremendous appointment.�

Bland began his career at Beyer Blinder Belle in 1972, became the first nonfounding partner in 1978 and managing partner in 2004.

An adjunct professor in the Fine Arts Department of NYU, he has lectured on design at Yale and Columbia. He has served on the board of the Brooklyn Historical Society, as past board member and president of the Brooklyn Heights Association and is currently chairman of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s board of trustees.

He is also a member of the Vestry of Trinity Church, Wall Street; and serves on numerous other civic boards in the city, including the James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation.

Bland, who received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Yale, moved to Brooklyn Heights directly from Connecticut in 1972. He said he always intended to move back to his home town of Houston but became captivated by Brooklyn and New York City.

Reached yesterday, Bland told the Eagle he was thrilled and flattered about the appointment even though it will be “a huge time commitment� on top of managing his firm, doing work for clients and serving as chairman of the board of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden — “which reveals my other interests: gardening and horticulture� — and other involvements.

The sum total of these involvements, his willingness to serve in any way he is needed, just might indicate “a civic mindedness which is incurable,� he quipped.

He sees the LPC as a kind of pivot point for issues related to “staying ahead of the curve in keeping the city contemporary� as well as maintaining its quality of life, living environments and its unique neighborhoods.

“It’s a task that is daunting,� he said.

Bland is known locally for his work on the Mark Morris Dance Group building in the BAM Cultural District in Fort Greene and the residential conversion of the former Long Island headquarters of the New York Telephone Company in Downtown Brooklyn, a New York City landmark now known as the Belltel Lofts. Other NYC projects include the consolidation of Manhattan’s landmark General Theological Seminary, as well as the construction of a new building on the campus; and the redevelopment of 42nd Street in Manhattan, which called for the restoration of the Empire, Harris and Liberty theaters.

Commissioner Christopher Moore Reappointed

Another Brooklynite, Commissioner Christopher Moore who lives in Fort Greene, was reappointed last week, also by a unanimous vote of the City Council.

Moore, who serves as the LPC historian, was first appointed in 1995. He is curator and research historian for the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; wrote and co-produced the History Channel’s award-winning special, “The African Burial Ground: An American Discovery�; is featured in Annenberg Media’s nationally acclaimed Teaching Multicultural Literature program, “Langston Hughes and Christopher Moore,� and in “New Jack City: Harlem Walking Tour� with Christopher Moore (Warner Brothers), directed by Mario Van Peebles; is a consultant to PBS’ History Detectives; and author of “Fighting For America: Black Soldiers, The Unsung Heroes of World War II.� A former journalist and news editor for ABC Radio and National Black Network News, he served as the original project historian for Hudson River Park in Manhattan.

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