Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation

The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission today voted to landmark the I. M. Pei-designed Silver Towers, giving the set of NYU-owned apartment buildings known as University Village a protective status.

The action comes in connection with NYU’s plans to expand its space in the city by 6 million square feet in the next two-plus decades, as the university agreed to the landmarking in an early concession to the community.

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Greenwich Village may be notoriously prickly about new development, but will Donald Trump's provocations never end?

Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and ardent Trump SoHo opponent, has just sent out a plea for like-minded activists to inundate the City Planning Commission with requests to "change the zoning for this area to prevent more out-of-scale development like Trump SoHo 'Condo-Hotel.'''

The catalyst for this most recent burst of outrage?

According to Mr. Berman:

"Last week it was revealed that the Department of Buildings (DOB) approved an additional, 43rd floor for the 454 ft. tall Trump SoHo 'Condo-Hotel.' However, a review by GVSHP of DOB's records shows that the developer has recently submitted permit applications referring to a 44th floor, one floor even higher than DOB already approved.

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New York University announced today that it would not demolish the Provincetown Playhouse, but build above it, preserving the theater’s original structural walls, footprint and volume, following a mini-public backlash.

University spokeswoman Alicia Hurley said “demolishing the theater was never a proposal,” just “bad information in the atmosphere.  read more »

New York University announced its support today for the landmark designation of I.M. Pei’s Silver Towers, three tan 40-year-old buildings on a superblock in Greenwich Village. The designation would restrict changes and development on the tower sites, a move that comes as NYU is facing significant community opposition to its planned 6 million-square-foot, 25-year expansion.

NYU has previously expressed interest in putting new buildings in between the Silver Towers, and even as recently as last month the school held an open house that featured models of what development on the site could look like. In an e-mail, NYU spokesman John Beckman said such construction would still be possible after landmarking, although some of the proposed concepts would require going through the city’s landmarks approval process.  read more »

Know this about the Hotel Gansevoort's large billboards: They have to be at a 90-degree angle facing away from Hudson Street and more toward the meatpacking-district hotel. Currently, they face away from Hudson at about an 86-degree angle, according to sources familiar with the ongoing dispute.

The Real Estate last week got a happy email from the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. The email said the city had responded to complaints about the billboards by requiring the hotel to make adjustments to the billboards or to take them down. The city's angle measurements, according to society executive director Andrew Berman, were probably done last week.

On Wednesday, The Real Estate got a two-sentence statement from a representative of Michael and William Achenbaum, the brothers who own the Hotel Gansevoort. The statement was attributed to Michael:

There has been no violation issued against the hotel or sign. The sign is currently being installed in a matter that is legal-the city is aware of this and has approved it.

So, with the angle of the billboards being adjusted, perhaps the dispute has been resolved. Or has it?

"Signs like this belong in Las Vegas," Mr. Berman said on Wednesday, slicing to the heart of the billboards dispute.

Developing...

- Tom Acitelli

The Hotel Gansevoort billboards morass might be over.

The Real Estate got a triumphant email on Friday afternoon from the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, which has opposed the billboards:

"We have just received news that the City has ruled that the controversial 8-story high billboards at the Hotel Gansevoort in the Meatpacking District are in violation of zoning rules."

The boards' fate now seems to hang with hotel owner Michael Achenbaum:

The owner of the Hotel Gansevoort can now take down the signs, as we and many area business and community leaders have been calling for, or he can try to correct them and keep them up. Because the owner has said publicly that putting up the billboards were a mistake he would change if he could, now is his chance to do so.

The Real Estate has a call out to speak to Mr. Achenbaum.

UPDATE: A rep for Mr. Achenbaum emailed this statement on Friday afternoon:

"The hotel has not received any notice of a violation from the DOB. The address mentioned in [the preservation society's] letter--352 West 13th Street--is not the address of the Hotel Gansevoort and not the address filed on the application for the billboards (both 18 Ninth Ave.). Until we receive this notification, this is all the information we have available at this time."

- Tom Acitelli

Our friends at the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation sent us a little note today about the anticipated ruling by the city whether to allow "condo-hotels" in manufacturing zones. At particular issue is Donald Trump's planned 45-story condo-hotel at 246 Spring Street.
Now, the nub of the matter is this: Hotels can reside in manufacturing zones; Mr. Trump, with a speculator's glint in his eye, wants to develop these condo-hotels there too. Opponents like the GVSHP claim that these new developments will not be transient in nature, like the law says they must be.
The GVSHP's main concerns are:

1. It will encourage high-rise development of luxury residential and hotel units in these areas
2. It will help push out area businesses, which are supposed to be protected by zoning from competition from residential development, thereby changing the character of these neighborhoods
3. It will circumvent the possibility of these communities considering zoning changes to only allow residential development which is appropriate for the area in terms of height, size, and location
4. It will undermine hard-fought-for provisions to encourage the creation of affordable housing in recently rezoned neighborhoods like West Chelsea, Hell's Kitchen, and Williamsburg/Greenpoint, by opening up new areas of these neighborhoods to luxury housing development without the agreed-to affordable housing incentives attached

To us it seems to be a short-sighted ploy to grab a quick buck in the ferocious go-go 2000's real-state orgy. But how long will it last? And what happens when the bottom drops out? (Oh, c'mon, you know it will)
Check out the GVSHP's Web site for more info.  read more »

-Matthew Grace

Community Board 2 will be holding a hearing to discuss the proposed 45-story, 400-plus unit Trump International Hotel and Tower Soho, at 246 Spring Street (at Varick), tonight at Housing Works, at 320 West 13th Street (west of Eighth Avenue), at 6:30 p.m. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation is a featured presenter at the hearing.

GVSHP executive director Andrew Berman will be on hand to share his orgaznization's concerns regarding the $370 million project, namely that this is an attempt by Trump to build residences in an area zoned for manufacturing. The zoning law allows hotels to operate in certain manufacturing districts, as long as "units may not be made subject to sale, lease or other arrangements under which they would not be available for transient occupancy." (D.O.B. ruling, April 19, 2004.)
According to the New York Post, the hotel would sell rooms to individuals, who could then rent them out as hotel rooms. GVSHP alleges that this is just a scheme so that Trump could provide apartments and pieds-à-terre to individuals under the guise of "transient" housing.
And if that doesn't make your blood boil, consider this: Apprentice season No. 5 winner Sean Yazbeck will manage the construction, if and when the project--which hasn't been granted the necessary building permits yet--moves ahead. So strike a blow for culture, if not zoning laws.  read more »

-Matthew Grace

On Tuesday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission declined to make a decision regarding 122 Greenwich Avenue, at Eighth Avenue and 13th Street in the Village. According to City Realty and other attendees, there was much back and forth, with some residents--and the New York Landmarks Conservancy and the NYC Chapter of the American Institute of Architects--favoring Hines' plan to develop the current parking lot into an 11-story, 36-unit glass-sheathed undulating residential tower, and several dozen opposed to it. The ground floor, at 8,000 square feet, is planned for retail.  read more »

We are a little obsessed with Mayor Koch's film reviews, which we get via email as he writes them. But someone should tell him Heath Ledger is straight. On Casanova, he writes: "In this film, he is in command of his libido and sexual activities and constantly beds the opposite sex."

Oh, and: "I feel like crawling into the fetal position when I give a film a negative review..." And, ever the film critic: "Stay home and read a good book." We also love it when he quotes other film reviews. It's like saying, "I'm late on this, so sue me! How'm I doin'?"

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation just wants New York University to go away. NYU, basically, says "No!"

Damn, people can't even safely buy their fake Louis Vuitton bags anymore. Connecticut shoppers have to go through secret passageways, but at least they get their day of excitement.

Yesterday, the Board of Standards and Appeals gave the go-ahead to continue construction on an eight-story residential development at 163 Charles Street in the far West Village.

The neighborhood was recently down-zoned after a concerted push by area residents and activist groups, most notably the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.

GVSHP executive director Andrew Berman has been at the forefront of many battles around the nabe; after the down-zoning, he's been trying stop projects that were conspicuously started right before the height limits went into effect. But with limited success.

Artist Julien Schnabel just received a pass to continue construction on his 12-story tower on West 11th Street; Diane von Furstenberg's former studio and residence at 387-91 West 12th Street, which was sold for $21 million to Coalco, a Russian-owned development company, was slated to be the site of a 150-foot Christian de Portzamparc-designed glass-box tower. That project is in limbo.

163 Charles is just east of the three Richard Meier-designed towers that started the rush to build--and limit the height of--new buildings in the neighborhood.  read more »

(City Realty)

-Matthew Grace

The Board of Standards and Appeals approved Related Companies' plan to build a 190-foot, 160,000-square-foot residential tower at the site of the Superior Ink factory at Bethune and West streets in Greenwich Village earlier today.

This is a partial victory for the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, which has been lobbying the B.S.A. to quash, or at least scale down, Related's project. It was originally designed to be 270 feet tall.

This should be one of the last new towers to go up in the neighborhood; last year the Department of City Planning down-zoned the whole area after a push by preservation activists and locals who were concerned about all the new, large-scale developments, such as the Meier towers on Perry and Charles streets, going up.

In a press release, GVSHP executive director Andrew Berman vowed to keep pressuring the Landmarks Preservation Commission to landmark the Superior Ink factory: "This historic neighborhood deserves nothing less."  read more »

-Matthew Grace

New York University and the Hudson Companies have been meeting some stiff opposition from area residents over the planned dorm development at 110-124 East 12th Street, the former site of St. Ann's Church (where only the church's steeple, pictured, remains--N.Y.U. says it'll be incorporated into the new building's design). The school plans on using the air rights of the nearby Cooper Station Post Office to construct a tower up to 26 stories high (although the school's vice president of campus planning, Sharon Greenberger, in a community town-hall meeting on Dec. 19, said the size of the building has not been determined; see The Villager's report for details).

Now the local community board is getting involved. On Dec. 22, Community Board 3 voted to create a subcommittee "to respond to community and board concerns … regarding the height, density and operation of the proposed buildings." With the addition of Community Board 3 into the fray, the battle over the dorm is sure to get interesting. Already the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation is leaning on the school to minimize the bulk and height of the building, and area residents are becoming increasingly vocal about the development.

We'll see what happens--stay tuned.  read more »

-Matthew Grace

Greenwich Village dwellers and preservationists won a battle today when the City Planning Commission voted to limit the height and scale of new developments in the far West Village, a haven of luxury real-estate speculation since the infamous Perry Street celebridorm by Richard Meier, overexposed both literally and figuratively, went up along the Hudson River.

The City Planning Commission voted unanimously today to approve a down-zoning of the Far West Village that imposes strict regulations on developers for quite some time into the future.

Developers interested in the neighborhood are not pleased.

During a hearing last week, proponents of the rezoning pleaded with commission chair Amanda Burden to take action quickly, as developers were gearing up to start their projects before the rezoning could take effect; apparently, she listened.

Two glaring exceptions to the rezoning remain: the Superior Ink Factory (pictured), at 70 Bethune Street, where Related Companies plans to build a 120-foot residential tower, and the Whitehall Storage site, at Charles and West streets, where the Witkoff Group is planning a 175-foot tower.

Now, the City Council has to vote on the rezoning, which should happen before Thanksgiving, according to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.  read more »

- Matthew Grace

The New York Times reports that a judge failed to block the sale of 2 Columbus Circle yesterday to the Museum of Arts and Design. Preservation group Landmark West has been fighting the sale and trying to get landmark status for the Edward Durell Stone-designed building for some time now. We've got a feeling that this won't be the end of it. The Sun reports that the new owners of Diane von Furstenburg's two Greenwich Village buildings will meet next week with neighborhood groups to try to get their support for a variance to new zoning laws. Russian heiress and former model Anna Anisimova purchased the buildings on West 12th Street last year on behalf of Coalco International, a company owned by Vasily Anismov, her millionaire father. Reps are set to meet with Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, and members of Community Board 2 to discuss the possibility of support for an upzoning to the property. Under the new zoning, which is due to go into effect later this year, a building can't be over 80 feet; currently, a building can be up to 15 stories tall. The GVSHP has been fighting for this rezoning tooth and nail, so Ms. Anisimova's reps better have silver tongues. Newsday picks up an AP wire story that belies the real-estate-bubble-burst talk we've been hearing so much of lately. Toll Brothers Inc., a national luxury-home builder, had earnings double in the third quarter of 2005. - Matthew Grace  read more »