The New York Post offers this brief history of Union Square. It’s interesting to note that before the subway was built, the park was at street level. When the subway came through, the whole park was torn up and elevated several feet, which why you enter it via stairs today.
As you’re well aware, the demolition and construction of The New School site at 65 Fifth Avenue is well underway. On Thursday, The New School revealed for the first time the official design of the building, which includes some of the elements from its earliest sketches, such as the exposed staircases, but is different in two notable ways: the building is smaller than originally planned, and it is partially class in brass, rather than entirely in glass.
The building is being constructed as of right. There is no more debate over design or size. This is pretty much what we’re going to see: a university hub of about 16 stories with eight floors of campus space topped by a smaller eight floors of dormitory housing for 600 students.
To get caught up on what the building looks like and see many photos of the model, click here.
To read the somewhat positive New York Times architecture critic’s review, click here.
A neighbor attended the public viewing of the model and came away with some great facts:
–The loading dock is on 13th street at the eastern most corner of the lot.
–The main entrance to the building is on the southwest corner. This is for everything except the dormitories.
–The dormitory entrance is on 5th avenue, about 1/3 of the way down from 14th street.
–The northern 1/3 of the building at street level is retail – no word on what though.
–Directly above the retail is a cafeteria. It looks like seating for 300, which makes sense considering the 600 person dormitory.
–The dormitory floors are set back on all sides, and shaped in a ‘C’ with a light well on the eastern side of the stack. They are four bed suites, with kitchenettes in them.
–The set-back between the lower and upper halves is a green roof, and they say that for liability reasons it will not be open to the general building population. Pressing on this, and the answer was that while the green roof hasn’t been engineered yet, it is likely going to be possible to have foot traffic on it and will perhaps be open to supervised use (during a class, or for an experiment of some kind). (So no midnight keg parties, we hope.)
The green roof is at the level of 7 East 13th St/10 East 14th St, so about the same height as our roof.
— It looks like it’s designed to keep students inside the building, and not loitering on the street. The canopies are small, and the doors aren’t inset, so there isn’t any natural gathering space just outside on the sidewalk.
We hope that this brings everyone up to date on a project that will be a big part of the pulse of the neighborhood for the next two years….and beyond.
The rumor is quashed. Walmart may be looking at 6th Ave. but has no interest in Union Square according to the Daily News.
Here’s a view of Union Square from 1985. The angle is from the southeast looking toward the northwest from the corner of 4th Ave. and 14th. Note that in the good ol’ days, the statue of George Washington was located in the intersection. It was later moved to the southern end of the park.
Read this excellent post at Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York to learn the complete history of the doomed building at 61Fifth Ave. on the corner of 13th.
A report:
In honor of Barack Obama’s 100th day in office, an artist has painted what is just one more rendering of Obama as Jesus Christ complete with crown of thorns. ‘The Truth’ will be unveiled on April 29th in Union Square in New York City. No, it’s not some clever blogger’s photoshop or cartoon. It’s a real painting by artist Michael D’Antuono and it’s called ‘The Truth’ in honor of Barack Obama’s first 100 days in office.
The acrylic painting depicts The One appearing much like Jesus Christ on the Cross with a crown of thorns on his head. He is opening the curtain (much like biblical symbolism of ‘the curtain ripping’ at the crucifixion) revealing the Presidential Seal.
The popular artist, insists he isn’t claiming The One is Messiah, but only inviting ‘individual interpretations’ of his painting. And he generally paints non-political subjects, but felt the need to make a statement.
Once on display in Union Square, the painting will be seen by one viewer at a time behind a voting booth-inspired set up. Kitschy!
The Union Square district’s momentum has increased recently.
As measured by the Union Square Partnership, retail storefront occupancy of 82% in April — a 68% jump over the last quarter of 2024 — has since hit 88.5%, propelled by large recent leases such as Uniqlo’s deal for over 19,000 square feet at 860 Broadway.
More than 17,000 square feet of retail was leased in the second quarter, more than seven times the volume in the second quarter of 2024. Leading the food-and-beverage charge is Time Out Market, which will soon replace Urbanspace with a 10,000 square-foot hall on the ground floor of Zero Irving. It will be a smaller version of the DUMBO original.