Greenwich Village residents may love Julian Schnabel’s paintings, but they hate his real estate.
Schnabel has stirred up neighborhood opposition with plans for an 11-story addition to the top of his existing three-story home and studio. The former stable at 360 West 11th Street, between Washington and West streets, has roused local ire from the day the artist and filmmaker submitted the plans to the city.
While details about the finished product remain scarce, Radar magazine reported last month that Schnabel will stay in the building. Construction is nearing completion, and Schnabel reportedly will hand pick buyers, likely from the ranks of the fabulously wealthy. The 100 Thousand Club Magazine, a new publication for “the 100,000 highest net worth people in America,” plans to devote some coverage to the city’s latest piece of branding and real estate excess, Radar reported.
The neighborhood foment over the project started as a plea to a kindred (bohemian artist) spirit. “Julian Schnabel: Please don’t sell us out,” read one sign at a demonstration in front Schnabel’s home in January 2005 when the artist first submitted plans for the 167-foot tower. “Art is Beautiful — Greed is Ugly,” another read.
One factor in the widespread negative reaction may be Schnabel’s timing. He submitted the plans for a luxury condominium that would tower over its neighbors in the midst of a campaign to win landmark status for the far West Village.
Community activists wanted to change zoning to prevent high-rise development, which usually required the demolition of historic buildings. Spearheaded by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, the movement was a reaction to projects like Richard Meier’s glass towers on Perry and Charles streets.
“This neighborhood goes back 200 years,” Andrew Berman, executive director of the Society told the Daily News at the time, “and it is slowly being destroyed.”
“It’s horrible,” Berman recently told the Villager, a community newspaper. “It’s all of your worst nightmares come true. It’s really a monument to this guy’s ego.”
Attempts to reach Schnabel were unsuccessful.
Plans for the extension were approved by the Department of Buildings just as the city passed new zoning laws for the area in October 2005. The building squeaked through the deadline, winning approval.
Preservation activists appealed the approval with the Department of Buildings, offering evidence that workers had been on the job site illegally, working during restricted hours as the developer rushed to get the foundation far enough along to effectively be exempt from new zoning limits.
The group submitted signed affidavits by residents who said they called 311 to report illegal after hours and weekend work. They claimed that despite the frequent calls, the Department of Buildings did not send inspectors in a timely fashion to catch the violators in the act.
Their crusade was taken up by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, State Senator Tom Duane and Assembly member Deborah Glick, all of whom sent representatives to a demonstration in front of the Department of Buildings.
Signs at demonstrations in front of the building at that time, in the fall of 2005, read, “Schnabel Didn’t Win, He Cheated,” and “Revoke Now — Save the Far Westside.”
But the building permit was not revoked, construction continued and the building is nearly complete.