Olive Freud, Who Fought Big Developers and Successfully Sued Trump and Lincoln Center, Dies at 97

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She won a lawsuit against Trump and beat Lincoln Center over cutting down trees. Never afraid to take on corporations or government agencies, Olive Freud–known for founding the Committee for Environmentally Sound Development, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting for quality-of-life issues on the Upper West Side–passed away last week at the age of 97.

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The New York Post called Freud a “sassy senior idealist” in a 2020 story about her advocacy group’s battle over the height of 200 Amsterdam Avenue—a legal see-saw with multiple court rulings that gripped the neighborhood. The address ultimately became the tallest building on the Upper West Side at 668 feet when it was completed in 2019, but it has since been surpassed by Extell’s 50 West 66th Street, a 70-story luxury condominium finished in 2024, which now stands at 775 feet.

Now, with Extell proposing a 1,200-foot mega-tower at the former ABC site—unless the Department of City Planning (DCP) steps in to limit the height of new construction—Freud’s words from 2020 still feel especially timely.

“I love urban life but there’s a limit,” she told the Post. “Is it only rich people who get to see the sun and the sky and the air — and all we get are the shadows?”

Landmark West, an Upper West Side architecture, arts, and culture nonprofit, told ILTUWS about one of Freud’s most significant victories: when her committee sued Lincoln Center for razing Damrosch Park in 2010—destroying dozens of trees and removing gardens to make room for more events, including the star-studded New York Fashion Week.

Freud and the Committee for Environmentally Sound Development ultimately won the suit in 2014, forcing Lincoln Center to restore the park and bid farewell to the fashion show. Landmark West noted that Lincoln Center “never really came through” on restoring the trees they had cut down—and that the organization is now using the resulting “poor tree canopy” as a justification for redoing the park again.

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In an Instagram post celebrating Freud after her passing on Tuesday, July 8, Landmark West called her “a community advocate, formidable activist, and friend.” The organization credited her with “sav[ing] the Upper West Side many a time from inappropriate and unlawful development.”

When Freud, a retired math teacher, first started the Committee for Environmentally Sound Development in the 1980s, it didn’t take long for her to tango with one of New York City’s biggest real estate names at the time—Donald Trump, or, as she put it in her 2023 Clara Lemlich Award interview, “dear old Donald.”

“It was part of the agreement when he bought that land that traffic from his complex would flow onto the new road—Riverside Boulevard—and then onto Riverside Drive,” Freud said. “But building that connection was very expensive, so he thought it would be better if the traffic came up West End Avenue instead.”

Freud and her team sued Trump—and won. “Now there’s a connection from Riverside Drive to Riverside Boulevard, which then leads to the West Side Highway,” Freud said in her speech. “It’s much better that way,” she added, referring to the benefits for the environment and traffic.

“Being alive means fighting. You can’t just let things happen to you.” – Olive Freud

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