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Tag: silver towers

Asian-American History in Greenwich Village and the East Village

The Asian-American and Pacific Islander community has a more than 150-year-long history in the United States, dating back to the first wave of Chinese and Japanese immigrants settling on the West Coast. And while nearby neighborhoods like Chinatown or the Lower East Side may have been much more prominent hubs for Asian-Americans, Greenwich Village and […]

GVSHP Oral History: Gloria McDarrah

Village Preservation is excited to share our oral history collection with the public, and hope they will shed more light on what makes Greenwich Village and the East Village such unique and vibrant areas. Each of these histories highlights the experiences and insights of long-time residents, usually active in the arts, culture, preservation, business, or […]

12 years ago: Support for designation of the Silver Towers Complex

12 years ago tomorrow, our colleagues at the Municipal Arts Society sent a letter to the Landmarks Preservation Commission supporting our request for landmark designation of the Silver Towers/ University Village site. This superblock, located between Houston Street and Bleecker Street, LaGuardia Place and Mercer Street, contains three buildings designed by renowned architect I.M. Pei, constructed between 1964 […]

A Landmark of Hypocrisy?

You never know what you might stumble upon when walking around the neighborhood. Recently I discovered that NYU had installed a sign on the grounds of the I.M. Pei-designed Silver Towers complex touting its landmark designation by the City in 2008.  The signage appeared to indicate that the NYU administration was proud of the landmark […]

A New Point of View

Can you identify the image in the photo above? On Monday evening, November 17th, we’ll present a program with photographer Janko Puls and his new book “Point of View New York City: A Visual Game of the City You Think You Know.” Here is what people are saying about this book: “A thoughtful and unique […]

NYU Buildings Worth Landmarking, Not Protesting

Here at GVSHP, we’ve been poring over the new South Village Historic District designation report, and it has some wonderful facts and even a few surprises we thought we’d share. Earlier this month, New York State Supreme Court Justice Donna Mills delivered great news by announcing her legal decision that several of the pieces of […]

October 17, 1967 – “Sylvette” gets the go-ahead

On October 17, 1967, Pablo Picasso wrote in a letter that he agreed to allow his colleague, Norwegian artist Carl Nesjar, to reproduce a large-scale sculpture of “Bust of Sylvette” for the University Village/Silver Towers complex, which GVSHP later proposed and successfully fought to have landmarked.  The sculpture is one of only two public outdoor […]

Op-Ed: Preservation Can Help Affordability

As seen in:     Don’t Believe REBNY’s Hype; Landmarking Can Help Affordability Read the full article in The Villager or Gotham Gazette     BY ANDREW BERMAN  |  In July, the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) went on a media blitz, touting their latest report blasting landmark preservation in New York City. […]

A Silver Anniversary

  While we’re not yet technically at the ‘silver’ (i.e. 25th) anniversary, but November 18th Mark’s the date in 2008 when we were able to get  Silver Towers in the South Village landmarked.  On that day the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to designate this I.M. Pei-designed complex, first proposed by GVSHP in 2003, including its […]

    Recladding & Reevaluating

    Like all other applications for work on landmarked properties in Greenwich Village, GVSHP has been keeping tabs on the progress of the recently-approved plans to re-clad the large mid-century white-brick apartment building at 2 Fifth Avenue, just north Washington Square Park. Although decidedly more modern than the historic nineteenth century townhouses in the area, the […]