The Municipal Art Society of New York

After weeks of well attended, at times raucous public meetings, on February 23^rd Manhattan’s Community Board Two voted resoundingly to recommend the denial of NYU’s proposal to add approximately 2.5 million square feet to their core campus in Greenwich Village. The Board’s resolution denounced the amount of density proposed by the addition of four new buildings to two area superblocks, besieging the community with 20 plus years of constant construction.The Board’s 20 page resolution also criticized NYU’s lack of public engagement in the design of the proposed opens spaces, many of which have been cared for by local community groups for a number of years, and emphasized the need to preserve affordable housing among several other issues.

MAS has been carefully analyzing NYU’s proposal and recognizes that NYU has very legitimate space needs but that it must expand in a way that is respectful of the immediate community and New York City as a whole. NYU’s plan is now headed to the Manhattan Borough President’s Office for review and will then be sent to the City Planning Commission and to the City Council for a final vote.  MAS is finalizing its position which we plan to release in the coming week.  This research and analysis is part of our continuing advocacy in support of responsible and thoughtful development.

To learn more about this development project see our NYU web page and read our comments on the Draft Scope of Work for an Environmental Impact Statement for the NYU Core submitted to the Department of City Planning in May 2011.