FromThe Villager
Fearing New York University may be assembling a development site along MacDougal St. for a life sciences building, local politicians and the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation recently wrote the university's new president a joint letter to express their concern.
The letter to N.Y.U. President John Sexton was signed by State Sen. Tom Duane, City Councilmembers Alan Gerson and Christine Quinn and Andrew Berman, G.V.S.H.P.'s executive director. Specifically, they cited reports that N.Y.U. is trying to purchase four Federal rowhouses, No.'s 125-131, extending north from the corner of W. Third St. - where Groove music club is located - along the west side of MacDougal St. and up to the historic Provincetown Playhouse, the last which N.Y.U. owns.
"As you know," the letter to Sexton says, "N.Y.U.'s development plans in Greenwich Village are of great interest, and often of great concern, to us. In the past, the university has not always been very forthcoming with the community about building plans that have an enormous impact upon residents' lives, nor has it been as sensitive or thoughtful in its planning as we would like to see.
"We would be adamantly opposed to any plan by N.Y.U. to tear down or significantly modify any of these buildings (including the Playhouse), and ask that you share with us any plans N.Y.U. currently has for the site and commit to sharing any plans N.Y.U. may consider as they develop," the letter says.
The block is part of the proposed South Village Historic District and 125-131 MacDougal St. are among the oldest surviving federal row houses in Greenwich Village. The buildings' "destruction or compromise would be seen as an enormous affront to the Greenwich Village community, and to preservation in New York City in general," the letter continues, concluding by requesting a meeting with Sexton to discuss N.Y.U.'s plans, if any, for the site.
In an interview, Berman said there are no confirmed or definite reports about any such project yet.
"We've just heard reports," Berman said. "But we felt that the issue is serious enough that we wanted to question the president directly - These are low-rise buildings in an area that N.Y.U. would see as ideal for expansion." He said Sexton's recent comments to N.Y.U.'s university senate about plans for a new life sciences building, half to three-quarters the size of its new Kimmel Center, compound the concern.
John Beckman, a university spokesperson, said the owner of 127 MacDougal St., the building containing the MacDougal Copying Center, had in fact recently approached N.Y.U. unsolicited, to let them know the building is for sale. Beckman said he didn't know anything about the other properties, however.
"It's the kind of call and inquiry we get a lot," he said. "People come to us all the time. There's no deal being conducted. We sent over a couple of people to take a look at it. That's all there is.... This kind of thing happens a lot. Ninety-nine percent of the time, it's nothing."
Despite Sexton's comments to the contrary, and suspicions that N.Y.U. may be trying to develop the Morton-Williams Associated supermarket site on Bleecker St. that it owns, Beckman reiterated his earlier comments that there are no firm plans for a new N.Y.U. science building, and that any new sciences facilities might just as well be located in existing N.Y.U. buildings around the square.
"I can't say this enough," he said. "No decision has been made to build a science facility or to build anything on that site."
N.Y.U.'s recent development of its new law school building on W. Third St. showed the university is not reluctant to bulldoze historic low-rise buildings for its new projects. In the end, a community lawsuit forced N.Y.U. to preserve the facade of a small building at 85 W. Third St. where Edgar Allan Poe once lived, which will be incorporated in the completed building.
The Villager 2003