NYU Steps Closer to Building Controversial Greenwich Village Tower Updated October 8, 2010 6:31am

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By Tara Kyle

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN — New York University took another step toward constructing a tower that would reshape Greenwich Village's skyline.

The tower, which would rise nearly 400 feet above the Village, is one piece of NYU's controversial 2031 expansion plan, which would add up to 3 million square feet of facilities within its core campus area — with the potential for an additional 3 million square feet in other parts of Manhattan and the outer boroughs.

The college sent an application to the Landmarks Preservation Commission Thursday to build the tower on the University Village/Silver Towers site.

This existing University Village/Silver Towers site is located off Bleecker Street and LaGuardia Place, includes sculptures by Picasso and has held landmark protection since 2008 and was designed by I.M. Pei.

The plan has sparked ire among some Village residents, who want to limit the university's presence in their neighborhood and believe the tower in particular is out of scale with its environment.

"We are adamantly opposed to the tower plan," Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, said in an e-mail.

"The proposal would ruin the Pei design, block views of the Picasso sculpture, introduce a hotel into an entirely residential area and tower over everything above it."

The university, however, believes the tower is critical to supporting its long-term needs. The hotel, which will share the tower with residential housing units, is intended to support conference attendees and other school visitors at a lower price than current local hotel rates, officials said.

"The option we are presenting to the LPC will add to the 'dynamic' pinwheel arrangement of the buildings, preserve clear view corridors, frame the 'Bust of Sylvette' [Picasso] sculpture, and anchor the fourth corner of the site with green space," Mark Husser, an architect working with the university, said in a statement.

If the Landmarks Preservation Commission approves the project, it must still pass through the city's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), a seven-month public approval process. NYU plans to begin ULURP in 2011.