Tuesday, June 30, 2009

NYU de-dorms 200 Water St.; preps the 12th Street residence hall

As we noted yesterday, NYU plans on expanding into parts of New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Well, there are plans for developing up to 6 million square feet of additional space by 2031 in the area around Washington Square Park.

Meanwhile, what else is happening in the NYU dorm world? First, 200 Water St. in the the Financial District is getting de-dormed. Since 1998, NYU has housed some 1,200 students in these 32 floors. As the Times reported on April 3, 1998, the building went up in 1971 as an office tower for the securities and insurance industry. It was converted from office space to residential space for NYU by the Rockrose Development Corporation.

The decision to lease the Water Street building comes as part of the university's drive to provide housing for a student body that includes fewer New York residents than ever before.

"Ten years ago, half of a typical freshman class was from New York," said John Beckman, a spokesman for NYU. "Now that is about 20 percent."


According to the Water Street home page, "Our theme for the 2008 – 2009 year is "Leave your Watermark" inspired by Water Street’s last year as an NYU residence hall." What's going in this space? Not sure! (According to a commenter here, Rockrose is converting the units to rentals.) But at least they have that new Duane Reade anchoring Fulton and Water. So the students will be moved to other dorms closer to campus.




In recent weeks, all the old dorm mattresses -- hope the students didn't leave their watermarks here! -- were stacked up in the lobby at 200 Water St. and carted off to...




... I don't know, perhaps the new eyesore called the 12th Street dorm that sort of, but not really incorporated the façade of St. Ann's into the residence hall's entrance. This 26-floor dorm between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue will house 700 freshman starting this August.



Here are a few of the articles The Villager has done on the 12th Street dorm in recent years.

See you at the Village Pourhouse in August kids!

9 comments:

Jeremiah Moss said...

i do not look forward to this fall when that building will overflow with people who don't have a clue about how to behave in the city.

pinhead said...

I will never get over that shitpile blocking my 18-year ESB view.

Anonymous said...

200 water street is being converted to rental apartments by Rockrose. They are supposedly doing minimal changes just upgrades to existing---new kitchens and bathrooms.
That will put 500+ units into play in an already saturated neighborhood.

EV Grieve said...

Thanks for the info, anon.

A tough sell in any market... and trying to make a former dorm room seem like home has to make it even more challenging.

ak said...

'eh, the 200 water street units looked like the shitty-construction done in new or "remodeled" buildings circa early 2000s. buildings that were cheaply constructed to resemble nice-apartment style dorms and the dorms that were constructed to resemble cheap "new" apartments. shoddy construction - tight layout. i bet they'll just add some stainless steel kitchenware and some 'marble' tiles before they put them on the market. looks like a lot of the crap that's going up in williamsburg/bushwick.

if i remember correctly the bedrooms were tiny. i wonder if they'll take down a wall and turn the 2-bedrooms into 1-bedrooms?

Anonymous said...

I lived at 200 Water St. about 9 years ago. AK is right about the crappy construction. I used to get woekn up by the alarm clock in the apt next door because the walls were so thin. ANyone else noticed the New School dorm that is opening up in a converted apt building on 17th St between 1st and 2nd Ave?

EV Grieve said...

Thanks for the comment, anon. I always thought it would suck to live so far from campus, having to rely on a shuttle bus, etc.

And I have not noticed the new New School dorm...WIll have to take a look.

Lena said...

Hi Jeramiah! I'm going to be one of those kids in about five weeks! See you there! :)

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