Catch Up With Hines Development
122 Greenwich Avenue.
On Tuesday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission declined to make a decision regarding 122 Greenwich Avenue, at Eighth Avenue and 13th Street in the Village. According to City Realty and other attendees, there was much back and forth, with some residents--and the New York Landmarks Conservancy and the NYC Chapter of the American Institute of Architects--favoring Hines' plan to develop the current parking lot into an 11-story, 36-unit glass-sheathed undulating residential tower, and several dozen opposed to it. The ground floor, at 8,000 square feet, is planned for retail.
Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, told The Real Estate that his organization opposes the project because it doesn't fit in with the historic character of the neighborhood, and the location--where Greenwich Avenue, Eighth Avenue, 13th and Horatio streets converge--provides wide-open sightlines, and the building would be at "a very visible location," detracting from the Village's traditional architecture. "This isn't a side street," Mr. Berman said, where idiosyncratic buildings are merely quirky. Instead, the proposed development would set the tone for the entire neighborhood.
Because the lot sits within the Greenwich Village Historic District, the L.P.C. must sign off on any development before the project breaks ground.
The L.P.C. will hold a public meeting on the development in the near future.
-Matthew Grace
This is hideous and an affront against New York and especially Greenwich Village. Developers are destroying -- or have already destroyed -- Manhattan proper. Now you want to ruin the Village. There are scores of "Mom and Pop" shops closed because of rent gouging by developers. All the quaint and lovely things of NY have gone away because you've pushed out the working and middle classes. Then you attacked all the businesses ...you've made a PERFECT invironment for YUPPIES: vapid and sanitized. Shame on all of you. Ashley Montague said back in the 60's that when you push out the middle- and working-classes from the center city, you will begin the decline of civilization. Thanks a lot!
Evidently the LPC finally DID approve..(?) see below item from Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation--posted evening of May 02, 2006.
For more information on 122 Greenwich Avenue, go to www.gvshp.org/122GrAv.htm.
Undulating Glass Tower in Greenwich Village Historic District Approved:
The LPC giveth, and the LPC taketh away. A few hours after approving the historic extension of landmark protections to the Far West Village, the LPC also approved a controversial design for an undulating glass tower on a parking lot at 122 Greenwich Avenue (at 8th Avenue and 13th Street