NYU could leave expansion design open-ended before City Council vote

Though City Council is expected to vote on the New York University expansion next week, the design of all aspects of that expansion may not be complete for decades. According to the Wall Street Journal, in their efforts to finalize a plan before that vote, NYU and City Council are nearing an agreement to hold off on setting in stone a design for the open space slated for inclusion on the northern end of the Greenwich Village superblock between the two “boomerang” buildings.

The university has not backed off its appeal for 2 million square feet of development on the superblock, bounded by West Third and West Houston streets and Mercer Street and LaGuardia Place, but the Journal said it has been willing to compromise on the plan for park space within that area, which has become increasingly important to critical neighbors. As The Real Deal reported yesterday, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, one of the plan’s lead opponents, registered to become a lobbyist group as part of its ongoing fight against the expansion.

The untied ends of the expansion plan would mostly be aesthetic in nature, but negotiations were ongoing late last night. The school wants to strike a deal to leave the design open-ended before a City Council subcommittee today, which in turn, will make a full recommendation to the City Council before its July 25 vote.

The boomerang buildings are planned for the latter part of the school’s 20-year expansion plan, and the space would be designed after the structures are complete. [WSJ]