From the May issue: It seems to be part of the very destiny of New York institutions, at least in recent years, to wish to expand, as though in obedience to the injunction of the poet Goethe that “you must rise or sink.” Standing still, in New York, is no longer an option.

And so, just as our museums are expanding, Columbia University yearns to double its campus in Harlem, while New York University, with the 2010 announcement of its bold initiative NYU 2031, wants to increase the amount of real estate it occupies by about 2 million square feet. [more]

From left: NYU president John Sexton, Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Preservation Society and New York State Sen. Tom Duane

Protesters were out in force this morning at the City Planning Commission’s sole public hearing on New York University’s proposed Greenwich Village expansion plan at the Financial District’s Museum of the American Indian. With posters and signage in tow, the project’s detractors seemed to far outweigh its supporters at the hearing, still ongoing, which marked the first stage of the mandatory review and approval process for the NYU plan. More than 200 people signed up to voice their views on the project, which includes the development of four new buildings on the blocks bounded by Laguardia Place and Mercer Street, and West Houston and West 3rd streets. [more]

From left: a rendering of NYU's plans, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and Andrew Berman, head of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation

While Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer has done a lot to get New York University’s massive planned expansion pared down, residents say it’s simply not enough because the project retains its massive scale, the New York Press reported. Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, suggests that the university look to parts of the city that are in need of development rather than expanding in the same neighborhood, which, Berman said, is how other prominent universities have tackled development. [more]

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]

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer would like New York University’s controversial expansion plan to be scaled down, the New York Times reported. Stringer is expected to make the recommendation in the next two weeks, as a requirement for his endorsement of NYU’s plans, the Times said. [more]

Founders Hall, built behind the front wall of the St. Ann's Church

While much of the opposition to New York University’s Greenwich Village expansion plan has centered on how new structures would affect neighbors in the future, a recent City Limits article shows the historical basis for the concerns.

In general, NYU touts how its presence has helped local businesses, but the owner of La Lanterna Caffe, a bar on MacDougal and West 3rd streets that’s down the block from NYU’s Wilf Hall at 133 MacDougal Street, told City Limits that he’s experienced the opposite. During the 2008-2010 construction period he reports a series of broken promises that ultimately caused him to lose nearly a quarter of his business. [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]

A rendering of NYU's plan for public spaces

New York University’s assertion last month that it will add 3.1 acres of publicly accessible open space to Greenwich Village may be more bluster than fact, the New York Observer reported, because a lot of the space it’s claiming to add is already publicly accessible.

The university is suggesting that there will be a major net gain in the amount of open space in the neighborhood as a result of its efforts, the Observer noted, but it’s “one thing to knock down a building or transform a parking lot into a park. It is another to take one park and turn it into another park.” [more]

The design for NYU's new building

New York University has released designs for its new, 170,000-square-foot building at 433 First Avenue and 26th Street in the Health Corridor, the New York Observer reported. The building, set to open in 2015, will house an expansion of NYU’s dental school, will create space for a new multi-school bioengineering program, and will become the new home to the NYU nursing school which is currently located in Washington Square.

EYP Architecture & Engineering designed the building with and Kohn, Pedersen, Fox Associates; it was imagined to relieve pressure on the already space-constrained university in Greenwich Village, which often finds itself in hot water with neighbors, the Observer said. [more]

From left: Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and a rendering of NYU’s plans for 370 Jay StreetWhile many New Yorkers were celebrating Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s selection of Cornell University to build a science school on Roosevelt Island, Brooklyn politicians were pinning their hopes on another phrase the mayor uttered during the press conference.

According to the New York Daily News, Bloomberg said he was still in talks with three other universities and could award grants for another graduate science school. Brooklynites hope that award goes to NYU so it can build a school at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s 370 Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn. [more]