NEWS: Meanwhile, Columbia revises M'ville plans (a little)
from Metro New York:
http://ny.metro.us/metro/local/article/Columbia_modifies_Harlem_plan/3724.html
Columbia modifies Harlem plan
by amy zimmer / metro new york
AUG 1, 2006
WEST HARLEM — In an effort to appease residents who fear Columbia University’s expansion plans will dramatically alter the landscape here, the school sent one of its planners to Community Board 9 last night to present changes they’ve recently made.
“We are making the public spaces feel less privatized,” Marilyn Taylor told the audience. “It is meant to be open, penetrable, inviting to all.”
Taylor, an urban planner from Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, is part of Columbia’s planning team — that also includes architect Renzo Piano — for the 25-year, 35-acre proposal.
The first phase of that plan — which would take 10 years to complete — would tear down buildings in a 17-acre swath between 125th and 134th streets and Twelfth Avenue and Broadway to create 1 million square feet of space for a new campus. The changes include shifting the heights of some buildings and making a new open space.
“We responded to concerns that the buildings looked too much like a campus,” Taylor said. “This square will be animated by pedestrian access action on 125th Street going to the new waterfront park and to [new graduate art school] Prentice Hall.” There will also be a new science building, a business school or other professional school, a small building to house arts-related events and retail space.
But Tom DeMott, a founder of the Coalition to Preserve Community which made an alternative plan for the area, told Taylor he was concerned about existing businesses, historic buildings and residents who have been living here for 40 years: “You say you’re inviting everyone in to use it, but clearly, we’re not going to be around to do that.”