Will Redevelopment Ruin Astor Place?

Although the plans are far from final?Cooper Union officials hesitate to even call them "plans" at this point?it's something they've been thinking about for quite a while, and something they hope to get under way as soon as possible. Despite the magnitude of the project they have in mind, the only place I've seen it mentioned has been in The Villager (which, I might add, has been doing a bang-up job). It is interesting to note that the Voice, though this is all taking place around them, has mentioned the project but once, in a small article by Guy Trebay that ran in 1997.

And what the project amounts to is this: Should Cooper Union get what it's after?if the city planning commission comes through with an okay?within the next couple of years, Astor Place as we know it is going to look very, very different. Oh, that damned cube will probably still be around, but everything around it is going to take on a radical new shape.

In an effort to upgrade their engineering program and generate some much needed cash to keep Cooper Union operating as it has been for nearly 150 years, the following steps are going to be taken:

The Hewitt building, between 6th and 7th Sts. on 3rd Ave., is going to be torn down and replaced with a new, nine-story academic building. The engineering building, on Astor Pl. between 3rd and 4th Aves. (just across the street from the Foundation building), is going to be leveled and replaced with a new, 15-story "mixed use" complex, with commercial as well as academic space.

The oddly shaped Astor Place parking lot?which is owned by Cooper Union?has been leased for 99 years to an independent developer, who will be erecting a 15-story hotel on the site, which will also contain commercial space?including, some reports say, a new multiplex theater. Some reports also claim that the hotel will simply envelop and "de-map" Astor Place itself, though Cooper Union officials deny this.

The little-used Peter Cooper Park?just to the south of the Foundation building?will be extended and expanded to about three times its current size. In the process, Taras Shevchenko Place will be "de-mapped" as well, and 4th Ave. will be cut in half and run one-way uptown below 8th St.

There will be other side effects as well: city buses are going to have to find a new layover point, and the Carl Fisher building, which was recently transformed into a luxury condo complex, is about to lose its once-delightful northern exposure. (I've heard no word as to whether or not the poor saps who bought the north-facing condos will be offered a discount?though if you look these days, you'll see those windows are already being bricked up.) And the guy who sells the used porn on the corner is probably going to have to relocate.

Again, Cooper Union officials insist, none of this is cast in stone yet. Proponents argue that the plan will result in a nicer, leaner, cleaner, less confusing Astor Place area, which will be much safer for pedestrians. There'll be a nice, big new park for the kids to play in, the new commercial space will draw new businesses into the area, and Cooper Union will reap the benefits necessary in order to continue providing the kind of education they provide.

Opponents argue that the plans will result in a traffic nightmare, there will be a decrease in affordable housing in the area, hundreds of parking spaces will vanish. They also argue that the last thing the area needs is three huge new buildings cluttering up what had been a rare vestige of open space left in the city. Most importantly, they argue, it's one more step toward strangling the very nature of the East Village. The whole feel of the neighborhood will change as a result of the plan, they say.

Claire McCarthy, Cooper's director of communications, says they started discussing the project with area residents about a year and a half ago.

"We started meeting with the community much earlier than the process required. The reason we started talking to the community so early is, we realize that our plans to rebuild some of our academic facilities will raise opportunities for other improvements in the area, such as streetscape and traffic patterns. It's a very confusing area?you have to have your head on a swivel when you cross Cooper Square."

Camilla Brooks, manager of community relations, admits that the reaction they've received has been mixed. "We've had about 15 meetings with various members of the community... There will be changes in the neighborhood?it can be very difficult to think about that and how those changes will affect people."

She goes on to say that they're hoping to work closely with folks in the neighborhood, to try to hammer out a final plan that will leave everyone happy.

One person who isn't very happy?and she's not alone, it seems?is Martha Danziger, district manager of Community Board 3.

"For months, there have been a series of small by-invite-only meetings, and they presented their plans as they evolved," she tells me. "At every point we asked for a large public meeting, preferably in their Great Hall. They finally did do a presentation at the Housing Committee and a small one with the full board. Again we asked for a written proposal, and a full meeting with the community. They finally called a meeting at Wollman Auditorium, which only seats 200, so 150 people?including the chair of the board and the rep from Councilmember Lopez's office?could not get in... So there's a lot of frustration."

What started it all, she says, was that the first documents they saw regarding the plan involved the de-mapping of Taras Shevchenko Place?which seemed an awfully premature move, given that it was tied to the development of a new commercial building that hadn't even been approved yet. Moreover, she says, there's a property at 4th and Bowery they could develop, which wouldn't affect the residential community the way their current plans will.

"The whole process has brought a lot of questions?all these nice changes have nothing to do with increasing the student body. It's 1000 students, it will remain 1000 students. There'll be a lot of commercial space developed. The hotel is $9.6 million for a 99-year lease?so they're giving it to [developer] Ian Schrager, it looks like, yet they're asking the low-income community east of 3rd Ave. to have a de-mapped street, have a major commercial space jutting into a residential area. People are very afraid of the impact it will have on the low-income residential community. There's a question of who's getting the breaks here. They're claiming that their survival is at stake. Our question is, is their survival something that can only be done on what looks like the backs of the low-income community?"

As of now, there is no set budget, and no building designs. Even if Cooper Union receives the planning commission's initial okay?which they hope to get early next month?work probably wouldn't begin for at least another two or three years?and maybe not even that soon. And before the first spadeful of earth is tossed, Cooper has to raise the several million dollars they'll need for the project.

In the mean time, Community Boards 2 and 3 have agreed to set up a task force to study the project, and Cooper Union has agreed to hold a public meeting in the Great Hall later this month.