New School; old neighborhood
There is a big public meeting tonight at the New School over plans to build this Skidmore Owings Merrill mother at the corner of 14th and 5th Avenue. The New Schoolers are trying to get special permission from the Board of Standards and Appeals to ignore existing height and bulk regulations and build straight up. Residents mostly fear the school's "Quads in the Sky" plan, which will attempt to build a traditional quadrangular campus in the uppermost floors of the new building.
"If you look at NYU's Kimmel Center, it glows like a spaceship, and we fear we will get the same here," said Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation pres Andrew Berman. "Nobody's asking them to recreate a 19th Century townhouse, but we're concerned the office building aesthetic isn't appropriate for a residential neighborhood."
14th and 5th of course isn't the "quaint" part of the Village, really, but residents are still trying to fight for whatever kind of light and air they can get.
"I am happy the New School is expanding, I think it's wonderful that are sucessful and more young people want to come to the neighborhood," said local resident and New School alum Susan Kramer. "But they think they are a suburban campus. It looks like a scary monolith is coming in for the landing."
If you make it to the meeting tonight do let us know.
And for more, read this
-- David Freedlander
Comments (2)
David, thank you for posting this notice!
Anticipating another meeting before The New School applies to the BSA for their desired exemptions and waivers - I'm already working on standing room only at next and following presentations.
At such time when a next meeting occurs, can you help us get a prominent article and notice put into print?
Thank you again and I look forward to your continued support.
Paul Mulhauser
Board of Directors - Wedgwood House (69 Fifth Ave)
Residents Community Coalition
http://residentscc.googlepages.com/
for video animation showing their desired HUGE campus center:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2086656973109803718
Some one I know said - hey , I don't live across from that, it's not blocking my view - which absolutely floored me. True, my window isn't blocked but when I walk out onto 14th and 5th to wait for the #14 bus my kids and I love to observe the sky and clouds and look for the moon in the morning. True, this isn't the "quaint" part of the village, but most of us who choose to live "downtown" do so, in great part, because there is a lower skyline here. The recent imposition of tall reflective glass towers between 14th Street and Canal so out of place in this environment is a real disaster for retaining the future "feel" of this neighborhood. Maybe that would finally stop the tour buses when we look just like 5th and 33rd Street or any number of midtown "neighborhoods", but that's a big price to pay for getting rid of tourists (who, by the way, are a big part of our micro-economy).