University Village (Manhattan)
University Village is a building complex owned by New York University in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. University Village includes three residential towers built in the 1960s: 505 LaGuardia Place, a housing cooperative, and 100 Bleecker Street and 110 Bleecker Street, which house NYU faculty and graduate students. The buildings were designed by modern architects James Ingo Freed and I. M. Pei, and they surround a central plaza featuring the Bust of Sylvette sculpture by Carl Nesjar and Pablo Picasso. The complex also includes the John A. Paulson Center, a multipurpose building at 181 Mercer Street that was completed in 2021. The complex's original buildings and courtyard are a New York City designated landmark.
The redevelopment of the site was first proposed in 1949; a revised proposal called Washington Square Southeast was announced in 1953. The current site of University Village was originally the southernmost of three superblocks in Washington Square Southeast and was supposed to be part of the Washington Square Village project. Due to difficulties in developing Washington Square Village, NYU bought the southernmost superblock in 1960. University Village was developed between 1964 and 1966, and tenants moved into the buildings starting in 1967. The two NYU towers were renamed the Silver Towers in 1974, after NYU alumnus Julius Silver, and the Coles Sports and Recreation Center was built on the eastern portion of the site in 1981. During the 2000s, a fourth tower was proposed as part of a wide-ranging, controversial expansion plan for NYU. The original towers and central courtyard were protected as city landmarks in 2008, and the John A. Paulson Center was developed on the Coles site between 2016 and 2022.
University Village is bounded by Houston Street to the south, Mercer Street to the east, Bleecker Street to the north, and LaGuardia Place to the west. At the center of the complex is a courtyard with Bust of Sylvette. The grounds also include various pathways and lawns. The three original brutalist–style towers are 30 stories high, with concrete facades and recessed windows; they are arranged around the courtyard in a pinwheel configuration. The towers have a combined 535 apartments, each with one to four bedrooms. The John A. Paulson Center, at the eastern end of the site, is 23 stories tall and includes a sports center, academic space, faculty apartments, and student dormitories. The original buildings won several awards when they were completed, and they have received design commentary over the years.
Planning and construction
has occupied buildings near Washington Square Park since the 1830s. The university's original Washington Square building was replaced with the Silver Center in 1895, and NYU leased the Brown Building in the 1910s. After World War II, NYU sought to expand its Washington Square campus significantly. Meanwhile, the urban planner Robert Moses—who chaired the Mayor's Commission on Slum Clearance—was looking to redevelop parts of Greenwich Village by the early 1950s. At the time, at least 20 apartment houses were being built in the neighborhood, many of which were on the north side of Washington Square Park. Furthermore, as part of the Housing Act of 1949, the U.S. government could fund the redevelopment of areas that local governments had deemed "blighted".Early proposals
1949 proposal
In July 1949, the Mayor's Committee on Slum Clearance identified five sites across New York City that were eligible for redevelopment under the 1949 Housing Act, including a site south of Washington Square. The following year, the New York City Board of Estimate allowed the committee to request federal funds for several sites, including Washington Square South. The Washington Square South site was bounded by Houston Street to the south, Sixth Avenue to the west, Third Street to the north, and Mercer Street to the east. The committee announced in January 1951 that it would seek private investors for Washington Square South and several other development sites. The Washington Square South site was to be developed in two sections, both designed by Eggers & Higgins. The portion south of Bleecker Street—the present site of University Village—would become Houston Houses, a group of eight New York City Housing Authority buildings with 900 apartments. The portion north of Bleecker Street would become Washington Square Gardens, a group of 13 privately funded apartment buildings with 1,956 apartments.The New York Times and The American City praised the Washington Square South project's bold scale but also warned about its impact on the street grid and surrounding buildings. Local residents, on the other hand, were largely opposed to it. The Board of Estimate, which had to approve the development, postponed a decision on the site after over 100 people spoke out against it. The design journal Interiors wrote that the Washington Square South project would result in the demolition of a thriving neighborhood, and several local architects and urban planners expressed doubt about the project's necessity. Moses was initially unconcerned about the opposition, saying that it was to be expected of such a large project.
1953 proposal
In August 1953, Moses announced a revised proposal for 2,148 apartments on a site bounded by West Broadway and Fourth, Mercer, and Houston streets. The proposal, known as Washington Square Southeast, entailed replacing 191 buildings, most of them commercial. Nine existing city blocks would have been combined into three superblocks. The northern superblock was given to NYU, becoming the site of NYU's Bobst Library, Tisch Hall, and Warren Weaver Hall. The central and southern superblocks were given to the Washington Square Village Corporation. In conjunction with the creation of the superblocks, West Broadway would have been widened and renamed "Fifth Avenue South". Though the street-widening was later dropped, the city government retained ownership of a narrow strip on the eastern side of West Broadway, facing the superblock.Supporters of the Washington Square Southeast proposal hoped it would preserve much of Greenwich Village's character, but they were outnumbered by opponents, who argued that the site was not a blighted area. Hortense Gabel, a lawyer for 17 groups who opposed the project, requested that the Board of Estimate give them time to study the plans. The New York City Planning Commission approved Washington Square Southeast in December 1953. The same month, the federal government gave the New York City government $20 million for Washington Square Southeast and two other developments. The plan was endorsed by NYU's chancellor Henry T. Heald and the Washington Square Association. The Board of Estimate approved the plan in January 1954, at which point the city government was planning to relocate 132 families and 1,100 businesses.
Opponents fought the development for three years. In November 1954, the Board of Estimate voted to acquire for Washington Square Southeast through eminent domain. An injunction preventing further land acquisition was placed in February 1955, after the city was sued by a business owner who was being displaced, but a New York Supreme Court justice dismissed the suit. The Supreme Court's Appellate Division revoked the injunction that April, and the Appellate Division upheld the Supreme Court's decision in June. A federal judge also declined to enjoin the development, and the United States House of Representatives said the plans met federal regulations. The city government sold the superblocks to NYU and the Washington Square Village Corporation that August. Washington Square Southeast's opponents appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which upheld the city's plans in March 1956.
By mid-1956, very little work had been done toward clearing the central and southern superblocks. The City Planning Commission voted that July to rezone the Washington Square Southeast site, allowing development to proceed. In July 1957, Washington Square Village's developers announced plans for 2,004 apartments across the two superblocks. There would have been one building on the southern superblock, running between Bleecker and Houston streets, and two on the central superblock, running between Third and Bleecker streets. Paul Lester Wiener and S. J. Kessler and Sons designed these buildings, and Washington Square Village was dedicated in December 1957. The two buildings on the central superblock were completed in 1959 and 1960, but the southernmost building was never completed. The Washington Square Village Corporation canceled a planned expansion within the southern superblock in 1959. The reason for the cancellation is unclear; sources variously cite difficulties in leasing apartments, as well as the fact that the developers would have had to pay the federal government.
Change of plans
Proposed sale to NYU
In January 1960, NYU's president Carroll Vincent Newsom announced plans to acquire the southernmost superblock for, the same rate that the Washington Square Village Corporation had originally paid for the land. At the time, the university already owned of the Washington Square Southeast site and wanted another. NYU wanted to erect either 680 or 722 apartments for faculty and married students, as well as an experimental school for student teachers. Shortly after, real-estate developers expressed skepticism about the low purchase price, claiming that private developers were willing to pay more than $10.50 per square foot. Local residents organized in opposition to NYU's plan, claiming that the site should instead be used for middle-income apartments. Leonard Farbstein, the area's U.S. representative, asked several city and state agencies not to approve the sale of the site to NYU. The backlash to the sale prompted William F. Passannante, the neighborhood's state assemblyman, to propose a bill requiring public hearings for any significant changes to slum-clearance projects in New York state.That May, NYU announced that it would also build a 675-student experimental elementary school on part of the site. The elementary school would have been located on Houston Street, while the rest of the buildings would have been built along a west–east axis, midway between Houston and Bleecker streets. The Board of Estimate had to review the planned NYU sale, but it postponed a decision on the sale following opposition from local residents. The board scheduled several public hearings on the topic during mid-1960.
Following negotiations between NYU and local residents, the Board of Estimate approved the sale of the southern superblock in September 1960. In exchange, NYU had to build 175 or 178 middle-income apartments on the site. The apartment building was to be structured as a housing cooperative. Though anyone could apply for an apartment there, NYU would prioritize Greenwich Village residents and workers, and former residents of the site would get first preference. There would be two additional structures for NYU students and faculty. At the time, NYU faculty members had an average commute of 44 minutes. NYU did not acquire all of the land immediately, however, and the Board of Estimate gave NYU until June 1, 1961, to begin constructing the new buildings.