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This Day in History: Silver Towers and the South Village Move Towards Landmark Designation

They’re next door neighbors, but they could not be more different.  One is high-rise and concrete, the other low-rise and brick.  One is modern and geometric, while the other is quaint and irregular.  One is pre-planned and serene, the other — spontaneous, and buzzing with activity.

Who is this odd couple?  It’s Silver Towers and the South Village, neighbors across LaGuardia Place, both of which are hitting important anniversaries in their successful — and once seemingly unlikely — quests to become New York City landmarks.

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Silver Towers (l.), South Village (r.).

On June 24th, 2008, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) held its public hearing on the proposed landmark designation of the Silver Towers complex — three concrete 30-story towers designed by I.M. Pei, the surrounding landscaped open space, and the Picasso sculpture “Sylvette” at the center.  On June 25th, 2013, the LPC held its public hearing on the potential landmark designation of the proposed South Village Historic District, a 13-block, 250 building slice of the Village bounded by Washington Square, Sixth Avenue, LaGuardia Place, and West Houston Street.

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Sylvette

Of course in spite of their superficial differences, Silver Towers and the South Village have a lot in common beyond geographic proximity, especially when it comes to their road to landmark designation.  In both cases, the hearings on landmarking came after years of effort by Village Preservation, which proposed both for designation.  In both cases, there was strong support from the local community and residents for designation, many of whom turned out for the hearing.  And in both cases, fortunately, the hearing was followed a few months later by a unanimous vote in favor of designation by the Commission.

In both cases too the LPC designated most, but not all, of what we asked for.  In the case of Silver Towers, they excluded the supermarket and gym buildings on the superblock, which we proposed be included as “non-contributing” buildings.  In the South Village, the LPC excluded a row of 10 1830’s houses at 130-148 West Houston Street, between MacDougal and Sullivan Streets, as well as a few other non-descript structures at the edge of the neighborhood.

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NYU’s Vanderbilt Hall, and what could be built without landmark designation.

But in both cases, by far the majority of what we proposed and fought for was granted landmark protections, and this made a big difference.  At Silver Towers, it helped block NYU’s plans for a 400 ft. tall tower within the complex on Bleecker Street.  And in the newly-designated South Village Historic District (approved just this past December), it will help ensure that NYU’s Vanderbilt Hall Law School building, covering a full block bounded by Washington Square South, MacDougal, West 3rd, and Sullivan Streets, is never replaced by the 300 ft. tall dorm which the current zoning for the site would allow.

One response to “This Day in History: Silver Towers and the South Village Move Towards Landmark Designation

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