West Village Houses

Buildings in Manhattan, New York

The West Village Houses are a collection of 42 walk-up buildings in New York City's West Village that contain 420 apartments. They were built with the support of New York City and New York State through its Mitchell-Lama Housing Program. They were championed by Jane Jacobs and intended to be built on a human scale in keeping with her ideals.

History

The houses are scattered in an area bounded by Morton, West, Bank and Washington Streets. In 1961, New York Mayor Wagner planned to redevelop that area with high rise housing.^[1] West Village resident Jane Jacobs led an effort to stop that development in favor of the West Village Houses which were smaller-scale and preserved existing structures.^[2] Perkins and Will designed the buildings. The effort to build the houses was finally approved in 1969, higher costs required a second approval in 1972 and then construction began.^[3] Because of their long construction during a period of high inflation, when they were completed in 1975 common charges for prospective residents were high, they had difficulty finding residents and required further subsidy.^[4]

In 2002 the owner of the property, the Island Capital Group, indicated that it might like to buy out of the Mitchell-Lama Program and convert the units to market rate. In 2006 the Bloomberg administration worked out an arrangement to sell the units to the tenants via the Housing Development Fund Corporation which allowed tenants to buy their properties at below market rates, limit the amount of profit they could make on a resale, and enjoy a tax abatement for twelve years.^[3]^[5] As the date of the abatement expiration approached, developer Madison Equities offered to purchase the properties and redevelop them as high rises^[6]^[7] but the tenants chose convert the properties to market rate cooperatives and completed the transaction in June 2020. It was the first conversion of Michell-Lama properties to market rate in New York.^[8]^[9]

References

^ Brewer, Sam Pope (27 March 1961). "Citizens Housing Group Backs 'Village' Urban Renewal Study" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
^ Asbury, Edith Evans (25 October 1961). "Board Ends Plan for West Village" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
^ ^a ^b Vitullo-Martin, Julia (30 August 2007). "West Village Houses a Monument to a 1960s Development Battle". The Sun. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
^ Fried, Joseph P (8 August 1975). "A 'Village' Housing Project Becomes a Fiscal Nightmare". The New York Times. p. 24. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
^ Pape, Brian J (3 May 2017). "West Village Houses: What's Next?". West View News. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
^ Hudson, E.K. (5 November 2017). "Madison Equities proposes demolition of Jane Jacobs' West Village Houses". The Real Deal. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
^ Gunts, Edward (1 November 2017). "Developer may tear down Jane Jacobs' West Village Houses". The Architect's Newspaper. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
^ "West Village Houses Co-op Transitions From HDFC to Market Rate". Habitat. 8 June 2020. Retrieved 15 April 2023.
^ Gerstein, Darcey (15 July 2020). "West Village Houses Achieves Historic Conversion". Cooperator News New York. Retrieved 15 April 2023.

Greenwich Village (including Meatpacking District, South Village, and West Village)

Manhattan, New York City

Buildings

Broadway–6th Avenue	74–96 MacDougal Street, 170–188 Sullivan Street Butterfield House Cable Building General Winfield Scott House Mills House No. 1 One Fifth Avenue University Village Washington Square Village Whitney Museum of American Art
West of 6th Avenue	2 Horatio Street 40 Tenth Avenue 45 Christopher Street 75½ Bedford Street 131 Charles Street 173 and 176 Perry Street 299 West 12th Street 302 West 12th Street Bell Laboratories Building Westbeth Artists Community Federal Office Building New York County National Bank Building Palazzo Chupi Salvation Army Headquarters St. John's Terminal Superior Ink West Village Houses
Former	Canterbury Hall Jefferson Market Prison

Culture

Shops, restaurants, and nightlife	Arthur's Tavern Barbuto The Bitter End Blue Hill Blue Note Jazz Club Café Bohemia Cafe Wha? Caffe Reggio Comedy Cellar Commerce Inn Cubbyhole Dante Don Angie Duplex Cabaret Theatre Frevo Gotham Bar and Grill I Sodi Jeju Noodle Bar Joe's Pizza John's of Bleecker Street Julius Kesté Kettle of Fish King Kosaka (Le) Poisson Rouge Les Trois Chevaux Lord's Marie's Crisis Minetta Tavern One If By Land, Two If By Sea Oscar Wilde Bookshop Perry Street Pommes Frites Red Paper Clip Semma Sevilla Smalls Jazz Club Stonewall Inn National LGBTQ Wall of Honor Sushi Nakazawa Via Carota Village Vanguard Wallsé White Horse Tavern
Museums and galleries	Center for Architecture Fort Gansevoort Maccarone Makeup Museum White Columns Whitney Museum
Hotels	Hotel Albert Hotel Gansevoort The Jane Marlton House The Standard, High Line
Theaters, studios	Barrow Street Theatre Cherry Lane Theatre Electric Lady Studios Film Forum IFC Center Lucille Lortel Theatre Minetta Lane Theatre New Ohio Theatre The Players Theatre Provincetown Playhouse Quad Cinema Rattlestick Playwrights Theater
Former	ANTA Washington Square Theatre Apostolic Recording Studio Avignone Chemists The Beatrice Inn Boomer's The Bottom Line Cafe Au Go Go Café Clover Café Society Caffe Vivaldi Carbone Cedar Tavern Chumley's The Cooler Cornelia Street Cafe Da Silvano El Faro Restaurant Eve's Hangout Film Guild Cinema Florent Garrick Cinema The Gaslight Cafe Gerde's Folk City Grand Central Hotel Greenspon Gallery Greenwich Village Theatre Hot Feet Club Hotel Lafayette KGB Espionage Museum Lion's Den Mineshaft Mori Nell's Nick's Nix Old Grapevine Pfaff's Piora Plane Space The Plumm Ramrod Rocco Restaurant San Remo Cafe Seventh Avenue South Sheridan Square Playhouse Soto The Spotted Pig Sweet Basil Jazz Club Tenjune Trude Heller's The Village Den Village Gate ZZ's Clam Bar

Parks, green spaces, and plazas

Current

Abingdon Square Park
Christopher Street Pier
Christopher Park
- Gay Liberation Monument
- Statue of Philip Sheridan
Father Demo Square
High Line
Hudson River Park
Jackson Square Park
James J. Walker Park
Little Island at Pier 55
McCarthy Square
Mulry Square
New York City AIDS Memorial
Pier 40
Washington Square Park
- Bust of Alexander Lyman Holley
- Statue of Giuseppe Garibaldi
- Washington Square Arch
West Fourth Street Courts
Winston Churchill Square

Former

Coles Sports and Recreation Center

Education

Libraries and schools	City-As-School High School Jefferson Market Library Notre Dame School PS 41 St. Luke's School Village Community School
Postsecondary	The New School for Social Research Fogelman Social Sciences and Humanities Library University Center New York University Brown Building Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò Elmer Holmes Bobst Library Fales Library Gould Plaza La Maison Française Silver Center Skirball Center for the Performing Arts University Village New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture Pratt Institute School of Information
Other	Greenwich House Greenwich House Music School Greenwich House Pottery HB Studio School for Poetic Computation
Former	École libre des hautes études Grammar School No. 35 New York Workers School

Religion
Church of St. Joseph in Greenwich Village Church of St. Luke in the Fields First Presbyterian Church Judson Memorial Church Our Lady of Guadalupe at St. Bernard Church Our Lady of Pompeii Church St. Veronica Church Trinity Chapel Washington Square Methodist Episcopal Church

Transportation

Subway stations	14th Street/Sixth Avenue 14th Street/Eighth Avenue Broadway–Lafayette Street/Bleecker Street Christopher Street–Sheridan Square Eighth Street–New York University Houston Street West Fourth Street–Washington Square
PATH stations	Christopher Street Ninth Street 14th Street
Streets	4th Street 5th Avenue 6th Avenue 7th Avenue 8th Avenue 8th Street 14th Street Bank Street Bleecker Street Christopher Street Gay Street Greenwich Avenue Greenwich Street Houston Street Hudson Street Jones Street LaGuardia Place MacDougal Street Patchin Place Thompson Street University Place Washington Mews Washington Street Waverly Place Weehawken Street West Street