This article was originally published on 7/20/2012 (see below for update).

NYU agreed to limit heights of the Zipper Building and Boomerang Buildings, and to provide community center if no public school is built on site. On July 17, 2012, the City Council’s Land Use Committee modified New York University’s campus expansion proposal in Greenwich Village. Opposition to the project, which had already been reduced by the City Planning Commission, remained when it reached the City Council’s Zoning & Franchises Subcommittee public hearing on June 29, 2012. (See CityLand’s coverage of NYU’s original proposal, and the Planning Commission’s modifications here.)

More than 200 people signed up to testify in front of the Subcommittee, with opponents reiterating their concerns about the project’s impact in the neighborhood. Local Council Member Margaret Chin said she could not support the current proposal, and urged NYU to work with her to further reduce the proposal’s density. Council Member Chin was confident that it was possible to “strike a balance that upholds the integrity” of Greenwich Village and meets NYU’s academic needs. Council Member Jessica S. Lappin agreed with Chin, finding the current proposal “too dense, too big, too tall…too much.” Lappin acknowledged NYU’s claims that it needed to expand in order to accommodate its current student population, but stated that NYU had made (more…)

NYU superblock development as originally proposed. Credit: NYU

Modifications include reducing building heights and below-grade space, and eliminating the proposed commercial overlay for the “Loft Blocks” and hotel use in the “Zipper Building.” On June 6, 2012, the City Planning Commission modified New York University’s proposal to expand its Greenwich Village campus. NYU’s proposal included developing four new buildings on two superblocks divided by Bleecker Street and bounded by West 3rd Street, West Houston Street, Mercer Street, and LaGuardia Place. The southern superblock contains three landmarked 30-story buildings designed by I.M. Pei and used for NYU faculty housing (Silver Towers 1 and 2) and middle-income affordable housing (505 LaGuardia Place). The superblock is also occupied by a supermarket at the corner of Bleecker Street and LaGuardia Place, and NYU’s Coles Gym along Mercer Street. The northern superblock is occupied by NYU’s two, nearly 600-foot-long, Washington Square Village apartment buildings, and a one-story retail strip along LaGuardia Place.

NYU estimates that the project would take 19 years to complete. The project’s first phase would focus on the southern superblock. NYU planned to replace the supermarket with a 178-foot tower providing space for a public school and an NYU dormitory. Coles Gym would be replaced with the “Zipper Building,” a block-long building featuring a four- to five-story plinth with six staggered towers in a zippered pattern that rise (more…)

Credit: Google maps

City will convey waterfront property to Kristal Auto Mall and an existing Toys ‘R’ Us retail store on Flatbush Avenue. On May 15, 2012, the City Council approved the Department of Small Business Services’ plan to facilitate the relocation of Kristal Auto Mall to a site on Flatbush Avenue abutting Mill Basin in Brooklyn. The City-owned project site is occupied by a 45,000-square-foot Toys ‘R’ Us store and a 400-space accessory parking lot used by surrounding businesses. To the south of the site is another City-owned parcel consisting of 400,000 sq.ft. of undeveloped land abutting Four Sparrow Marsh. The proposal called for, among other things, disposing of nearly 240,000 sq.ft. of City-owned property, demapping an unimproved strip of Flatbush Avenue, and rezoning the project site from C3 to C8-1.

Under the plan, Kristal Auto Mall will purchase a 110,000-square-foot portion of the parking lot in order to move from its current location at 5200 Kings Highway. Kristal plans to redevelop the property with a 114,000-square-foot facility housing a showroom, offices, and a service facility. A second 4,000-square-foot building will be used for used-car sales.

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Credit: FX Fowle Architects

After City Council modifications, Rudin returned to Landmarks for approval to enlarge and reuse Reiss Pavilion. On March 28, 2012, the City Council modified the Rudin Management Company’s plan to redevelop the former St. Vincent’s Hospital Complex on Seventh Avenue in the Greenwich Village Historic District. The modified mixed-use residential project includes a new residential tower along Seventh Avenue, five townhouses along West 11th Street, and the preservation of the Reiss Pavilion on West 12th Street, which was slated for demolition. In addition, Rudin reduced the number of residential units from 450 to 350 units, and the size of an underground parking garage.

The project, which originally included a new hospital building for St. Vincent’s on the site of the O’Toole Building, has undergone multiple revisions over its four years of public review. The saga began in 2008, when Rudin and St. Vincent’s Hospital sought Landmarks approval for a joint proposal to redevelop the site. The plan included replacing the 1964 O’Toole Building on Seventh Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets across the street from St. Vincent’s Hospital with a new (more…)

Opponents were concerned about how changes to plaza would impact views of the museum. On February 21, 2012, Landmarks issued a favorable advisory report on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s proposal to redesign its plaza along Fifth Avenue in Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The museum is an individual City landmark, while the plaza is considered part of Central Park, which is a scenic landmark. The proposal calls for new lighting and the replacement of fountains, paving, and trees.  (more…)