I.M.Pei-Designed Apartment Buildings Landmarked
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Photo: Britta Frahm.
The city's Landmarks Preservation Commission voted yesterday to give the protected landmark status to the three identical 30-story towers built in 1967 in the Brutalist style. The design of the towers was clearly influenced by Le Corbusier.
This happens in the context of a larger tussle involving New York University, the city and Greenwich Village residents. To put it simply, NYU is looking to build more (to the tune of 6 million square feet) in already densely built Downtown Manhattan. Specifically, there were discussions of a fourth tower going up: consistent with Le Corbusier's fundamental principles, the three are pretty liberally spaced. It is widely believed that the university agreed to the protection status in a concession to the locals opposing its expansion plans.
University Village (Silver Towers)100-110 Bleecker Street
New York, NY 10012