A preservationist who works with developers, not against.

The way Jennifer Raab sees it, preservationists and developers don't have to be enemies.

When she meets with developers as chairwoman of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, she works at mitigating preservationists' reputation for obstruction and, she says, tries to convince them preservation and development can go hand in hand.

"I meet with building owners and ask them what their fears are," she explains. "Some of them have this idea that I'm going make them wear period costumes and play period music."

Although she's not afraid to "lay down the law" when circumstances call for it, Raab, 44, would much rather take a pragmatic approach. She said sees herself as a problem-solver first, with the ideological principles of preservation never straying far from the agenda.

"Preservation is not here to stop development," she said. "It can go hand in hand."

Raab sites several examples where she sought to find solutions rather than fight battles, such as the restoration of Grand Central Terminal. Plans for the station called for installing air conditioning, a structural challenge for a building that had never before featured it. Instead of having vents placed garishly throughout the terminal, Raab found a way for their placement to be disguised.

"I challenge you to find where the air conditioning vents are," she said.

It is this type of pragmatism that Raab believes has marked her almost six-year-long tenure as chairwoman.

When she was appointed chairwoman in September 1994 after having practiced law for four years, preservationists worried that she may not be the best-suited person for the job. Although she had past jobs in the land use and development field -- she was chairman of the Land Use and Planning Committee of Manhattan's Community Board 5 and was active with the Argus Community of the Bronx -- her resume wasn't chock full of preservation experience. But Raab now says she views that as positive.

"I think that I brought a fresh perspective to the job," she said.

As a born and bred New Yorker, Raab said she has always had a fascination for the "built city." After earning her undergraduate degree at Cornell University in 1977, she earned a Masters in Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton in 1979. Raab left her job as Director of Public Affairs for the New York City Department of City Planning to attend Harvard Law, where she graduated with honors in 1985. She worked for two local law firms before tackling her current job.

"The city is very much in my blood," she said.

Raab was just a kid when the commission was created in 1965 after Penn Station was demolished, causing New Yorkers to worry about preserving its past. Mayor Robert Wagner signed the Landmarks Law, which called for safeguarding the city's "historic, aesthetic, and cultural heritage," among other goals. Although the commission is one of the smallest agencies in the city -- it consists of 11 commissioners and a staff of about 50 -- it is the largest municipal preservation agency in the country.

Today, there are about 2,000 individual landmarks and 75 historic districts, or about two percent of the city's building lots, which fall under the commission's jurisdiction. Some of the city's most widely recognized landmarks are Radio City Music Hall, Grand Central Terminal and the Empire State Building, but there are numerous other lesser-known structures under the her charge.

The commission reviews about 7,000 applications a year, ranging from simple interior changes to large redevelopment projects. Commission staff members using legal preservation guidelines review most applications, or about 90 percent.

The most recent addition was the Hamilton Heights/Sugar Hill Historic District in Upper Manhattan, which the commission voted to include last week. Raab notes, however, that the commission's work in Harlem in just beginning. It is an area that is attracting the attention of developers, but it is also a neighborhood filled with rows of historic brownstones.

"You can stand on certain streets and, take away the cars, you'd think it was 100 years ago," she said. "It's an area that has incredible resources."