Greenwich Village

The opponents of New York University's controversial expansion plan for Greenwich Village owe their recent court victory to the legacy of Jane Jacobs' legendary fight against the proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway.

January 11, 2014 - The New York Times

Opponents of a massive plan to expand New York University's footprint in Greenwich Village have succeeded in convincing a state judge that a large portion of the project should not be allowed to proceed.

January 8, 2014 - The New York Times

With "guys in suits" having replaced the "artists, weirdos and blue-collar families" that surrounded Adam Davidson while growing up in the Village in the 1970s, he wonders if mom-and-pop shops can survive the neighborhood's extreme gentrification.

June 8, 2012 - The New York Times

Yesterday, New York City's Planning Commission voted nearly unanimously to support a slightly reduced version of New York University's controversial expansion plans for two superblocks in Greenwich Village, reports Tom Stoelker.

June 7, 2012 - The Architect's Newspaper Blog

As wealthy communities learn to use historic districts to inflate property values, socially conscious urbanists must think twice about the purpose and place of preservation, Will Doig reports.

April 18, 2012 - Salon

There is a certain irony in community stalwarts in testy Greenwich Village wanting to have the stale housing slabs hovering over the bland park composing Washington Square Village declared an architectural landmark that will somehow thwart New York University from overdeveloping further the singular super block. “Fugataboutit,” would be a relative polite New Yorker’s observation by anyone who has ever been to this dance before, as I have. The plea is really just a feint to get the retro-redevelopment realists involved into a backroom of one of the proposal’s big buck backers to splice and dice the project so it can be swallowed by all without choking to a political death.  

April 11, 2012 - Sam Hall Kaplan

The New York Times architecture critic weighs in on New York University’s proposed 2.5 million square foot expansion of its Greenwich Village campus.

March 26, 2012 - The New York Times

NYU's plans to expand further into Greenwich Village, with the square footage of four new buildings proposed in their strategic plan equivalent to that of the Empire State Building, have raised concerns for the fate of the signature neighborhood.

March 12, 2012 - The New York Times

New York University's 20-year expansion plan could become a dangerous precedent for overbuilding by bypassing the city's open space zoning rules, argues Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.

January 8, 2012 - The Villager

Greenwich Village and Queens subway stations have had their trash bins removed for the past two weeks. This counterintuitive plan was initiated 3 months ago by officials due to an "epidemic of unsightliness and malodor," writes Michael Grynbaum.

October 25, 2011 - The New York Times

Preservation laws often ban additions to designated buildings, which can be counterproductive, says Stephen Smith, who argues that incremental add-ons can protect buildings from future redevelopment driven by market forces.

November 27, 2010 - Market Urbanism

Sharon Zukin's new book takes a different look at the urbanity championed in Jane Jacobs' seminal book "The Death and Life of Great American Cities", arguing that gentrification is tearing up the authenticity of places.

February 23, 2010 - The New York Times

"Greenwich South" is a proposed re-branding of an area near the World Trade Center site, driven by The Alliance for Downtown New York and re-envisioned by ten different architectural firms.

November 2, 2009 - GOOD Magazine

That's the slogan seen on t-shirts around Jane Jacobs beloved Greenwich Village, where some locals feel high-end chains are ruining the neighborhood.

October 19, 2009 - Jeremiah's Vanishing New York