NYU's "Plan 2031" presentations, in which the university lays out its expansion plans to community boards and agitated Villagers, have been gold mines of information. In the past, NYU has showed us some pretty interesting renderings of various design schemes for the core Washington Square Park campus, and now they've done it again. This time around, Plan 2031 is a preservationist's nightmare, as NYU and SMWM include new high-rises within Washington Square Village and I.M. Pei's Silver Towers, and a "zipper loft" design to replace the Coles Gymnasium (a potential campus before-and-after is above). Again, none of this is new—we've seen the potential Silver Towers addition already, for example—but to see it all collected in one place makes a bizarre flip book for the future of Greenwich Village (if NYU can get it all done).
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.
NYU's wild visions for its massive expansion effort are finally receiving the reaction from Greenwich Village residents that we expected: Total. Fucking. Panic. Do check in with the Villager's story on the March 13th meeting between NYU and residents of the four-building Washington Square Village complex. NYU has several potential plans for the superblock just south of Washington Square Park—the four buildings (two on West Third Street and two on Bleecker Street) are separated by a lawn and playground built on top of a parking garage—some of which can be seen above. One potential scenario involves the demolition of the existing buildings and restoring the original street grid, a proposal not looked very fondly upon by the assembled rent-regulated tenants. Some color from the madness:
"Nazi tactics," charged one resident, adding, "I'm not calling you a Nazi, I'm saying the tactics your are using are Nazi." Hurley was indignant but restrained at that comment, but when another resident said the meeting was "a waste of time" and intended only to "razzle tenants," Hurley suggested that anyone who agreed should leave the meeting. No one made a move to go.
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