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]

From left: rendering for NYU proposal and Columbia president Lee Bollinger with rendering for Columbia proposal

At a press conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology yesterday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the number of universities vying to develop a new graduate engineering school campus somewhere in the five boroughs — with the help of $100 million capital contribution from the city for construction grants and land — has been narrowed to four, DNAinfo reported.

Bloomberg then backtracked at a press conference, where he was announcing the opening of a playground, today in Queens. “I don’t know that the four is the right number, incidentally,” he said, according to DNAinfo.
[more]

From left: City Council member Jessica Lappin, Assembly member Micah Kellner and Roosevelt IslandThough the submission process is over for Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s $100 million towards a new graduate science school, the lobbying process has just begun. Roosevelt Islander blog reported that City Council member Jessica Lappin and Assembly member Micah Kellner joined Roosevelt Island advocates at a press conference yesterday on the steps of City Hall pleading for Bloomberg to select a proposal that would build the campus on Roosevelt Island.

“I want Roosevelt Island to become Silicon Island,” Lappin said. She directed supporters to voice their support for Roosevelt Island on specified Economic Development Corporation social media outlets. [more]

There is no evidence to support the idea that an increase in the number of housing voucher holders, or federal rental housing assistance for low-income households, in a community leads to increases in crime, according to a study by New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy which examined crime and housing data over 12 years in 10 U.S. cities, released today. Instead, voucher holders are more likely to move into areas where crime rates are increasing.

“We find that crime tends to be higher in neighborhoods with more voucher holders. However, we found no evidence that an increase in the number of voucher holders leads to more crime,” said Ingrid Gould Ellen, faculty co-director of the Furman Center and a professor at NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. — Katherine Clarke [more]

Clockwise from top left: 370 Jay Street, a rendering of NYU’s transformation of the building and a rendering of the interior lobby (source: NYU)

While the Bloomberg administration’s eye is on Roosevelt Island for a new applied science graduate school, New York University would prefer to open one in Downtown Brooklyn. Specifically, the New York Daily News reported the school wants to take over the former Metropolitan Transportation Authority headquarters at 370 Jay Street and transform it into its Center for Urban Science and Progress.

“It would make Brooklyn the urban center of the universe,” said Paul Horn, NYU’s senior vice provost for research. “There are a lot of advantages to being there as opposed to isolated somewhere.” [more]

From the October issue:

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Compiled by Russell Steinberg [more]

James Stuckey resigned from his post as the dean of New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate earlier this month because of sexual harassment allegations, according to the New York Post.

At the time of his resignation, university spokespeople had said Stuckey quit for health reasons. But the Post said he had been pushed out when NYU officials confronted him with accusations that he sexually harassed women at the university. [more]

NYU rendering

In an attempt to assuage community opposition, New York University will be asking the city to designate as parkland the green spaces at the edge of the Washington Square Superblocks, strips along LaGuardia Place and Mercer Street in Greenwich Village, east and west of the Washington Square Village, NYU officials said at a media briefing today. In a statement the school later provided, NYU emphasizes that its revised proposals will allow the university to build almost entirely on its existing footprint in the neighborhood with no up-zoning and no displacement of tenants. The university’s ambitious city-wide expansion plan slated for completion in 2031 has prompted much community opposition particularly in Greenwich Village. [more]