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5th and 14th — Then and Now

Looking northeast from 13th Street toward 14th Street — (l.) View from 1914 via Museum of the City of New York; (r.) View from today.

The New School’s new building at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 14th Street is getting closer and closer to being completed.  After topping out back in May, the patinated brass and glass cladding has been steadily climbing the sides of the new sixteen-story building (full view below) which will house dorm units and library and performance spaces. Today we thought we would take a quick look back one hundred years and see how the corner has changed.

65 Fifth Avenue today.

The days of four and five story commercial buildings at this corner pictured in the 1914 image above are long gone. For many years during the twentieth century the corner housed the squat mid-century Albert List Academic Center.

When The New School began releasing plans to replace the Albert List Center in 2007, GVSHP and many in the community criticized the initial the proposal for a massive glass tower that would have required numerous zoning waivers and variances from the City. After feedback from GVSHP and the local community, The New School moderated and shrank the design, and kept the development within current height and bulk restrictions. You can read the whole story, and how this example of The New School’s expansion compares with its academic neighbor — NYU — here.

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