NYU is backing out of a controversial plan to add a 38-story tower to a landmarked complex of three high-rises after world-renown architect I.M. Pei signalled that he would flunk the university’s addition to his award-winning design.
University officials today said they would move the proposed tower to the site of a supermarket located nearby, but not within the “Silver Towers” complex designed by Pei that was granted landmark status by the city in 2008.
“From the beginning, we sought a design for the Silver Towers block that was most respectful of Mr. Pei’s vision. Some people disagreed with our proposed approach; others agreed,” said NYU vice president Lynne Brown.
“We believed that among those who agreed was Mr. Pei himself, who expressed no opposition to the concept of a tower on the landmarked site when we spoke with him directly in 2008,” said Brown. “Mr. Pei has now had a change of heart.”
Brown said Pei has told university officials that he prefers that NYU build its tower at the corner of Bleecker Street and LaGuardia Place, which is the site of a Morton Williams supermarket that NYU owns.
The block where Pei’s Silver Towers complex is on a super-block bounded by LaGuardia Place, Bleecker, West Houston and Mercer Streets.
While Pei has no authority over the project, his opinion would likely have carried enormous weight with the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Under the original plan, NYU had planned to raze the supermarket and build a public park to offset the addtion of a fourth tower on now open space in the landmarked complex.
NYU officials who are in the midst of a massive expansion plan, will include the new tower site in its land use application to the city for a series of new buildings around its Washington Square campus.
The application to the city is expected to be filed in the fall of 2011.
Opponents said yesterday that they will continue their fight against the tower — and much of the rest of NYU’s plan to add 2 million square feet of space in Greenwich Village, which they say would overload the historic neighborhood.
Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation said NYU officials “still does not get it.”
“NYU should be looking to places like the Financial District to absorb its massive planned growth — where it would be contextual and welcomed by leaders of that community,” said Berman.