I had mixed feelings about what NYU was doing, but -- hell, it had no functioning library ( the old one had fallen apart from a functional point of view), scant housing, and classrooms that were often so unsightly people smoking in them crushed out their cigs on the floor sort of contemptuously because of the crumminess of these places..
What I learned at NYU and after was 1) I really like volunteer work, which I would not have liked at all if it had been mandatory --as it is in some high schools and even colleges now-- 2) When it comes to researching and planning your own future, DON'T just listen to prevailing wisdoms or stray advice you get from well meaning people and 3) WHEN you know what you want to do, persist, persist, persist...you will never forgive yourself later if you let setbacks and discouragements, which are inevitable, take all the wind out of your sails for good.
Oh yeah- and about NYU-- it has become a Frankenstein monster of a school--when I was a volunteer for their fund raising efforts in the 1980's, I never dreamed where it was all headed. If I had I would have directed my volunteer efforts somewhere else ( as it was I was secretary of my buildings tenants assn. which I helped found)...Well, here is the long version of the saga, as promised
NYU Expansion
NYU Gets Olive Branch; Pope-Designed Hospital Threatened
[Courtesy of the Queens Preservation Council]
GREENWICH VILLAGE—Members of the community and local government are extending an olive branch to the Village's Purple People Eaters. Just two weeks after a State Supreme Court Justice issued a ruling to protect neighborhood parkland from NYU expansion , a group of federal, state and local elected officials will speak at the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation on their vision for proceeding in cooperation with the University regarding their expansion plan. The discussion will occur on Friday, January 24 at 11:30 a.m.. [CurbedWire Inbox; previously]
JAMAICA—The historic "T" Building at the Queens Center Hospital is under threat of demolition, despite its eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places. Mixed opinions over the building's fate have been swirling since it was proposed as a residence for people with low incomes or chronic illnesses. The Queens Preservation Council has launched a campaign to save the John Russell Pope-designed building. [CurbedWire Inbox]
New York University officials called a state judge's recently ruling a win for their expansion plans, but they have decided to appeal the decision. The judge blocked most of the plan by ruling that NYU
was illegally developing parkland and said that the university needed
state approval. If NYU wins the appeal, they will not need state
approval. Despite the decision to appeal, NYU still says the ruling is
positive, as it still allows them to construct their largest building,
as it is not on the contested land. [Crain's; previously]Judge Halts NYU Expansion, Says State Approval Is Needed
In an unexpected ruling yesterday, state judge Donna M. Mills blocked part of New York University's 1.9 million square foot expansion plans, ruling that the university needs state approval for the pieces that would impact public parks. Mills wrote in her decision
that the Bloomberg administration turned over three public parks to NYU
"without approval by the New York State Legislature in violation of the
Public Trust Doctrine." The ruling had anti-NYU Villagers So why are both sides happy? NYU insists that the ruling will allow them to move forward with the project's largest building, the 1-million-square-foot Zipper Building, which is planned for construction atop the university's gym. The building runs along Mercer Street, stretching the entire block between Houston and Bleecker Streets. NYU officials told the Times that construction of the building, which may rise 26-stories, could begin in 18 months. Beckman said that NYU's next legal steps are unknown, but they are reviewing the decision to "determine the precise impact of the ruling on our ability to implement other elements of the plan."
With all the beef over NYU's controversial expansion into Greenwich Village taking center stage, it's easy to forget that the school is also unfurling its tentacles into "sizzling" Downtown Brooklyn, where in January it will open the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering.
The process of molding a rival MIT has apparently been "free of the
anti-development battles raging in other areas of Brooklyn and in
Greenwich Village because it is located in a relatively commercial part
of the city, said Rob Perris, the Community Board manager for the area.
Mr. Perris said most people in the neighborhood are happy to have NYU as a neighbor." [WSJ; previously]Is the opposition to NYU's expansion fueled by a desire to save what's left of the bohemian Village or is it more about ending Bloombergian development?
In the last few weeks, dozens of Village celebrities tapped into their
star power to raise money to fight the 2031 expansion, and one professor
leading the fight sees a direct connection to Bloomberg's impending
departure. "I actually think the outpouring is motivated, wittingly or
not, by a sense that enough is enough development-wise in New York City.
The Bloomberg years are behind us now. It's important for people to
understand this fight." [NYMag; previously]Critic: NYU 'Blights' Village With Bad Architecture, Construction
Poetic Bloomberg archicritic James Russell has turned his attention to New York University, outlining how the school's past growth and present expansion plan have adversely affected the surrounding neighborhood—architecturally
speaking and otherwise. Because every one of his pieces is way more fun
when presented in free verse, here are a couple of his most choice
zingers, stanza by stanza.There's the menacing red bulk of the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library...
the misnamed Kimmel Center for University Life (2003),
slapped together from lumps of cream stone, green metal and glass.
Warren Weaver Hall is a moldy brick behemoth that even
1970s sentimentalists can't love.
In its ongoing fight against the NYU expansion, the NYU Faculty Against the Sexton Plan is unleashing a previously underutilized weapon: star power. The group is holding an online silent auction from December 9 to 18, with prizes including "acting lesson from Philip Seymour Hoffman," "shoot hoops with John Leguizamo," "lunch with Bill Moyers at a restaurant of your choice," "lunch with Fran Lebowitz at Bar Pitti," and much more. [NYUFASP; previously]
Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi landed in court today. Well, in the audience, along with 100 other activists, who are all supporting a lawsuit that aims to keep NYU from the full breadth of its massive expansion plans
by designating four specific sites untouchable parkland. "I'm just a
concerned mother, [a] Village resident. There's not a lot of places to
play downtown," she told the Post. Alas, no resolution was
reached at today's hearing, but the judge did ask both sides to submit
written arguments in two weeks. [NYP; previously]NYU's Expansion Battle Continues; Architecture Fights Obesity
GREENWICH VILLAGE?Tomorrow marks yet another step in New York University's battle to expand, and the rest of the city's battle to keep those purple people eaters at bay. Legal skirmish upon legal skirmish has ensued since the school's 2 million-square-foot expansion plan was approved last year, but a judge can still overturn it all, so opponents are still expected to show up in full force to sway the balance, included neighborhood celebs like Padma Lakshmi. [CurbedWire Inbox; previously]
CITYWIDE?Mayor Bloomberg and his peeps today announced a brand-new initiative to fight obesity. He launched the Center for Active Design, whose mission is to use the architecture (!!!) of buildings and public spaces as an intentional means to keep New Yorkers more fit. Measures include promoting (but not requiring, you know, for ADA reasons and all that) stair use in all structures. The general idea is to encourage physical movement inside as well as purposely create transportation outlets and recreational spaces that do the same. Instead of trying to ban large sodas or posting calorie counts, now the mayor is making us take the stairs?and, ideally, well-designed ones. What will the man think of next? [CurbedWire Inbox; official]
A Pinata of Hated 3 Northside Piers; NYU's Noho Expansion
WILLIAMSBURG?Two separate tipsters have sent in photos of a pinata at a 2 Northside Piers Cinco de Mayo party, which was specially ordered to look like the under-construction third tower of the same development. Many consider the new Northside Piers building (abbreviated here as NSP3) to be an eyesore that will block their river views, so residents must have had fun bashing the living daylights out of it with a pool cue and then gobbling up its candy-filled insides. Though it seems, based on the photos above, that the building held up surprisingly well. [CurbedWire Inbox, previously]
TWO BRIDGES?For the first time, public housing residents are suing the authority that oversees their apartments (the NYCHA) over repairs. Or, perhaps it's more accurate to say a lack of repairs. More than 300 residents of the Smith Houses on St. James Place, who have experienced crumbling ceilings, gas outages, toxic mold, and other urban apartmental hazards, filed a lawsuit that aims to hold the NYCHA accountable for timely repairs, just like any other landlord in the city. The NYCHA has claimed that it lacks the money to address all the problems, and can only make the services available if residents support a controversial plan to lease public land to private developers. Meanwhile, others argue that the body is missing opportunities to grab more funding and delegating its coffers improperly. [CurbedWire Inbox]
NYU Wins Dismissal of Suit Brought By Village Tenants
Since City Council approved New York University's 2031 expansion plan last July, two lawsuits have been brought against the institution. The Article 78 case, which focuses on whether or not the city illegally gave away parkland, has been widely publicized (the opponents won a small victory in court last month), but the other case, brought by rent-stabilized tenants of Washington Square Village, has flown under the radar. In a lawsuit filed last August, the plaintiffs sought to stop NYU from eliminating a two-acre courtyard and commercial strip as part of the school's expansion. However, NYU issued a statement today announcing that New York Supreme Court Justice Ellen M. Coin dismissed the case, saying that the tenants would first have to take up the complaint with the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal.
NYU Expansion Opponents Victorious in Initial Legal Skirmish
Around 60 or 70 NYU professors, members of petitioning groups, and Greenwich Village residents, including actor Matthew Broderick and playwright Kenneth Lonergan,
showed up in court this morning to hear former NYC Deputy Mayor Randy
Mastro, serving as lawyer for the opponents of the NYU expansion, argue
that the city illegally gave away dedicated parkland to NYU when it approved the university's 2031 plan this July. Technically, Mastro was arguing for discovery,
contending that NYU intentionally withheld information in order to
maintain that four disputed tracts of land are not, and never were, city
parks. The tracts in question, which include Mercer Playground and the LaGuardia Corner Gardens,
have been used as parks for almost a century and are pretty obviously
parks. ("Pretty obviously parks" is not a legally admissible term,
unfortunately.) The judge agreed with Mastro, or, at least, agreed that
all the information should be heard, and summarily granted the
discovery, or, at least, made clear her intention to sign an order to
show cause. To put it in very official legal terms, she did basically
the thing that Mastro wanted her to do and did not do the thing that
NYU's lawyers wanted her to do, which was to throw out all the
petitions, declare that art is dead, and rename the entirety of Lower
Manhattan "NYU's Freshman Dorm."Breaking Ground at 7 Bryant Park; Officials Try To Save LICH
COBBLE HILL?Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and a host of other elected officials have called for a zoning change at the Long Island College Hospital campus that would ultimately protect Cobble Hill. The impetus? SUNY Downstate has already started a process that would eventually close LICH, allowing the school to build more (and make more money) on the same site. Area residents fear that high-rise development could ensue, and so officials are calling for a 50-foot height limit to be placed on the campus?which would ensure that the university won't be able to build anything too out of character with the neighborhood. [CurbedWire Inbox; previously]
NYU Expansion Schedule, New Building Heights Revealed
Now that NYU's 2031 expansion plan has been approved, the school is trying its best to make sure the community has every. single. detail.
of the schedule and construction plans. At an information session last
night with Community Board 2, Alicia Hurley, NYU's VP for government and
community affairs, passed out printed info packets of the final ULURP
presentation, along with an extensive chart of NYU's main commitments and requirements and when they will be happening. So what's first? Well, no actual construction will begin until sometime in 2014,
as NYU doesn't have an architect or construction team yet, so the
buildings still need to be designed. Where construction will start is
still yet to be decided, but no two buildings will be built at the same time.
NYU's expansion reaches much farther than Greenwich Village. The university officially opened a 75,000-square-foot facility in Washington, D.C.,
expanding its educational empire and quest to take over the world. The
new campus will host 120 students a semester and offer classes on
politics, journalism, and government. [NY1]
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