From left: Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and GVSHP Executive Director Andrew Berman
New York University has agreed to scale back its controversial expansion plans by almost 20 percent, the New York Times reported. The university will reduce the combined square footage of its four planned new buildings on the blocks surrounded by Laguardia Place and Mercer, West Houston and West 3rd streets by 370,000 square feet to slightly more than 1.9 million square feet. [more]
From left: Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, Andrew Berman of the Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation and a map of the Gansevoort Market Historical District
While Andrew Berman and the non-profit preservation group he heads, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, are among the most vocal opponents of New York University’s planned expansion in Greenwich Village, Berman and his cohort from the Greenwich Village Society were absent from a recent rally that Assembly member Deborah Glick held in the area opposing the expansion, Crain’s reported. [more]
From left: Community Board 2 Chairman Brad Hoylman, Alicia Hurley, NYU's vice president of government affairs, and NYU's expansion plan
An ambitious plan to expand New York University’s Greenwich Village campus by 2.5 million square feet was unanimously rejected by Community Board 2 during a raucous hearing last night where residents and local community activists roundly criticized the proposal.
The board approved a resolution, which will be posted on its website this morning, blasting nearly every phase of NYU’s so-called 2031 plan, which would take nearly two decades to complete. [more]
From left: 315 East 10th Street and Ben Shaoul
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission approved a block-long historic district on East 10th Street at an emergency public hearing and vote today. The creation of the historic district follows developer Benjamin Shaoul’s Magnum Real Estate Group’s application in December to add a rooftop addition to a townhouse at 315 East 10th Street, which Magnum purchased late last year. The newly designated area extends from avenues A to B along the south side of 10th Street. [more]
After various delays and discussions, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted this morning to approve a highly scaled-back version of Kushner Companies’ proposed penthouse additions to the landmarked Puck Building at 295 Lafayette Street, it was announced today.
The approved additions are now 20 feet shorter, according to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, which fought against the original proposal, and the size has been reduced by about 1,500 square feet. While the original proposal was prominently visible for many blocks to the north, east, and west of the building, much of the new version is practically invisible from the west, the society said.
News of the proposed rooftop extension broke in August and has been rejected several times by Landmarks since, largely on the basis of its original scale. – Katherine Clarke [more]
An eight-story, 33-unit, rental building slated to replace an antebellum row house at 316 East 3rd Street is expected to receive its new building permit within the next six weeks, the New York Times reported. The building will be designed by architect Karl Fischer.
“We plan to develop this underutilized asset into its highest use: a rental building. The acquisition price was below market, and with rising rents in the area, it was a great opportunity,” said developer Brody/Amirian.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission’s refusal to recognize the row house as a landmark has frustrated some community activists who say it held historical significance. [more]
Developer William Rudin said the “economics” of his company’s $1 billion conversion of the St. Vincent’s hospital campus into a 450-unit luxury residential development could not support affordable housing, as he came under fire from community officials for not doing enough to justify a requested rezoning of the Greenwich Village site.
Rudin, the CEO of Rudin Management, appeared today at the first public hearing in the uniform land use review procedure, or ULURP, to decide whether the developer can proceed with the controversial project, already four years in the making. [more]
In its bid to gain community favor for its 300,000-square-foot addition to the Chelsea Market, Jamestown Properties plans to attend a community board meeting tonight where locals are slated to sound off on the proposal, GlobeSt.com reported.
Jamestown bought out its partners, Angelo, Gordon & Co., Belvedere Capital and Irwin Cohen, in the mixed-use building for $225 million in February, and immediately embarked on a campaign to expand the market. The glass addition to the brick structure, at 75 Ninth Avenue, would have hotel and office space.
The addition is not expected to be approved without at least some resistance. [more]
Jared Kushner, a principal of the Kushner Companies, and the Puck BuildingThe city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission rejected developer Jared Kushner’s application to build atop the landmarked Puck Building in Soho yesterday, Crain’s reported, saying he will need to rethink his plans for rooftop additions to the 203,000-square-foot, mixed-use building at 295 Lafayette Street. They commented on a variety of concerns, a spokesperson said, including the bulk, scale and design of the proposal.
Kushner’s plan had involved redoing the top floors of the 10-story Romanesque Revival-style building and creating energy efficient penthouse units, Crain’s said. Kushner said he would continue to refine the design in accordance with the commission’s advice.
“We look forward to continue working together to achieve the right outcome for the building,” he said. [more]
Protesters against New York University’s expansion plans hope to
demonstrate their anger at the famed annual Greenwich Village
Halloween parade, DNAinfo reported. The Greenwich Village Society for
Historic Preservation plans to submit designs to the 2011 NYU
Halloween design contest that illustrate NYU’s expansion plans as
scary threat. Members of the public participate in the contest to find
designs for trick-or-treat bags. “To so many people in this community,
there’s nothing scarier than NYU’s massive 20-year expansion plan and
the impact it would have on the Village,” said Andrew Berman, executive director at GVSHP. [more]
