Latest NYU renderings call for below-ground academic space on La Guardia Place

At left: NYU’s rendering of Washington Square Village as it currently stands. At right: the school’s expansion plan for an underground building and garden in the courtyard. Click the images to see an interactive version of the expansion plan. 

New York University wants to dig out a below-ground academic space underneath the Washington Square Village residential complex as part of its massive, 25-year expansion plan, which the school will unveil to the public at an open house event this evening (the plans are also available online). The site of the new space, on La Guardia Place between Wooster and Greene streets, is currently a parking lot for the NYU-owned 1,300-unit Washington Square Village residential complex. In previous versions of the NYU plans, the site had been slated for what has been described by NYU as a “plinth-liked structure.” The latest proposal calls for a garden atop the basement academic space, which will be accessible through two new academic buildings on either side of it. NYU’s expansion plans ultimately call for 6 million square feet of additional space to accommodate its growing student body. [Crain’s]