Gould Plaza
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Jeffrey S. Gould Plaza (commonly referred to as Gould Plaza) is an outdoor
campus A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a college campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls, student centers or dining halls, and park-like se ...
plaza A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true geometric square, used for community gatherings. ...
located on West 4th Street that is the home of several
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...
(NYU) schools. It was named after NYU trustee Jeffrey S. Gould, and is also the namesake for the NYU
welcome center A visitor center or centre (see American and British English spelling differences), visitor information center, tourist information center, is a physical location that provides tourist information to visitors. Types of visitor center A visit ...
of the same name. Surrounding the Plaza are the buildings of the
Stern School of Business The New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business (commonly referred to as NYU Stern, The Stern School of Business, or simply Stern) is the business school of New York University, a private research university based in New York City. I ...
, Courant Institute of Mathematics, the
economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...
department of
NYU College of Arts and Science The New York University College of Arts & Science (CAS) is the primary liberal arts college of New York University, New York University (NYU). The school is located near Gould Plaza next to the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and the New ...
, NYU's
Student Health College health is a desired outcome created by a constellation of services, programs and policies directed at advancing the health and wellbeing of individuals enrolled in an institution of higher education, while also addressing and improving bot ...
Center, NYU's admissions center, Goddard Hall,
Warren Weaver Warren Weaver (July 17, 1894 – November 24, 1978) was an American scientist, mathematician, and science administrator. He is widely recognized as one of the pioneers of machine translation and as an important figure in creating support for scien ...
Hall, NYU's External Affairs building, and the
Frederick Loewe Frederick Loewe (, originally German Friedrich (Fritz) Löwe ; June 10, 1901 – February 14, 1988) was an Austrian-United States, American composer. He collaborated with lyricist Alan Jay Lerner on a series of Broadway musicals, including ''Br ...
Theatre. The plaza is known as a social meeting place where NYU students congregate after classes.


Location

Gould Plaza is located on West 4th Street at
Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
between Mercer Street and Washington Square East. It is characterized by large, red
plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for Molding (decorative), moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of ...
and grey
brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...
buildings surrounding it on three of the four sides, with the remaining side facing West 4th Street. The buildings on the campus side of the plaza have large glass panes dominating their fronts, with prominent purple flags with NYU logos adorning the university's buildings. The floor of the plaza is made of mostly stone slabs with horizontal glass panes forming a walkway across the plaza. The left side of the plaza is dominated by public benches, which NYU alumni can name.


NYU buildings

The plaza was formed after the Stern School of Business was constructed in 1900. The Courant Institute of Mathematics was built in 1932 in the Warren Weaver Hall, under which a
natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
co-generation power production plant was built, designed to reduce the
carbon footprint A carbon footprint is the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an individual, event, organization, service, place or product, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). Greenhouse gases, including the carbon-containing gases carbo ...
of the university, was built in 2011. Goddard Hall also is on the periphery of the Plaza, and is an
undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-lev ...
freshman A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. Ara ...
hall commonly shown during NYU
campus tour A college tour, also called a campus tour, is a tour of a college or university's campus. Prospective students, their family members and other visitors take campus tours to learn about the college or university's facilities, as well as student life, ...
s. Frederick Loewe Theatre, a classic
proscenium A proscenium ( grc-gre, προσκήνιον, ) is the metaphorical vertical plane of space in a theatre, usually surrounded on the top and sides by a physical proscenium arch (whether or not truly "arched") and on the bottom by the stage floor ...
-style
theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...
at NYU, stands next to Goddard Hall and is a performance hall for
Tisch School of Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the a ...
and Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development students.


Nearby buildings

Other buildings nearby the plaza include NYU's Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, which was opened on September 12, 1973, Kimmel Center for University Life, and NYU Steinhart's main building. The plaza is also close to several religious institutions, including
Judson Memorial Church The Judson Memorial Church is located on Washington Square South between Thompson Street and Sullivan Street, near Gould Plaza, opposite Washington Square Park, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It ...
, the Islamic Center at NYU, and the
Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved th ...
, through the Plaza is not connected to Hebrew Union. The high student traffic in the area as the point where four NYU school students often meet makes Gould Plaza a social meeting place for multiple NYU student clubs, which also makes it appealing to street musicians and buskers who often perform on or near the Plaza. New York City
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are also known to frequent the location. Over the years, Gould Plaza has been a place for international festivals to meet, including the
World Science Festival The World Science Festival is an annual science festival produced by the World Science Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization headquartered in New York City. There is also an Asia-Pacific event held in Brisbane, Australia. The foun ...
, which uses the Plaza and its surrounding buildings as a festival destination.


References

{{coord, 40.72902, -73.99591, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-NY, display=title Greenwich Village New York University Squares in Manhattan