As part of the Freshman Year Experience Service Learning Program at John Jay College, the students of Professor Fritz Umbach's "Public Housing: Promises, Priorities, Perspectives" partnered with the preservation group Landmark West! to research the historical significance of the Amsterdam Houses, an early public housing project, in order to assist LMW! in making the case for landmark status for the complex.

Combining classroom learning, oral histories, volunteer work, and extensive independent research in unpublished documents, the course demonstrates the scholarly and social potential of experiential learning.