In fiction, everyone knows you can't destroy a landmark. Landmarks are protected by law and tearing down a landmark would be illegal. So what better way is there in Saving the Orphanage or stopping Community-Threatening Construction by having the building or area in question get declared a landmark?
In real life, however, it does not work that way for a couple of reasons.
First, it can take days, weeks, months, or even longer to declare a site a landmark. That's not the best strategy in a Race Against the Clock where the protagonists may have only days or even hours.
Second, certain conditions must be met for a landmark to be designated as such. These also vary wildly throughout various jurisdictions. For example, New York City requires a building to be at least 30 years old before it can be considered for landmark status. For the National Register of Historic Places in the United States, a building must be at least 50 years old.
Third, landmarks actually can be demolished. If a building or site becomes an environmental hazard, damaged by a natural disaster, structurally unsafe, etc., it can be razed. This has actually happened to now-lost landmarks.
Not to be confused with Landmark Sale.
Examples:
- Lampshaded in The Order, where the Los Angeles city council hastily declares that the Bradbury building, out of which the Order operates, is a historical landmark as a ploy to get the unpopular government-funded team out of their city. Henry Hellrung notes that it's incredibly dubious that the city managed to get a declaration that quickly, though he's too busy with other crises to effectively fight back.
Film — Animated
- Hey Arnold! The Movie involves the search for documents that would help prove that the neighborhood the protagonists live in is historically significant, which would give it landmark status and would prevent Big Bad Corrupt Corporate Executive Alphonse Scheck from tearing it down to create a mall. When Scheck destroys the documents, the final act's Race Against Time then becomes that of taking the security tape that captured his gloating that the documents existed before he burnt them to the authorities.
- In Lilo & Stitch, the only reason Earth isn't destroyed as soon as Experiment 626 lands there is because the CIA pulled this tactic years prior, convincing the Galactic Federation to have Earth declared a wildlife sanctuary for the rare and endangered mosquito.
- Zigzagged in *batteries not included: Mason tries to get their building declared a landmark to save it but the official refuses, citing its bad condition and having at least a minimum standard. It's implied this happened at the end of the film when the building is shown standing amidst all the new construction after the Fix-Its restore it to pristine condition.
- Forms the entire plot of the Indian film Bow Barracks Forever, where an Anglo-Indian community living in the titular Bow Barracks tries to have their home(s) declared a historical landmark worthy of preservation by the city of Kolkata. They have to do this to prevent the barracks from being razed to the ground by an unscrupulous real estate developer. And to prevent their dwindling community from fracturing further.
- Discussed in Gremlins when Kate mentions a petition to declare Dorry's Tavern as a landmark to stop Ruby Deagle from tearing it down.
- It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie ends with Pepe the Prawn saving the Muppets' theater from destruction by having it declared a landmark.
- Carl Hiaasen's first YA novel Hoot involves a boy joining with another boy and his stepsister to try and stop a pancake restaurant from being built on Coconut Cove, a site where burrowing owls (a species of special concern, if not quite an endangered species) live. When the truth about the owls comes out, along with some other embarrassing things concerning the pancake restaurant (including the fact they knew about the owls but hid the knowledge from the public, as well as the fact the restaurant's PR director tried to choke a reporter), the president of that restaurant chain goes on national TV to declare they will preserve Coconut Cove as a permanent landmark site for the owls.
- American Horror Story: Hotel has this in the last episode, with the ghosts being convinced to hold off on murder and not draw any more attention for just long enough that the Hotel Cortez gets named a historical landmark by the state of California. They succeed.
- Cheers: When Norm finds out his favorite steakhouse is being demolished to make room for a highway, he launches a campaign to save it. He's eventually able to get the place declared a landmark. What Norm doesn't realize is that the government was going to pay the owner more than the place was worth and the owner wanted the place to be torn down because he couldn't live with the guilt of what his unhealthy food has done to people like Norm, so he burned the place down for the insurance money.
- Played for Laughs in Corner Gas. Lacey, a City Mouse and Naïve Newcomer to small-town Saskatchewan, overhears some Grumpy Old Men muttering darkly about the pending demolition of the town's historic grain elevator, so she successfully lobbies to have it protected as a landmark. She then learns that it's a bat-infested ruin that was due to be replaced with a cell phone tower, and they were looking forward to it being knocked down.
- In Cybervillage, Lyudka claims that their farm has a rare Sand Worm in order to prevent the factory construction.
- How I Met Your Mother: The main plot of Season 6 entails Zoey, Ted's Soapbox Sadie rival-turned-love interest, trying to save an old rundown hotel that's scheduled to be destroyed to make way for Ted's new building. By presenting secretly recorded audio of Ted praising its lion-head stonework to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, she succeeds in protecting the hotel from demolition. However, Ted and his friends steal the stonework so there's nothing worth protecting as iconic, leaving the hotel free to be destroyed.
- Lucifer: In one episode, Lucifer is in danger of losing Lux, the ritzy nightclub he owns. Heartbroken, he reminisces about all the things that have happened in the bar over the decades to Chloe. She uses this history to get it declared a city landmark and mentions that normally these things take time but as a cop she knows a lot of people in City Hall.
- One episode of NewsRadio features a variation; Mr. James had the WNYX building declared a historical landmark in order to get a tax break, and thus one episode sees the cast forced to endure a bunch of schoolchildren on a field trip in order to maintain their qualification as a landmark.
- In the finale of Parker Lewis Can't Lose, Jerry announces that to try and save the Atlas diner from demolition, he faxed an application for having it declared a landmark. Unfortunately, the response is "NOPE."
- In Season 7 of Parks and Recreation, Leslie wants to declare a large swath of untouched land outside of Pawnee a National Park while the tech giant Gryzzl (a clear expy of Google) wants to build its new work campus on it. One of the tactics she uses to try to convince the owners to give her the land is to have it declared a historical landmark since William Henry Harrison used to have a hunting cabin there, but it fails since she's obviously grasping at straws.
- One episode of Smallville had a subplot where Lana Lang, now part-owner of The Talonnote along with Lex Luthor, tries to find a way to stop Lex from shutting it down. She eventually convinces him that having The Talon declared a national landmark is a better business decision. Being Lex Luthor, it's safe to assume that his money cut through a lot of the red tape. The episode also implies that he didn't really intend to shut the Talon down, but he just wanted to see what Lana was capable of.
- The Suite Life of Zack & Cody: In "Boston Tea Party", Zack, Cody, and others at the Tipton team up to try and prevent a local historical park from being demolished. Their efforts nearly fail until Zack, inspired by a dream, proves that the tree in the park was the very tree where the Boston Tea Party had been planned, making the tree and thus the park a landmark and preventing it from being demolished.
- The West Wing: In the first season episode "Enemies", a banking bill the White House is backing hits a temporary snag when the Republicans attach a land-use rider allowing strip-mining in Montana. Mandy, Sam, and eventually even Toby think they should swallow the amendment and move on, but Josh, who had been lectured to by President Bartlet the previous night about national parks, doesn't want to give in to the Republicans, and at the last minute comes up with the idea of declaring the area in question (Big Sky Reserve) a national park, meaning it can't be touched.
- Alvin and the Chipmunks had an episode where the kids got a mountain declared as a historical landmark so that developers wouldn't destroy a nest of bald eagles.
- In the California Raisins cartoon episode "Olivera Street", Boss Squash has eviction notices sent to the street's residents and businesses with the intent of demolishing everything. The raisins find records in the local library, revealing the street's theater has historical significance, and the mayor declares the street a protected area. Boss Squash ends up getting arrested as it's casually mentioned he forged land records to conceal this fact.
- In Hey Arnold!, Arnold promised one tenant, Ernie, to help him demolish a building (he wanted Arnold to be there as a son substitute), then promised his grandma to help her save an old theater from demolition, then learns that is the same theater Eenie wants to demolish. The problem is solved when he finds something they both enjoy (Dino Spumoni's music, an Expy of Frank Sinatra) for making the city declare the theater a landmark for his legacy, fulfilling his promise to his grandma while indirectly changing Ernie's wish to demolish since he wouldn't destroy Spumoni's legacy.
- Jem: The episode "Old and New" sees 1950s rock legend Bobby Bailey threatened with eviction from the ramshackle building he lives in; it is structurally unsafe and is condemned. Jem and her friends get the building saved by getting it declared a cultural landmark. Why? Bailey's collection of rock memorabilia makes the building culturally significant.
- Wheel Squad: In "Stay on Track", The Wheel Squad fakes evidence of dinosaurs to prevent Enzo from developing a tunnel because the construction was causing earthquakes. They're soon discovered but later find out ruins of an ancient Roman bath house.
