A Reminder of the History of 61 Fifth

First Au Bon Pain kicks the bucket, and now Tisserie at corner of Union Sq. West and 17th is gone as well.

This report from Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservaation notes that 64 University Place, the non-descript building currently housing Agata and Valentina, may be scheduled to meet its destiny with the wrecking ball. In its place, a 12-story building.

Village Preservation has learned that a developer has filed plans to demolish 64-66 University Place (10^th/11^th Street) within our proposed South of Union Square Historic District we have been fighting to get landmarked.

No permits have yet been filed for a new building, though we understand a 12-story building is being contemplated. The zoning for the site allows a roughly 42,000 square foot building here, of residential, commercial, and community facility uses, with about 6-7,000 square feet of additional air rights purchased from neighboring 70 University Place. By comparison, neighboring 21 East 10th Street is approximately 56,000 square feet.

Village Preservation has been campaigning for landmark designation for this area, and our research and documentation submitted to the City shows that this building, in spite of its utilitarian looks, actually has an incredibly important history worthy of recognition and protection. While we have made some progress recently advancing our landmarking proposal, the City has nevertheless resisted landmarking the full proposed district, and Councilmember Carlina Rivera, who represents this area, has not endorsed the historic district landmarking proposal.

Union Square will host its first-ever Night Market by Urbanspace. Union Square is no stranger to Urbanspace, as the company is responsible for putting on the park’s beloved annual Holiday Market. However, this will be the first time Urbanspace will operate an open-air food market during summer nights.

The Union Square Night Market will run for four Thursdays, starting July 11th. More than 20 vendors will come together to bring New Yorkers some of the best bites in the city. It will all take place along the South Plaza of Union Square Park.

So whether you’re interested in grabbing something to eat on your summer commute home or planning a date night, the Union Square Night Market will serve as the perfect venue for either!

As construction for the Union Square tech hub begins, Greenwich Village preservationists have resurrected their call for the city to designate a new historic district in the area, AM New York first reported.

Last October, following a contested upzoning of a lot on 14th Street to build the 21-story training center, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) asked the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to consider designating a new historic district to protect 193 buildings in the area.

Over the summer, the LPC moved to designate seven of those buildings, but rejected the call for a full historic district. At the time, the LPC said that the area mostly contains buildings erected between the 1830s and 1930s, as well as new and altered ones, and that because of their variety in styles, types, and dates, “[the area] lacks the consistent architectural quality, cohesiveness, and sense of place necessary to merit historic district designation.”

But GVSHP is persistent, and this week resurrected its call for a proper district protecting more buildings in the area. In a letter sent to LPC this week, the group made the case for protecting 10 buildings, including 10 East 14th Street, a cast-iron structure that once housed the NYC Woman Suffrage League headquarters; 72 Fifth Avenue, a masonry structure that was the headquarters of Appleton & Company; and 17 East 13th Street, the brick Erskine Press building. The selection of buildings also includes structures associated with 19th-century architect James Renwick Jr.

“[These buildings] speak to the incredibly rich and important social and architectural history of the area, and to New York’s development as the capital of commerce and culture in the late 19th and 20th centuries,” the letter from GVSHP reads.

“With increased pressure on the area from the beginning of construction on the 14th Street Tech Hub, the recent loss of Renwick’s St. Denis Hotel (1855), and the completion of the woefully out of scale tech office tower at 808 Broadway, the time for the city to act is now,” Andrew Berman, executive director of GVSHP, told Curbed in a statement.

The group is also pushing for city lawmakers to implement protections that would regulate commercial development south of 14th Street through a “protective zoning measure,” which was promised at the time of the tech hub rezoning over a year ago.

City Council member Carlina Rivera, who represents the area, negotiated those commitments from the de Blasio administration, but advocates have said those promises hadn’t materialized.

“Councilwoman Rivera continues to work with the community to ensure the history of the Village is preserved and she is meeting regularly with LPC to discuss future protections for her entire district that should be considered,” Jeremy Unger, a spokesperson for Rivera, said in a statement.

Even if NYU adds space by building at the World Trade Center as was recently reported, it still wants to build big in the Village. How big is big? The Greeenwich Village Society For Historical Preservation has brought the plans to animated life so we can all see.

Reminder: The annual shareholders’ meeting will take place on

July 22nd at 7PM – 9PM at The Seafarers and International House ,123 East 15th St. on the second floor.

Please attend, and if you can’t, please hand off your signed proxy to a neighbor who will be attending. After the meeting, the Board will send around the minutes and any presentations via e-mail. If you would like to update your e-mail address, please send it to donwillmott@hotmail.com.