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Image provided by: Jefferson Market Library
i : , . [S T A C K ^ O y g ^ --1 .. ! ^Olle Show Bring ‘Wdc BRENDA GROSS TALKS ABOUT 1 Hi: WRITER AND THIS PORTRAYAL, PAGE 11 Jane Connell Is \The Singular Dorothy Parker.\ Art o f the Everyday: A West Village Walking Tour Reveals the Captive Past and the Changing Present PA^FIVE NYU, Opponents Talk About Third Ave. Hi-Rises BY JAMES SHEEHAN New York University and community op ponents to NYU’s proposed high-rise dor mitory on Third Ave. and 9th St. finally met last week in a public session called by local Community Board Three, but the two groups still seem headed for a battle in the courts over plans for the dorm. ’’You’re not going to make a deal here tonight, 1 promise,” State Senator Manfred ^Ohrenstein cautioned the several hundred community residents who filled Cooper Union’s Great Hall to hear and be heard. He was right. After several hours of ’’dialoguing” at least two points became quite clear; NYU did not come to the meeting with the intention of negotiating on the size of the building; and the great majority of residents and elected officials in the crowd intend, in the absence of negotiations, to use every possible way to achieve their goal of ’’students yes and high- rises no\ on Third Ave. In the course of the meeting, NYU Vice President of Development Robert Frommer acknowledged that the university has already filed plans at the Department of Buildings for the proposed 18-story domiitory on the 9th St. site. ‘‘We are prepared to build what is allowed by law, but we are prepared »-.i The hundreds who came to Cooper Union's Great Hall to learn about NYU's plans for new dorms on Third Avenue were greeted with this banner.(Vlllager/Sheehan Photo) to listen,\ he said. Adopting a slightly dif ferent tone after the meeting, Frommer add ed, \Our counsel tells us we are in a good position to win. We are prepared to defend ourselves in any litigation.\ Dean Corren of the Third Avenue Tenants, Artists’ and Businessmen’s Association says opponents of the high-rise dorm are equally prepared for the courts. While NYU maintains it has a right to build at twice the building size or \bulk\ mandated for normal residential buildings on Third Ave. under what is known as a Community Facility Bonus, Corren says the dorms would function essentially as residential space and their height would also have a harmful effect on the adjacent St. Marks Historic District. The way Corren sees it, NYU is required to make an Environmental Impact Study for tho pro ject as well as conform to the residential zon ing regulations. \We're faced with a building even bigger than what Dansker proposed,\ said Corren referring to developer Norman Dansker's previous plans for the site which were shot down by the Department of Buildings last year. Dansker then sold the site, along with a lot on Third Ave. at 12th St., to NYU at a pro- Con//niwc/ on Page 2 City Celebrates a Birthday for Its Landmarks Law A t Age 20, Some Villagers Reflect on the Benefits o f Historic Designation For Their Community BY JAMES SHEEHAN The City Landmarks Preservation Com mission is celebrating its 20th Anniversary this year and threw a party for itself last week at a well known downtown landmark building; City Hall. ”A 20 year period is not a long time for a law to become understood or utilized,\ said Land marks Commission Chairman Gene Norman to A City Hall Rotunda filled with neighborhood preservationists and elected officials. \This was not a piece of legislation that was welcomed with open arms. It was pushed by community organizations.\ Mayor Ed Koch was in Washington D.C. this day testifying on other matters at the U.S. Capital (also a landmark), but Deputy Mayor Robert Esnard filled in and read a proclamation in honor of the anniversary, \New York City has always been known as a city characterized by change,\ he read. \And now, to the credit of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, it is also known as a city with a rich architectural, historic and cultural pakt.\ The Mayor whose administration saw the creation of the''Landmarks Preservation ^ ^ ___ __________________________________ Commission, Robert Wagner, Sr.,, was also 4 ' Landmarks Chairman Gene Norman (oenler) helps out the eake at the CUV Hall oelebra- out of town but left a recorded message for tion last Wednesday marking the 20th birthday ot the commlaelon-lVlllager/Dorrls Photo) the April 24 event. \The Landmarks Preser vation Law stands as one of the most signifi cant pieces of legislation from my tenure as Mayor,\ said Wagner's voice. “It has literal ly changed the face of this city for the better, at)d is largely responsible for what m akes.' this city such an attractive and popular place to live in, work in, and visit.\ Greenwich Village and Lower Manhattan, containing several landmarked districts, can certainly be called prime beneficiaries of the Landmarks Preservation legislation. Only a few years after the creation of the commis sion itself, 65 blocks of the Village were designated as a historic district followed in later years by the Charleton-King-Vandam, MacDougal Gardens and the Soho Cast Iron districts. \In the 1900’s, all over the country and in New York State, people started getting in terested in preservation,\ recalls Verna Small who lobbied for the original landmarks legisla tion and now serves as head of the Landmarks Committee of the Village’s Community Board Two. \Penn Station went down in the mid- Sixties and that really got people mobilized.\ Tho mobilization was particularly evident 'Continued on Page 6
