The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and the Community Action Alliance on NYU 2031 held a rally yesterday to protest NYU's plan to build a 400-foot-tall hotel on Bleecker Street in the Silver Towers complex.
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Andrew Berman, executive director of Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, said the proposed building would be on a landmarked site where "400-foot-tall towers do not belong."
"The enemy is not NYU," Berman said. "The enemy is the NYU administration with their grandiose plans for taking over our neighborhood, with no care for the impact it will [have] on Greenwich Village."
Pat Albin, president of the board of 505 LaGuardia Place, described 505 LaGuardia as "the most vulnerable to NYU's many targets."
"As an academic, I'm familiar with the draw of New York City as a magnet, particularly with the draw of Greenwich Village [as] an artistic, historic, culturally fascinating [and] safe area," Albin said. "NYU threatens to replace all of this."
Steinhardt professor Mark Chrispin Miller said while the faculty of NYU is proud of the university, they are also Village residents.
"A lot of the [faculty members] are scared of speaking up, but they're going to support you quietly," Miller said. "Understand that part, the human part of NYU, is on your side. So don't give up. We will be with you."
Susan Nial, a resident of the Upper West Side and an attorney, said "NYU has done far too much to take the Greenwich Village area."
Nial referred to the plan as "inappropriate" and said the idea of exhorting public lands "should totally be rejected by the mayor, city council, land preservation and the community board."
"First of all, [NYU] made agreements. Therefore, live by the agreements. NYU, if you're [a] legitimately reasonable organization, you should be standing by your commitments," Nial said.
NYU spokesman John Beckman said he understands opponents to NYU's growth will continue to express their views, and that the university has always taken the community into consideration.
"We will continue to make our case for the importance of responsible growth both to NYU and to the city's vitality," he said. "We think our plan, which emerges out of three plus years of dialogue with community groups, shows a way forward to do it thoughtfully and transparently."
