The historic Provincetown Playhouse and Apartments, 133-139 MacDougal Street  

Dear friend,  

The effort to save the Provincetown Playhouse is gaining growing support, and is clearly having an impact.  Please join us in the fight!  Here is the latest:

Letter-writing Campaign:  Literally hundreds and hundreds of people from across the city, country, and globe have written to NYU urging them to reconsider plans to demolish the Provincetown Playhouse (we got several letters from China and Japan today).  GVSHP has sent a sign-on letter to NYU President Sexton urging him to drop plans to demolish the Provincetown Playhouse, signed by dozens of prominent preservationists, community leaders, theater producers and academics, and artists and entertainers.  New names are being added to the letter every day.   If you haven't already written NYU urging them to drop their plans to demolish the Playhouse, please do; if you have, please forward this e-mail and the link to our sample letters and ask a friend, neighbor, or family member to write.  

Media Attention: NYU's plan to demolish the Provincetown Playhouse and the campaign to save the building has received an increasing amount of media attention, including from the Associated Press (which has been picked up widely) and the New York Times today.   

NYU Response:  In response to the avalanche of letters and criticism it has received regarding its plans to demolish the Playhouse building, today NYU issued a document entitled "Rebuilding the Provincetown Playhouse and Honoring a Cultural Institution" -- their rationale for their plan to raze the building to the ground.  The basic premise is that because the Provincetown Playhouse was altered 70 years ago, the building has little or no cultural significance, and a better way of "honoring" it would be to demolish the building and constructing a new one.  See GVSHP's reponse.   

Public Hearing on May 28th: GVSHP is enlisting help to publicize the public hearing on May 28th at which NYU will be presenting their plans for demolition of the Provincetown Playhouse, and the public will have an opportunity to respond.  Please download the flyer we created and circulate it to your friends, family, and neighbors, and encourage them to attend the hearing on May 28th at 6:30 pm at the Caring Community, 20 Washington Square North.  

GVSHP and a broad coalition of neighbors, preservationists, and theater and arts advocates are working hard to prevent demolition of the Provincetown Playhouse from taking place; for more information, see www.gvshp.org/PTown.htm, and to get more involved, contact us at gvshp@gvshp.org.  

Andrew Berman, Executive Director
Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
212/475-9585 x38
232 East 11th Street
New York, NY 10003     

To join GVSHP or support our preservation efforts, go to www.gvshp.org/membership.htm
 

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PRESERVATION ALERT
from the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation 

Provincetown Playhouse:  The Provincetown Playhouse is one of the most important sites in the history of 20th century American theater -- a launching pad for works of Eugene O'Neill, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Edward Albee, John Guare, Sam Shepherd, Charles Busch, and David Mamet, among others.  The apartments over the theater have housed many well-known artists over the years who wished to be near this center of cultural vitality.  When NYU bought the building and then renovated it, they touted the Playhouse's rich history and their honor in owning and re-opening it.   Additionally, NYU recently agreed to a set of "planning principles" with Borough President Stringer's NYU Community Task Force (of which GVSHP is a member) which says that university should "prioritize...re-use before redevelopment" in their planning.   The Provincetown Playhouse is a key historic site within the proposed South Village Historic District, which NYU promised to support; demolition of a historic lynchpin in the proposed district like the Playhouse will damage the chances of landmarking the entire area moving ahead.

 

GVSHP wrote NYU President John Sexton strongly urging the university to rethink this plan, and wrote to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission urging them to move ahead swiftly with the proposed designation of the South Village Historic District section containing the Provincetown Playhouse to save this historic building. 

 

'NYU 2031' Long-Range Plans:  The latest stage of NYU's long-term planning process showed greater transparency and engagement with the public than in the past, but also showed some very disconcerting concepts.  NYU continues to project adding as much as 3.6 million square feet of new space in and around its 'campus core' over the next 23 years.  Analysis by GVSHP of NYU's growth (which was distributed to attendees at Wednesday's NYU Open House) shows that 3.6 million sq. ft. is the equivalent of all new NYU buildings built in the area over the last 42 years, or the equivalent of 20 more of their highly controversial new 26-story dorms on East 12th Street.  This shows that NYU's projected growth in our neighborhoods in their 2031 plan is actually considerably accelerated over their past growth, which belies the impression the university has given. 

 

The 2031 plans also showed that NYU is no longer considering Long Island City as potential location for satellite or remote facilities, and that the university has narrowed such options to Governor's Island, the East Side Medical Corridor, and Downtown Brooklyn -- a development we find very disappointing.  At the same time, NYU is contemplating large-scale developments in and around their 'campus core,' in spite of commitments to "prioritize identifying opportunities to decentralize facilities" as part of the planning principles.  GVSHP continues to push hard to get NYU to look for satellite locations if they need to grow, and to remain within their existing footprint and envelope in the Village.

• Write to NYU President John Sexton urging him to reconsider plans to demolish the Provincetown Playhouse, and to reduce the University's plans for growth in the neighborhood -- go to www.gvshp.org/ProvincetownLtr.htm for sample letters and contact information.  
• Come to the Community Board #2 public hearing on NYU's plans for the Provincetown Playhouse on Wednesday, May 28th at 6:30 pm at the Caring Community, 20 Washington Square North; NYU will present their plans, and the public will be given an opportunity to respond.