University Village (Silver Towers)

History and architecture

University Village is one of the finest examples of a mid-20th century residential complex located in New York City. Designed by architect James Ingo Freed of I. M. Pei & Associates for New York University, construction began in 1964 and was completed by 1967. Occupying a five-acre “superblock” in Greenwich Village, between West Houston and Bleecker Streets, the site was originally part of a much larger urban renewal scheme conceived by Robert Moses, chairman of the Mayor’s Committee on Slum Clearance, in 1953. As part of NYU’s agreement with the city to take over the site in 1960, the school set aside one-third of the units for middle-income residents. The complex includes three identical free-standing 30-story towers executed in reinforced concrete that are positioned at the center of the site in a “pinwheel” configuration around a 100-by-100 foot lawn.

The west tower, at 505 LaGuardia Place, is a cooperative residence with a long-term lease from NYU, and the east towers serve as faculty housing. The buildings were thoughtfully arranged by Freed to maximize views and privacy, as well as to increase general visual interest. Cast in place, on site, using fiberglass molds, these buff-colored towers fall into the general stylistic category known as “Brutalism” and reflect the influence of the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier, whom Pei admired.

The buildings display twin sets of smooth gridded facades that project from a central core. Each floor has four or eight deeply-recessed horizontal window bays, as well as a 22-foot-wide sheer wall, creating strong contrasts of light and shadow. Near the center of the complex stands a large sandblasted concrete sculpture, an enlargement of a 1954 cubistic work by Pablo Picasso. Executed in 1968 by the French artist’s frequent collaborator, the Norwegian sculptor Carl Nesjar, the off-center placement of the 36-foot tall bust echoes and enhances the project’s dynamic plan.

University Village was a critical success and received awards from the American Institute of Architects, the City Club of New York, and the Concrete Industry Board. It was also selected as one of “Ten Buildings That Climax an Era” by Fortune Magazine in 1966. Both Pei and Freed have received significant recognition for their contributions to this project; when Pei was honored with the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1983 University Village was cited as one of his most notable works and at the time of Freed’s death in 2005 Museum of Modern Art architecture curator Terence Riley counted the complex as among “the most refined examples of modern architecture in Manhattan.”