Blogs

In Praise of the Sasaki Garden: A Neighbor Writes

Submitted by Andrew S. on Sun, 12/11/2011 - 10:32pm

A neighbor of Washington Square Village, Rhoma Mostel, shares a letter she wrote to Councilmember Chin, Borough President Scott Stringer and others:

As a resident of this neighborhood, I have long admired the Sasaki Garden in Washington Square Village. Sasaki was a well-known landscape architect and his innovations in the Sasaki garden are well known in the history of landscape architecture.
NYU is turning a deaf ear to the pleas of its neighbors and residents of the community who do not want the building of towers, commercial rezoning, and other such monstrosities. They also emphatically do not want to see our cultural heritage, embodied in the work of a well-known landscape architect (Hideo Sasaki) destroyed simply for some provisional gym to satisfy some nebulous requirement for some temporary athletic space. Where are NYU's values? Are they an educational and cultural institution or simply a real-estate corporation? Where is the respect for the achievements of the past and the life of the present?

I'm writing specifically to stop any ravaging of the Sasaki garden, but I am also opposed to NYU's massive development plan, i.e., the destruction of our particular neighborhood and community.

I hope you will all see your way clear to support our living heritage and prevent its further desecration for NYU's mindless purposes.

Thank you

Rhoma

We've posted the most recent 5 phase plan released by NYU at Scribd and below, with this introduction:

This series of 5 documents establishes NYU's methodical and calculated approach to building on the remaining open space adjacent to its cluster of buildings in Greenwich Village. Not shown are the eager entreaties of downtown developers and neighbors clamoring for NYU construction just 2 subway stops from the heart of the village. The destruction of the children's key park and historic Sasaki Garden will be the first step in launch 20 years--an entire generation--of continuous construction in Greenwich Village. Taking out the children's park is an ominous symbol, perhaps. If NYU gets its way, a child born today in this neighborhood would never know a life without the steady din of construction, the choking cloud of dust, or the ominous loom of the construction crane. They will be NYU's "Jackhammer Generation."

A New Blog for the Sasaki Garden!

Submitted by Andrew S. on Sat, 12/03/2011 - 2:32am

The Washington Square Village Sasaki Garden has its own blog! Save WSV Sasaki Garden seeks to prevent the destruction of the 1.5 acre garden designed by renowned landscape architecture firm Sasaki, Walker & Associates under the proposed NYU 2031 plan. Save the WSV Sasaki Garden will accomplish these goals through political advocacy, public outreach, and partnership with endangered and preserved urban gardens and open spaces.

Take a look at this wonderful post documenting many of the beautiful plants in the garden!

Cardinal Rules

Submitted by Andrew S. on Tue, 11/29/2011 - 8:36pm

Washington Square Village photographer Hubert Steed captured this lovely little bird in the Sasaki Garden last week. Have a look at Hubert's beautiful photo essay capturing the garden and its avian inhabitants in it's last flush of Fall.

Arborists at Work in Washington Square Village

Submitted by Andrew S. on Thu, 10/06/2011 - 12:13am

On Monday morning, a team of arborists ascended into the trees in the Sasaki Garden, presumably, to perform some overdue maintenance.

Tenants and Neighbors Gather to Defend the Key Park from NYU's Plan 2031

Submitted by Andrew S. on Wed, 09/21/2011 - 8:20am

On Saturday, September 17th, Washington Square Village Tenants gathered to defend the beloved children's key park from imminent threat by NYU's generation-long construction project known as Plan 2031. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet neighbors and fellow tenants old and new and share information about NYU's plans and what we can do to stop them from destroying the key park, garden, green park spaces and other community assets that make our neighborhood such a lovely place. Keep an eye on our calendar or like our Facebook page to be notified of our next community gathering!

Hurricane Irene Begins Rolling In

Submitted by Andrew S. on Sat, 08/27/2011 - 4:14pm

I set up my timelapse camera to catch Irene as she rolls into the complex. Here's how it's going so far. Remember to tie down anything on your balcony or bring it inside!

News from GVSHP on NYU's Plans for the Sasaki Garden

Submitted by Andrew S. on Mon, 08/22/2011 - 9:44pm

As we indicated, following NYU's presentation of its latest timeline for construction in the village, representatives at the presentation would not commit to leaving the Sasaki Garden alone until a review of its historic status had been completed. Andrew Berman of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation writes that NYU has agreed (see bolded section below) not to pre-empt any review or decision by the State Preservation Office on the protected status of the Sasaki Gardens. A big thank-you to Berman and the GVSHP for their dogged pursuit of answers on these questions:

I wanted to update you on a couple of important issues regarding NYU’s expansion plans, and historic preservation regulatory reviews which may affect them.

1) Plans by NYU to Alter the Washington Square Village Gardens: In July, NYU made a presentation to Community Board #2 regarding their proposals for changes to the Washington Square Village and Silver Towers superblocks, including some “temporary” changes to the landscaping and temporary structures they might build if their requested rezonings and development plans are approved (see their presentation HERE). While Washington Square Village is not landmarked, the entire complex was determined eligible for the State and National Register of Historic Places earlier this year, which means that any NYU plans for new construction at the complex that use State money (as all the plans currently would) must go through a historic preservation review and approval process. At the meeting, GVSHP questioned NYU about whether or not they would try to alter or destroy the Sasaki Gardens at Washington Square Village (which could be done without State money, and thus without going through the historic preservation review) BEFORE their plans to BUILD on the gardens (using State money) underwent their historic preservation review. We wanted to ensure that NYU was not simply going to destroy the gardens prior to the review, thus eliminating a potential obstacle to State approval of their plans for building within the complex. As those who attended the meeting know, the NYU representative was not able to provide an answer that night.

However, GVSHP has persistently followed up with NYU about this matter. And while we were not able to get as 100% emphatic and clear an answer as we would have liked, NYU has explicitly told us that they will not make any substantial changes to the Washington Square Village Gardens prior to undergoing the historic preservation review with the State for any plans to build on those sites (if it even gets to that point – keep in mind NYU cannot build ANYTHING in the Washington Square Village complex unless both the City Planning Commission AND the City Council lift current zoning restrictions to allow them to do so).

This of course does not provide any guarantees about the outcome – we don’t know how the State Historic Preservation review will go, and certainly NYU has broken promises it has made in the past. But at least now we do have a record of their committing not to making any major changes to the landscape before submitting their plans to this State Historic Preservation review, which we have the opportunity to try to influence. We will keep you posted about this process as it moves ahead.

You can sign up for GVSHP's emails by visiting their website and clicking the green button on the left side of the page.

Timelapse Sunset at Washington Square Village

Submitted by Andrew S. on Tue, 08/02/2011 - 8:32am

I've been enjoying playing with this little programmable timelapse camera, and on Saturday I pointed it west from our balcony to catch the sunset. This is just one among many beautiful views that would be thoroughly obscured by NYU's towering constructions in the Sasaki Garden. There's no sound:

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Are NYU's trash management practices hurting urban hawks?

Submitted by Andrew S. on Mon, 08/01/2011 - 7:56pm

The folks over at UrbanHawks.org found Pip, the Washington Square hawk perched on an antenna adjacent to the water tower atop WSV 2 yesterday and produced a fantastic close-up video (and pictures!) of her:

But they also took the opportunity to point out something else:

Ironically, this building is one of my pet peeves about New York University. The four buildings regularly put out their garbage in plastic trash bags, rather than dumpsters and their gardens are full of rodents and cockroaches. Rather than improve this situation by improving sanitation practices, N.Y.U. puts out poisons that put hawks at risk.

The N.Y.U. hawk webcam was sponsored by the university's sustainability department. Unfortunately, it looks like this group isn't interested in studying the impacts of the university's own practices on hawks in the area. I guess basic sanitation, reducing poison usage, and evaluating the types of poisons being used, isn't as trendy as reducing bottled water usage.

Indeed. Here's a pile from the Silver Towers as well.

What do other complexes the size of WSV and Silver Towers do with their trash? How can we tenants encourage our landlord to be a good steward of urban wildlife?

NYU and the "Jackhammer Generation"

Submitted by Andrew S. on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 11:53pm

NYU presents to a full house

On July 18th, representatives from NYU presented the latest iteration of Plan 2031 to a sweltering standing-room only crowd at Judson Church. Interest (and anxiety) continues to build as more residents--both NYU-affiliated and non-affiliated--learn more about the scale and duration of the work proposed for the two superblocks. Sayar Lonial, NYU's Director of Community Affairs had his hands full with questions about the timing of some of the projects and NYU's willingness to commit to the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure or ULURP. At one point early in the briefing, he appeared to assure the assembled that NYU would not consider demolition of the Sasaki garden prior to the ULURP. He later backed away from that assertion, leaving many in the room wondering whether an early demolition of the garden might be in the cards. Representatives of CB2 and members of the community demanded an explicit projection of the time frame for construction of each of the anticipated buildings, projections Lional promised to provide. A ballpark estimate based on time frames he was able to provide suggests that construction would last between 15 and 20 years, once begun.

That means that babies born in the neighborhood today would never know a childhood absent the persistent noise, the dust and hazzards of construction. An entire generation--the "Jackhammer Generation"--would forever know a Greenwich Village mired in the mud and debris of construction, whose formerly serene public spaces were throttled by construction barriers, and whose dispirited residents would have sacrificed their self-determination, their community, to the unyielding expansionist campaign of NYU.

We tenants continue to await a response from John Sexton to our open letter, and with our allies at GVSHP, CB2, CAAN2031 and other, we will press for more transparency from NYU. Keep an eye on our calendar for upcoming meetings and events. We know not everyone can make it to these events, so we'll do our best to report back here as information becomes available. The next meeting of the tenants association is Tuesday, August 9th at 8:30pm. Building 4, apartment 1B.

I'll be working on establishing an automated e-mail list signup, but, in the meantime, please let me know if you'd like to be emailed regular news updates. Andrew@wsvtenantsassociation.org