With friends like NYU President John Sexton protecting the East Village, which he calls a "fragile ecosystem," who needs enemies? The only nice thing we can think to say about the 26-story, 261 foot tall (or maybe 242), 700-bed building that NYU and its developer Hudson Companies are building over the site of St. Ann's Church on East 12th Street (rendering above) is that, well, it certainly is tall. In fact it will be the tallest building in the East Village.
Seriously though, please excuse us we're about to rant for a moment, what the fuck is wrong with the folks at NYU? The school wouldn't comment to the Villager about the building, though a gentleman from Hudson Companies however would and had the gall to bitch about a "double standard" for NYU in the neighborhood. Uhm, yeah. Of course there is double-standard! NYU has an enormous presence in the area and has been expanding increasingly rapidly of late, leaving a trail of cheap, unthoughtful and unattractive buildings filled with yapping ninnies in its wake. And still, with all that, this new megadorm takes the cake. The school has the nerve to keep the old St. Ann's church tower standing and then stick a slab of prefab shlock on top of it. Just tacky.
How come institutions of higher learning elsewhere manage to at least sometimes build good and interesting buildings? We know NYU has buckets of cash these days, and they know the neighborhood is truly fed up with them (this new one is "like something out of a Japanese horror movie" one critic says), so why can't they build something nice for once? An attractive building once in a while would go a long way. Sigh. We guess you really can't go home again.
Renderings of the planned 26-story NYU dorm on E. 12th Street from The Villager.
