University Village (505 LaGuardia Place)
505 LaGuardia Place | Greenwich Village | built 1967
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1953
Robert Moses's slum-clearance plan would raze 191 buildings, only 16 residential, on blocks that include this site
In August 1953 the architects Eggers & Higgins prepared a prospectus for Washington Square Southeast, the fourteenth project proposed by Robert Moses. It called for demolishing 191 buildings in a nine-block area south of Washington Square, of which only 16 were residential. Because most of those displaced were businesses, the 1949 housing law did not require compensating them. The southern part of the area became the site of this tower and its neighbors.
“…called for the demolition of 191 buildings, of which only 16 were residential…”
- 1960
The Board of Estimate sells the superblock to NYU on condition that a third becomes middle-income co-ops
NYU announced interest in the site in January 1960, offering $10.50 a square foot, which critics said was too little. The Board of Estimate approved the sale that September. NYU had to build middle-income housing on a third of the site, giving priority to people living or working nearby. A limited-equity Mitchell-Lama cooperative was the plan, and the school named the project University Village.
- 1964
James Ingo Freed's concrete tower is cast in place with fiberglass molds, in a buff tone resembling stone
I. M. Pei's firm designed the three identical 30-story towers, with James Ingo Freed as chief designer. Rather than plywood forms, the builders used fiberglass molds, which were easy to assemble, strip and reuse. The buff concrete resembles sandstone or limestone depending on the light. The report says construction took six to eight weeks less than brick facing would have.
“At University Village, however, fiberglass molds were employed.”
- 1967
Picasso approves a giant concrete version of his Sylvette bust, which Pei had once wanted for Kips Bay
Pei wanted a monumental Picasso for his Kips Bay Plaza courtyard, but developer William Zeckendorf reportedly offered him a choice between the sculpture and fifty saplings, and Pei chose the trees. For University Village, Picasso made a photo collage of the view from Houston Street and, on April 4 and October 17, 1967, wrote that he agreed to let the Norwegian sculptor Carl Nesjar enlarge the piece.
- 1967
University Village wins a Bard Award and an AIA honor award, and the first AIA Guide praises the co-op tower
Owner-tenants started moving into the third building in April 1967, after most of the cooperative apartments had been sold by October 1965. That May the complex received the City Club's Bard Award and also the American Institute of Architects' national honor award. The first AIA Guide to New York singled out the tower nearest West Broadway as undoubtedly the finest middle-income Mitchell-Lama housing in the city.
- 1968
The 36-foot Bust of Sylvette, enlarged from Picasso by Carl Nesjar, is dedicated at NYU
Nesjar's crew spent five months, January to June 1968, casting the bust in concrete packed with crushed Norwegian basalt, twice the time estimated. A sandblast then exposed the dark stone to form her face, hair and shoulders. Helping him was Eric Hesselberg, who had sailed on the 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition, and Nesjar joked he was probably the only person ever to have corrected a Picasso. The bust was dedicated at NYU's Tishman Auditorium on December 9, 1968, with donor Allan Emil speaking.
- 2008
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates University Village after 27 people testify in favor
At the Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing on June 24, 2008, twenty-seven people spoke for designating University Village, among them the board of directors of 505 LaGuardia Place, the co-op in this tower. NYU testified in support as well while discussing its plan for a fourth tower. The commission designated the three towers and part of the grounds on November 18, 2008.
- 2012
NYU agrees to extend the 505 LaGuardia co-op's lease indefinitely, keeping it affordable
The co-op board leased the tower from NYU for $28,400 a year, but that lease was nearing its end, which could have allowed conversion to market-rate housing. In mid-2012, during the debate over NYU's expansion plan, the university agreed to extend the lease indefinitely.
“NYU agreed in mid-2012 to extend the co-op board's lease indefinitely, allowing that building to remain in use as affordable housing.”
Source: Wikipedia
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