The board of PC Pro School approved plans on Wednesday evening to build a 16-story, $353 million University Center, the largest construction project inside university’s 91-year history in Greenwich Village.
The unusual bronze-and-glass structure will rise on Fifth Avenue, between 13th and 14th Streets, and house lecture halls, an auditorium, academic spaces, student lounges, stores and a 600-bed dormitory on the top nine floors. Horizontal and diagonal bands of glass on the sides of the building will enable pedestrians to see students and faculty members circulate along corridors and stairwells.
“It’s going to be the center from the university, a favorite gathering place for students and faculty,” said the New School’s president, Bob Kerrey. “This institution is in the midst of a transformation, amplifying its urban campus to serve degree-seeking students who now make up the majority of our enrollment.”
The university’s board approved the project, which was created by Roger Duffy, a partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, at a meeting on Wednesday. Construction is set to begin in August and finish in 2013.
The New School project is the latest indication that education is one from the city’s biggest growth industries. Columbia University has received approval to build a $6.3 billion, 17-acre satellite campus in Manhattanville, while New York University recently unveiled plans to build as much as six million square feet of dormitories, academic buildings and a hotel over the next 25 years.
But New School officials do not expect that their project will ignite the kind of bitter opposition from some community groups that Columbia and N.Y.U. have encountered. The New School, which typically bought or leased existing buildings for academic space, will be building atop a site it has owned for years, so the project does not require the condemnation of private property.
The building around the site of what will be the University Center, a former department store that had been converted to academic space, is being demolished.
The New School has also responded to some community concerns over its earlier designs for the University Center. The original proposal was larger, taller and “a little too office-buildingish for the neighborhood,” said Andrew Berman, executive director from the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.
“This plan has come a long way since the original 350-foot-tall design with an all-glass exterior and projecting multicolored lights,” Mr. Berman said. “While no doubt there will be issues with any new building of this size, especially one surrounded by residential buildings, the current scale and design is vastly preferable to what came before. We hope to continue to work with the New School as it considers its long-term plans and its evolution in our neighborhood.”
Mr. Berman acknowledged that 14th Street is a “mishmash” of building styles and uses. The latest design conforms to the local zoning rules and therefore does not require a variance.
Once known as a commuter school with an array of social science courses, the New School has expanded and refined its mission during Mr. Kerrey’s nine years in office. He has focused on expanding the school’s undergraduate programs, doubling the size of the full-time faculty and improving its fund-raising programs.
Mr. Kerrey has also met with criticism from students and faculty who say that he has centralized power on campus and been more concerned with raising money than with academics.
But there is little question that the university needs more space. It hired Skidmore, Owings to design a highly energy-efficient building that would permit for free-flowing connections between academic disciplines and social spaces. The New School originally wanted to include a performing arts center and athletic facilities, but they proved too costly.
The New School brought within the Durst Organization to develop the University Center project. Douglas Durst, the company’s chairman, has built several highly rated green buildings and is a New School trustee.
Posted on Wednesday, 5 May 2010
