NYU unveiled renovation plans for the Stern School of Business’ Gould Plaza, which has been barricaded since it held a pro-Palestinian encampment in April 2024. The design aims to create a “more welcoming environment” with new seating and paving, and is set for completion in spring.
In a statement to WSN, NYU spokesperson Joseph Tirella said that the renovation includes a 22,000-square-foot space featuring trees, an entry trellis and an ornamental screen wall near entrances to Stern and Warren Weaver Hall. The area will also include new outdoor chairs and tables, with waterproofing improvements and new pavers. Skylights will be installed to “bring daylight” to classrooms in the basements.
“The ultimate goal of the updates to Gould Plaza is to transform an underutilized area into a more welcoming environment,” Tirella said. “Much as the changes to the first floor of Bobst Library transformed that space into something far, far more engaging.”
The plaza was first barricaded by green wooden boards — which now read “our future is taking shape” against NYU’s signature purple — after hundreds of students, faculty and community members protested on and around the plaza, calling for NYU to divest from companies with ties to Israel. The encampment lasted around 16 hours, before New York City Police Department officers removed the tents and arrested over 130 participants.
In the encampment’s aftermath, NYU enforced ID checkpoints at Gould Plaza’s main entrance. Campus Safety also limited access to Stern’s side entrance at Schwartz Plaza, a privately owned walkway previously open to the public. After students pitched second and third encampments outside the Paulson Center, the Greene Street walkway also temporarily closed.
The university also recently opened new seating pods on the Kimmel Center for University Life’s Grand Staircase — another area closed amid an uptick in “protest activity” following Oct. 7. Construction at NYU’s new CAS building and Wagner site has also finished up over the past year. In 2025, the university dedicated $286 million to construction of new academic facilities.
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