Cooper Union claims demapping of Shevchenko Place not necessary (07/08/01)

Cooper Union claims demapping of Shevchenko Place not necessary

by Andrew Nynka

NEW YORK - In a bizarre twist during a June 28 task force meeting, representatives of The Cooper Union stated that the current suggestion to demap Taras Shevchenko Place is the proposal of New York City's Department of City Planning (DCP) and that the 1,000-student art and engineering school is willing to leave the street alone and continue with the renovation and modernization of its facilities without the demapping.

Although the application for a variance on the Hewitt Building site still calls for the demapping of the byway, The Cooper Union seems to have left the issue for the city's DCP to decide.

Prior to the task force meeting, The Cooper Union's Great Hall had hosted a gathering on May 29 in order to present the school's plans for modernizing and renovating its current facilities to the community at large. The meeting, which drew close to 700 participants, did have several individuals eager to listen to CU's plans. "At least this school is good enough to meet with us and listen to what we have to say," said a local resident.

But the overwhelmingly large majority of the ethnically diverse crowd had serious reservations about CU's plans. Several participants went so far as to shout vulgarities while school representatives presented the renovation plans, at points drawing hisses and boos from the crowd. Though CU's main goals, holding a general informational meeting with the public and gathering feedback from the community, was achieved, many participants question whether the CU will heed the community's suggestions.

With The Cooper Union seeking variances on both the Engineering Building and the Hewitt Building, the process calls for an application to be filed with the DCP as a Uniform Land Use Review Application (ULURA). Though the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure has many steps, the formal time clock that moves the process along will not start ticking until the DCP certifies The Cooper Union's application. At the moment the process is still waiting for environmental impact statements as well as environmental assessment statements before DCP can make the certification.

Once that certification has been made, the various community boards will gather to listen to the community's concerns and then draw up a recommendation to the City Planning Commission. The second such gathering, a task force meeting, was held on June 28 prior to any ULUR Application certification and was composed of ad hoc community organizations and community leaders from Community Boards 2 and 3. That voice will then advise New York City's DCP on the community's view of the issue.

With a unanimous agreement and diverse representation of the East Village community, the task force, which has decided to look at the Hewitt Building site separately, came within inches of passing a motion to maintain Taras Shevchenko Place. It stopped short, however, due to the willingness of all those present not to pass any motions until all of The Cooper Union's development plans are heard.

The task force has also voiced its intention to specifically include in its next deliberations the future site of a hotel on Astor Place by renowned hotelier Ian Schrager which the school continues to point out is not part of its development plans. According to Lisa Kaplan, chairman of Community Board 3 and chair of the current task force, residents insist that "The Cooper Union owns the land at Astor Place and this comes down to a question of possible development areas for The Cooper Union. This must be a point of discussion."

Ms. Kaplan turned to Robert E. Hawks, vice-president for business affairs and treasurer, and Ronni Denes, vice-president for external affairs, and stressed: "It will disappoint us greatly if you (The Cooper Union) come back on July 17 and say that they've (Ian Schrager) refused to come. So we ask you to use your very persuasive abilities to get him to our next meeting."

The issue has become even more interesting as recent developments have seen the team of Mr. Schrager and the Dutch architectural duo of Rem Koolhaas and Jacques Herzog, of the Swiss firm Herzog and de Meuron, falling out of favor and scrapping the latest plans for the Astor place hotel.

Paul Travis, of Washington Square Partners, a consultant to The Cooper Union, assured the meeting participants that "We will bring our traffic engineer to the next task force meeting when we deal with the issue of traffic in relation to The Cooper Union's development plans. We will absolutely have to consider the hotel in our traffic impact assessment."

The Cooper Union's plans have earmarked the bottom floor of the Hewitt Building, which is adjacent to Taras Shevchenko Place, to house retail facilities. The proposal has angered residents who believe that retail space would raise local rents and push longtime community residents out of the neighborhood. "We are prepared tonight to commit to both size and type of stores," commented Mr. Travis.

Alex Gross, a resident of the East Village, stated: "We feel like we're a target. We feel like the development of the Hewitt Building, the Engineering Building and this hotel are going to have an enormous environmental and human impact on many of the longtime residents of this community."

When asked if there had been any thought of giving up the idea of demapping and making up the space by building underground, Mr. Travis responded: "That has been one of the options we've looked at, and we certainly could do that instead."

"One thing that I want to make very clear is that the five feet (the amount of extra road space asked for by The Cooper Union in its ULURP Application and the reason for demapping Taras Shevchenko Place) is not a critical issue for us. It was actually City Planning's idea and not our idea," commented Mr. Travis, continuing, "We don't have any need or desire for the five feet. Can I be any clearer on that?"

"The question is will we consider not demapping, not taking the five feet, trying to get the loading dock on Sixth Street: of course those are all 'yes,'" added Mr. Hawks. "This is a process, it's a dialogue as it's supposed to be, and the retail is not a make-or-break issue for The Cooper Union. It's a question of whether or not it can be worked out in a way that's best for the community."

New York State Sen. Thomas Duane, in a four-page letter to The Cooper Union President George Campbell Jr. dated June 6, expressed his concern over the current development plan. He specifically outlined four key issues he viewed as the most crucial: the Engineering site, the Hewitt Building/Taras Shevchenko Place site, the hotel on Astor place and the expansion of Peter Cooper Park to Fifth Street. His representative at the task force meeting, Matt Fox, commented: "Sen. Duane did respond to The Cooper Union in a letter and it's a shame you [Mr. Hawks] say you're listening because the response he got back was a joke. There's been no statement - there continues to be no statement about what actual changes can occur."

The next task force meeting will deal with The Cooper Union's plans for the Engineering Building site and is scheduled for July 17 at 6:30 p.m. at the Jasis Center Senior Home located at 200 E. Fifth St.

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