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Image provided by: Jefferson Market Library
r ' w^lnThis Issue; •m E v : L ^ I-V;i, '^1'-. / H 4‘it. VC,:;r.;;;';;’ e lessible Gina Wendkos Some Songs and Some Tears at the Wake f o r East Village's Orchidia STORY, PHOTOS PAGE FIVE Greenwich Viildge, Soho, Tribeca • ^ and LdWer Manhattan . 63 East 4th Street, New York 10003 Another Project for W. Village Parking Lot BY MATTHEW HELLER Another chapter in the year’s long saga of what to do with the empty lot on the east side of Sixth Avenue between Waverly Place and Washington Place, at present a parking lot, in now being written. Stepping in where the Loews movie theater giant has given up, architect James Polshek unveiled his plan for the site, com missioned by developer. Phillips Interna tional Holding Corporation, before the Land marks Committee of Community Board 2 (CB2) on April 12. But the Committee that night judged the issue to be so impor tant—as one member said, “ This building is to Greenwich Village what the Beaubourg was to Paris”—that it decided to wait five days more before framing its advisory recommendation to the full membership meeting of CB2, scheduled for April 19. The Polshek plan is for a multi-use building consisting of a maximum of 10 ground floor shops fronting Sixth Avenue and 33 residential condominiums overhead. The building will take up the entire site with five stories on each side of the side streets, six on Sixth Avenue and a central courtyard. Materials the architect calls for include red brick, green tile, limestone and terracotta. Introducing his plan, Polshek says, “We looked at old Village houses and tried to be as sensitive as possible to the context of the Village. That context is variety, scale, sur prise, and delight.” Reaction to the proposal, both from the floor during a public hearing and in the com mittee’s deliberations afterwards, was generally favorable. A big plus for Polshek is the approbation in which he is held as a long time Village resident and prominent architect-he is Dean of Columbia Universi ty Graduate School of Architecture and his clients include Pepsi-Cola, Con Edison, and Emigrant Savings Bank. Committee member Martin Hutner's opi nion was typical; “I respect the architect. He’s considered every aspect of the plan. This is not a slapdash attempt to satisfy this Committee or the Landmarks Commission,\ he said. Chairperson Colette Rossant also praised the architect for his concern with neighborhood feelings. Moreover, there appeared to be little quarrel with the actual concept of the building—a marked contrast to the con troversy surrounding Leow's theater com plex idea which many residents feared, would have brought legions of what they called “undesirables” into the area, ir respective of the aesthetic merits of the design. Only one member, Carol Janeway, was moved to express outright hostility for the new plan: “I hate it. It's not in keeping with the district; it’s plain ugly and perpetuates Uie monstrosities that have already been inflicted on us.” And so it was on the question of architec tural design that Polshek’s plan may run aground. A common complaint was that the building lacked grace and looked institu tional. Analogies included: “a well designed public grammar school,” or something out of Forest Hills. Hutner described it as an “ idiosyncratic building, one of those buildings that could look very strange for a long time.” Christabel Gough, chairman of the Historic D istrict comm ittee of the Christopher Block Association, argued that “the design doesn’t partake of the qualities of the architecture, or fit into the context, of the Village,” and stressed, for example, the inappropriateness of the cornices. Ruth Wit tenberg wanted more detail from Polshek, saying “It's the detail that’s going to make or unmake this building.\ This attention to design and detail reflected the committee’s conviction that the fate of the contested Sixth Avenue site will have a crucial bearing on future development, residential as well as com- mprcial. in the Village. At stake was an opportunity to set a prece dent, to answer the perennial question, “What do you build in a historic district?\ which has been posed in the Village since it was legally landmarked in 1965. The committee’s answer is presently in the balance. Chairperson Rossant feels that “We’ll probably accept the concept of the building and I'm sure Polshek can incor porate our criticisms of detail into the design.” The full membership of Community Board Two will make its recommendation on this issue to the City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission on April 19. Land marks approval of the design for its “ap propriateness” is required before a developer may seek zoning changes or a building permit. Coping With Crime on West 10th Street BY BRIAN O’DONOGHUE Natasha Scarola and her 17-year-old daughter, Kathryn, were a little late to the West lOth Street Block Association’s crime prevention meeting, last Wednesday night. A real crime delayed them. Walking to the meeting, the Scarolas had noticed two women struggling in the vestibule of a building. “I thought it was some sort of mother-daughter argument,” M rs.' Scarola said later. The teenager caught on a bit quicker, and when one of the struggling pair fled, clutching what looked like a wallet, she gave chase. Yelling, “Stop that woman in the blue coat,\ Kathryn kept up hot pursuit for near ly a block. The healthy blonde teenager, who had just come home from lacrosse practice, declared later that she could have “ knocked down” the mugger. “There was rage in me,” she said. “I wanted to hit her, but I was scared she might have a knife or something.” So she merely kept up the chase \hoping an adult would stop” the mugger. Kathryn’s mother was \furious” too. But not, as one might expect, at her daughter’s recklessness. T h a t, she said, she understood. Four years ago, Mrs. Scarola Kathryn Sarola gels an opportunity to tell Sixth Precinct Depulylnspoctor Robort Beaumart about her pursuit of a mugger at meeting of the W. lOlh St. Block Association. (Villager/O’Donoghue Photo) stood her ground in a similar confrontation. A group of hostile teenagers had the mother surrounded. “Gimmie your bag,” one said. “What are you talking about!” Mrs. Scarola replied. Police, she said, told her later, “don’t ever do that again.” But the woman, who describes herself as \very bad about being cautious,” sees red, she said, when she’s threatened on the block where she has lived for ten years. A BULL-DOG TEAM When it comes to the defense of West lOtli Street, the Scarolas are not alone. Led by the block association's crime prevention chair, Ann Silverman, a bulldog team of 20-25 police trained “ block watchers” main tains a constant vigil on local securitv. For years the block has worked closely with the Sixth Precinct to identify problems and educate residents about how to head off criminals before they strike. A regular newsletter, full of crime prevention tips, is regularly published by the block associa tion, which also owns an “operation iden tification\ etching tool. All of which has contributed, In the past, to a sense of security along the handsome, brownstone-lined, street. An illusion which Continued on Patti* 3
