University Village (Manhattan)
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The University Village is a complex of three apartment buildings located in
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 ...
in the Lower Manhattan-part of
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. The complex is owned by
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, th ...
and was built in the 1960s as part of the University's transition to a residential college. One of the towers, 505 LaGuardia Place, is a
co-op A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...
that does not house students, and the other two towers, Silver Tower I and Silver Tower II, house faculty and graduate students of NYU. The buildings were designed by
modern Modern may refer to: History * Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Phil ...
architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
s
James Ingo Freed James Ingo Freed (June 23, 1930 – December 15, 2005) was an American architect born in Essen, Germany during the Weimar Republic. After coming to the United States at age nine with his sister Betty, followed later by their parents, he studi ...
and
I. M. Pei Ieoh Ming Pei
– website of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
( ; ; April 26, 1917 – May 16, 2019) was ...
, and the central-plaza contains a sculpture by Carl Nesjär and
Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
. In 2008 the complex was designated a New York City Landmark by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.


History


Construction

In 1953 the Mayor’s Commission on Slum Clearance designated three superblocks in the Greenwich Village area for redevelopment under Title 1 of the
Housing Act of 1949 The American Housing Act of 1949 () was a landmark, sweeping expansion of the federal role in mortgage insurance and issuance and the construction of public housing. It was part of President Harry Truman's program of domestic legislation, the Fai ...
. The project was known as the Washington Square Southeast redevelopment area, with the northernmost superblock given to NYU for educational purposes and the lower two superblocks to the Washington Square Village Corporation. The northern superblock eventually became the site of several NYU buildings, including the
Bobst Library The Elmer Holmes Bobst Library ( ), often referred to simply as Bobst Library or just Bobst, is the main library at New York University (NYU) in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The library is located at 70 Washington Square South between LaGuardi ...
, Tisch Hall of the Stern School of Business, and Warren Weaver Hall. However, poor sales of apartments in the central superblock's Washington Square Village buildings led the Corporation to sell the southernmost superblock to NYU in 1960. As part of the sale, NYU was required to develop 175 units of low-income housing on the site. In 1960 NYU hired I. M. Pei & Associates, later known as
Pei Cobb Freed & Partners Pei Cobb Freed & Partners is an American architectural firm based in New York City, founded in 1955 by I. M. Pei and other associates.
, to design the complex. While I. M. Pei contributed to the design process, the primary architect for the site was
James Ingo Freed James Ingo Freed (June 23, 1930 – December 15, 2005) was an American architect born in Essen, Germany during the Weimar Republic. After coming to the United States at age nine with his sister Betty, followed later by their parents, he studi ...
. This was part of a program the University had started in the 1950s to transform itself from a commuter college spread out over the entire city to a residential college centered in the Washington Square area of Greenwich Village. Originally the site was to include a low-rise apartment building. However Pei requested the plan be altered to include only the tall towers to prevent the site from being visually overwhelmed by the buildings. With the finalized plan of three 30 story towers approved by the city, construction began in September 1964 and was completed in October 1966. The tower at 505 LaGuardia Place would become a
co-op A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...
under the Mitchell-Lama program to fulfill the requirement for low-income housing, while the towers at 100 and 110 Bleecker Street would become apartments for University faculty and graduate students.


Later years

In 1974 the two towers housing University faculty and graduate students were renamed for Julius Silver, an NYU alumnus who would later bequeath $150 million to the University. In 1981 the University constructed the one-story Coles Sports & Recreation Center, designed by Wank Adams Slavin Associates, on the eastern part of the superblock. This was an alteration of the original site plan, which would have included an experimental elementary school run by NYU on the eastern part of the superblock. In 2003 the
Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation Village Preservation (formerly the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, or GVSHP) is a non-profit organization which advocates for the preservation of architecture and culture in several neighborhoods of Lower Manhattan, New York. ...
requested that the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designate the entire superblock as a historic landmark. This would have included the three towers, the central courtyard, a Morton Williams supermarket on the site since 1961 that NYU purchased in 2000, and the Coles Sports & Recreation Center. In 2008 the Commission completed hearings on the request and designated the three towers and the central courtyard as a Historic Landmark. This effectively ended NYU's plan of adding a fourth 40-story tower to the site as part of its ''NYU 2031'' plan, as the smaller area designated as a landmark covered the possible locations of any new building. In July 2012, the New York City Council voted approval of the “NYU 2031” plan for university expansion, which called for construction of two new buildings on the Silver Towers superblock, and two more on the Washington Square Village superblock, for a total of 1.9 million square feet of new residential, academic, office and other space. A coalition of opponents, led by NYU Faculty Against the Sexton Plan and the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, fought the plan for several years — both before and after City Council approval — culminating in a legal challenge filed in September 2012. In January 2014, New York State Supreme Court Justice Donna Mills blocked much of the plan. Opponents declared victory, but NYU appealed the decision.


Structure

The complex consists of three thirty-story cast-in-place concrete towers arranged in a pinwheel plan around a courtyard. Together the three brutalist towers have 535 apartments, broken up into one-, two- and three-bedroom units. All of the doors and windows are made of duranodic
aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...
, with the windows deeply recessed into the load-bearing grids of four and eight bays on alternating sides of each tower. The concrete around the entrances was bush-hammered to partially expose the aggregate base of the concrete. Also part of the complex is a circular concrete sitting area on the southeast section of the site that was part of the original plan and a playground south of the sitting area that was designed by the original architect in 1967.


Artwork

In the courtyard at the center of the complex is a cubistic sculpture known as the ''Bust of Sylvette''. As its name indicates, it is a sculpture in-the-round of the head, neck, and shoulders of a woman named Sylvette David. It was created by the Norwegian artist Carl Nesjär in 1968 and was done in collaboration with
Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
, who had created a version of the sculpture in folded metal, in 1954. Picasso was living in the south of
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
when he met the 20-year-old Sylvette through her boyfriend, Toby Jellinek . Picasso was captivated by her blonde hair and face, and she would become the subject for over 40 pieces of artwork he produced during 1954. The sculpture is noted for its use of the
betograve ''Betograve'' is a type of concrete sculpting. A document published by the Nasher Sculpture Center says that betograve "...involves first pouring concrete into a form tightly packed with gravel, and, once set, precisely sand-blasting the surface of ...
technique of sandblasting concrete to create different textures and received a New York State Award from the
New York State Council on the Arts The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) is an arts council serving the U.S. state of New York. It was established in 1960 through a bill introduced in the New York State Legislature by New York State Senator MacNeil Mitchell (1905–1996 ...
in 1969. A further plan by
Christo Christo Vladimirov Javacheff (1935–2020) and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon (1935–2009), known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, were artists noted for their large-scale, site-specific environmental installations, often large landmarks and ...
and Jeanne-Claude in 1972 to wrap the sculpture in brown fabric was never completed.


Awards and honors

* 1996 –
Robert A. M. Stern Robert Arthur Morton Stern, usually credited as Robert A. M. Stern (born May 23, 1939), is a New York City–based architect, educator, and author. He is the founding partner of the architecture firm, Robert A.M. Stern Architects, also known a ...
's List of 35 Modern Landmarks-in-Waiting * 1969 – New York chapter of the AIA Environments Awards Exhibition: Street Lighting Award * 1967 –
American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...
: National Honor Award * 1967 –
City Club of New York The City Club of New York is a New York City–based independent, not-for-profit organization. In 1950, ''The New York Times'' called the City Club of New York "a social club with a civic purpose"Albert S. Bard Award * 1966 – Concrete Industry Board Award * 1966 – ''
Fortune Fortune may refer to: General * Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck * Luck * Wealth * Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling * Fortune, in a fortune cookie Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Fortune'' (1931 film) ...
'': Ten Buildings That Climax an Era


References

Notes


External links

* {{I. M. Pei Brutalist architecture in New York City Buildings and structures completed in 1966 Greenwich Village I. M. Pei buildings James Ingo Freed buildings New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan New York University Residential skyscrapers in Manhattan