NYU Shows New Tower, Disses Long Island City

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Up until now, most of the headlines that have come out of NYU's fifth open house presentation last week have dealt with the controversial plan to replace the Provincetown Playhouse on MacDougal Street. The Villager, however, focuses on the proposals for the two NYU-owned superblocks that contain Washington Square Village and I.M. Pei's potential landmarks, the Silver Towers. We've dabbled in the various Washington Square Village ideas before, but now we see for the first time one of NYU's suggestions for the Silver Towers site: a proposed fourth tower that kind of reminds us of Renzo Piano's New York Times headquarters.

The development rights would come from the nearby Morton Williams supermarket at the corner of LaGuardia Place and Bleecker Street, which would be demolished and replaced by public open space. The new high-rise idea was of course met with various levels of outrage from the assembled leaders and neighbors, and apparently the city's Economic Development Corporation has an idea:

In addition, the city’s Economic Development Corporation had been “pushing” N.Y.U. to look at expanding in Long Island City, according to Alicia Hurley, N.Y.U. associate vice president for government and community relations. However, she said, the university doesn’t feel Long Island City is developed enough residentially as of now to be a fitting expansion area for N.Y.U.

LIC residents have to be relieved that the area won't be invaded by NYU undergrads any time soon, but still, that burn has to sting!
· N.Y.U. zeroes in on tower, plinth, ‘zipper’ [Villager]
· Purple People Eaters: NYU's Expansion Plans Illustrated [Curbed]

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