N.Y.U. commits to creating a master plan for its growth

A new 26-story dormitory being built for N.Y.U. on E. 12th St. is incorporating the front of St. Ann’s Church. The rest of the church was demolished for the project.

By Lincoln Anderson

For years, community members and local politicians have called on New York University, one of the nation’s largest private universities — yet lacking a clearly defined campus — to produce a master plan outlining its future growth. But never was a plan forthcoming.

Indeed, N.Y.U. has long been criticized for paying lip service to community concerns about its growth and development, then doing what it wants, not to mention constructing unattractive, institutional-looking buildings. But now the university is engaging in a new campus-planning initiative that, if successful, might possibly start to reverse these all-too-familiar patterns.

A central goal of the initiative is for N.Y.U. to be “more open, transparent and cooperative in its dealings with the community” and also to “create predictability” in its expansion.

N.Y.U. is seeking a top planning team to chart the university’s future growth by producing a long-range strategic plan. The university is also working with Borough President Scott Stringer’s N.Y.U. Task Force to find solutions to ongoing issues dividing the university and community. The information coming out of the task force, which will meet on a regular, ongoing basis, will inform the campus-planning process.

In February, N.Y.U. issued a request for qualifications, or R.F.Q., to architecture and urban planning firms, to find a “design partner.” The chosen team of architects and urban planners, according to the R.F.Q., “will work closely with the university to develop a long-term strategic plan that will guide the university’s physical growth over the next quarter century.”

The deadline for R.F.Q. responses is this Thurs., March 8. The university expects by May to hire a planning firm for a nine-month period, at the end of which — by December of this year — this contracted firm is expected to have produced for N.Y.U. a long-range strategic plan.

Developing this plan is the focal point of the N.Y.U. 200 campaign — the school’s preparations for its 2031 bicentennial.

Meanwhile, Stringer’s N.Y.U. Task Force held its inaugural meeting on Jan. 26 at the borough president’s office, attended by 30 community members, local politicians or their representatives and university officials. Attending in person were Stringer, Congressmember Jerrold Nadler, State Senator Tom Duane and Assemblymembers Deborah Glick and Brian Kavanagh. Also attending was Michael Alfano, the university’s executive vice president.

Some community members said they were disappointed N.Y.U. didn’t come to the table at the initial meeting with something closer to a master plan.

Also, a proposal N.Y.U. made to the task force to partition Downtown into color zones indicating where it would or wouldn’t expand bombed.

The R.F.Q. process, however, holds out the possibility that N.Y.U. will finally develop something along the lines of the long-range plan community members and elected officials have long requested.

Oops, they did it again

N.Y.U. lacks a traditional campus with clear boundaries, and the expansion of its facilities has typically been marked by unpredictability — followed by anger, when residents find, to their surprise, that their block or neighborhood soon will be home to a large, new university project. This dynamic recently played out on E. 12th St., where a new 26-story N.Y.U. dorm — to be the East Village’s tallest building — is now under construction, and again on Mercer St., with the standoff over N.Y.U.’s co-generation plant expansion.

Driving its need for new facilities is the fact that over the last 20 years, N.Y.U. has evolved into one of the nation’s most sought-after schools, transforming from a regional commuter school into a residential university.

The planning team hired by N.Y.U. will be guided by a set of “planning principles” laid out in the R.F.Q.

One such principle emphasizes the need to “Respect the character of surrounding neighborhoods”: “The Village’s dynamic and vibrant culture and historic architecture offer an important context, which must be considered in any strategic vision for the future,” the R.F.Q. notes.

“Engage the community” is another planning principle: “As N.Y.U. develops a vision for the future of the university,” the R.F.Q. states, “it looks to meaningfully engage the community in the planning process, with the goal of establishing a transparent and predictable framework for future projects.”

“Preserve and protect historic resources” is another principle: “The Washington Square area,” the R.F.Q. notes, “includes countless historic buildings and a number of historic districts, which greatly contribute to N.Y.U.’s unique campus environment. As stewards of these historic resources, the university must ensure that they are maintained and preserved for future generations.”

Yet another principle the long-range planners are asked to follow is to “Showcase leading-edge urban and architectural design” — under which they will be asked to devise “creative and visionary solutions for future growth” for the university. N.Y.U.’s building designs over the last 40 years generally have been blasted by community members as inappropriate, insensitive and often downright ugly in a monolithic, institutional way.

A section of the R.F.Q. headed “Space Needs and Objectives” notes that the university currently guarantees housing for four years to its 19,400 undergraduates — and currently houses 95 percent of the freshman class. N.Y.U. houses only 14 percent of its 19,000 graduate students. The R.F.Q. states that creating more housing will be a “high priority”: “As it looks to the future,” the R.F.Q. states, “the university believes providing undergraduate student housing within walking distance of the campus and increasing the amount of graduate housing, which does not have a location requirement, will continue to be a high priority.”

New planning office

Overseeing the design team selection process is N.Y.U.’s Office of Strategic Assessment, Planning and Design, a new division created by Alfano, the university’s executive vice president. This office was fully staffed with a new team over the past year. Leading this new division is Lori Pavese Mazor, N.Y.U. associate vice president for planning and design, who previously worked at Polshek Partnerships, where she managed projects at N.Y.U.

Mazor replaces former campus-planning chief Sharon Greenberger, who held the job briefly before bolting last year to join the Bloomberg administration as School Construction Authority C.E.O.

Anyone could respond to the R.F.Q., but the request was expressly sent to 50 top architecture, planning and landscape architecture firms N.Y.U. would like to work with, including Jean Nouvel; Beyer Blinder Belle; Cook + Fox; Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Pei Cobb Freed & Partners; Polshek Partnership; ShoP; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; and Michael Van Valkenburgh.

After interviews on March 20, three finalist teams will be selected and asked to develop more detailed proposals, which they will then present to N.Y.U. President John Sexton and other senior administrators. A winning team will be announced in late April, with the engagement formally commencing in May.

Alicia Hurley, N.Y.U. associate vice president for government and community affairs, said the campus-planning initiative will be “iterative” — as in characterized by frequent meetings and give-and-take with the community.

“It will be 12 months to go through this,” she said. “It’s really iterative. We will be working with the community.” The campus-planning team will do a “listening tour” to familiarize themselves with issues and concerns, Hurley noted.

At the Jan. 26 Stringer task force meeting — which was closed to the press and public — university officials proposed the idea of identifying boundaries for N.Y.U. expansion with red, yellow and green zones: Red areas would be where the community opposes university development; yellow would be for areas that are sensitive to the community, and where N.Y.U. should carefully engage the community before developing; while green (or violet, as N.Y.U. proposed) would be areas N.Y.U. perceives as appropriate for university, or residential, development.

Tower Video plans

N.Y.U. also discussed its plans to create a new Tisch Performing Arts Center at the former Tower Video store building at 383 Lafayette St. at E. Fourth St. The arts center would include a 200-seat fly-loft theater and student workshop space for costume, set and lighting design. The university has a long-term lease for the building, which is in a landmarked district — though it’s conceivable a new building could be constructed. So far, the university has not presented any plan showing it would use the community-facilities allowance to make a new building there larger than normally allowed.

The idea of using color zones to govern N.Y.U. expansion, however, was unpopular with community members, some of whom felt it would pit neighborhoods against each other.

“That was just a concept,” said Hurley. “It won’t be just one conversation, it will be many conversations.”

What about those who would say, “Make everything a red zone” — as in no more new N.Y.U. development, period? “We want to rise above that,” Hurley responded. “This is a plan for 30 years. We’re not going to say that we’re not going to grow over 30 years — even a normal amount. It’s not realistic.” The colors, Hurley said, were “just an idea of how we should be thinking. Obviously, some people didn’t like it — so we’re taking it off the table.”

Asked what the alternative to color-coordinated quadrants will be, Hurley said, “I don’t know — that’s what the process is for — establishing a conversation [with the community] for the first time.”

Contrasting this process to N.Y.U.’s previous community relations, she said, “This is a much more committed effort in the history of the institution to planning and also working with the community and getting input more, and — it’s a corny term — but a shared future,” Hurley said. “Because the university’s not going anywhere and neither is the community. The colors didn’t get a good reception. It was a way to initiate dialogue…. I think the R.F.Q. shows N.Y.U. is very committed to this ongoing process.”

‘This is real’

On the ongoing process, Stringer stressed his N.Y.U. Task Force is not for show, but for getting results.

“This is historic, in the sense that we were able to create this task force,” Stringer said. “Community organizations were represented in the room with N.Y.U. Elected officials were represented. I’m going to hold N.Y.U. to a very high standard. It’s about analyzing their strategic plan. We must have a real dialogue on substantive issues.

“This is not about window dressing — I don’t need this in my life,” Stringer emphasized. “I could tell you how uninterested I am in task forces that don’t do anything.”

Asked about the color zones that flopped, Stringer said, “It’s a concept. I think we need to flesh it out a little. I expect when we have Sexton there, we’ll be able to delve into it more.”

Due to the death of his wife, Lisa, four days earlier, Sexton could not make the Jan. 26 task force meeting, but it’s hoped he’ll attend the next one, at the end of this month.

Stringer said for the meantime the task force meetings will continue to be closed to the public and press.

“I think that, right now, in order for N.Y.U. to be forthcoming, and without it becoming a big press conference,” the meetings will remain closed, he said. But he added, “There’s no gag order. Everyone gets to talk to the press.”

Talking to the press was Sean Sweeney, director of the Soho Alliance and one of the task force members. He was skeptical, yet feels N.Y.U. may finally be feeling the heat from the community and elected officials.

“They showed up, but had little new to say, except that they are moving 700 to 900 students from dorms from the South St. Seaport area up to, presumably, the Village,” Sweeney said. “That is the equivalent of another high-rise building.

“Three years ago, Sexton promised a plan for future development,” Sweeney continued. “I was expecting at the borough president’s meeting to see at least an outline. All we got was an imaginary color pie: red, yellow and — are you ready? — purple, and asked what we thought of it. Since much of the area around Washington Square Park is all purple already, and there are other purple areas speckling the Village, a prudent person would say that is enough purple saturation for one place.

“I think that N.Y.U. is feeling the pressure,” Sweeney said. “They had to answer to a roomful of elected officials or their reps. The 800-pound gorilla of the Village could not hide in that room. N.Y.U. should realize they must be more responsive and accountable.”

Added Zella Jones, president of the Noho Neighborhood Association, who is also on the task force: “Although it was somewhat limited at that first meeting, a dialogue has begun. The next meeting is March 29 with John Sexton. We anticipate substance.”

Long-range plan, long wait

Andrew Berman, director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, another task force member, also felt the long-range plan was long overdue.

“This is basically what Sexton promised four years ago,” he said. “But there’s been no progress…. They said they will have to find room to house another 600-to-800 students in what they call ‘the Washington Square campus area,’ which is basically the whole Village — which could be a situation for another enormous conflict again, as with their 26-story dorm on E. 12th St. I don’t think the community is looking for them to add any more dorm space here.”

Berman said that at the Jan. 26 meeting, Lynne Brown, N.Y.U. senior vice president, made “some very serious apologies about the 12th St. dorm, saying the process was flawed” — but that these were “the same apologies” the university made when it started the process on the 12th St. dorm, apologizing for what had happened with past N.Y.U. projects.

But Berman said he was encouraged to hear N.Y.U. say the university is meeting with the city to look into possible uses on Governors Island. He noted that virtually all the community groups that signed onto G.V.S.H.P.’s proposal last year urging N.Y.U. to seek out secondary campuses are represented on the task force.

As for the color zones plan, Berman said, “We would like N.Y.U. to stay within the existing footprint they have in the neighborhood — but right now they only seem to be taking baby steps in that direction.”

Also on the task force, Maria Passannante Derr, Community Board 2 chairperson, said she was encouraged after reading the R.F.Q. for the campus-planning team, a hard copy of which Hurley handed to The Villager on Feb. 26 and which N.Y.U. e-mailed to task force members on Feb. 27.

“I think this document is a very good start,” Derr said of the R.F.Q. “I think there are a lot of creative ideas here. I also like the multidisciplinary approach that they’re using in picking the design team.”

The Greenwich Village Block Associations is also represented on the task force. Marilyn Dorato, G.V.B.A. secretary, isn’t the associations’ task force representative and so didn’t attend the first meeting, but said she’s hopeful it will be effective.

“It seems to me that with all the interaction and all the controversy that has gone on throughout the years, that N.Y.U. should have a pretty good idea of what they need to do to improve relations with the community,” Dorato said. “If this new initiative is more public relations and spin, it’ll be business as usual. But of course, we’re always hopeful.”

N.Y.U. retirees housing

Councilmember Gerson didn’t personally attend the Jan. 26 meeting, but did meet with N.Y.U. officials last Thursday. (N.Y.U. is meeting individually with all the elected officials and groups represented on the task force.) Issues that were discussed at the meeting with Gerson included N.Y.U.’s need for additional housing — for students being moved from the Financial District residences, as well as for its own retirees.

“I mean, 600 students is something that needs to be reckoned with,” Gerson said. “When they presented it…they didn’t say that it [a new dorm] had to be in the Village. But there’s no question they want to be as close to the core of campus as possible. They have a retiree need for housing; it’s not attractive to their faculty to lose all housing upon retirement.”

Gerson said he supports the idea of the community doing strategic planning with N.Y.U. For example, a single project could include housing for both community seniors and N.Y.U. retirees.

“A big thrust of our conversation was strategic partnering, because we recognize the limited amount of space,” Gerson said. “Their core facilities will remain N.Y.U., but there’s also a place for symbiosis.”

Asked his take on the color concept, Gerson said, “Whether it boils down to zones or colors, you respect the characteristics of the community.” Regarding the new campus-planning process, in general, he said, “I think we’re off to a good start.”