We've already given the New School's proposed SOM-designed new academic building at 65 Fifth Avenue the reaper treatment, and the building was said to be going through a redesign, but now we can finally retire that blue-and-red rendering (while running it one more time, of course). The Village Residents Alliance, longtime opponents of the size of the new building, has a report on a recent meeting with embattled New School president Bob Kerrey:
Very good news is that their originally proposed 350′ tall building is off the table. According to Kerrey, given current economic conditions, it was “way too big, too expensive” and they are now designing an “as-of-right” building which will be “considerably smaller.”
This could mean a tall, thin tower on the smaller eastern lot, next to Amalgamated Bank, with a lower building on the larger western lot. They will not ask for variances which would have produced a far larger, bulkier building without setbacks. This new plan would allow greater light into the Fifth Avenue/14th Street area than the former design and was the preference of community members who have been weighing in on the issue.
Community Board 2 was bummed out by the New School's desire to go all-glass among all that turn-of-the-century architecture, but the school's COO told the crowd that masonry would be a cheaper otion, perhaps signaling that the 65 Fifth Avenue redesign will be fairly drastic.
