Dormitory Move Anticipates Merger with Polytechnic
By Don Evans
“Collegiate! Yes we are collegiate,” the Fred Waring orchestra sang on a jazzy mid-1920s recording.
The collegiate atmosphere is slowly increasing in the adjoining Brooklyn Heights and Downtown neighborhoods as 115 graduate students from New York University move into a newly opened dormitory at 67 Livingston Street, a few steps west of Court Street. This is a prelude to an anticipated union of Manhattan’s New York University and Brooklyn’s Polytechnic University at 6 MetroTech Center.
“We will become the Polytechnic Institute of New York University and would be the engineering and technology [college] of NYU since they do not currently have an engineering or technology school,” Jerry Hultin, the Polytech president, said.
“Polytech will move forward faster and NYU will be closer to the comprehensive university they want to be — and it’s good for Brooklyn,” he added. There are many details for a merger to be worked out, but he expects a final plan will go before the boards of both universities this fall. A merger was discussed three years ago, but was never completed.
The new residence will occupy a 26-story apartment building erected by local developer Lou Greco in the 1980s and dubbed the “sliver building” for its narrow width. Because they were losing their westward view, residents of the next door high-rise at 75 Livingston Street fought the original plan for the building.
To keep from blocking the neighbors’ windows, the 67 Livingston structure was consequently erected with a deep setback from the front property line and a plaza protected by a tall gated wrought iron fence.
The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society in Brooklyn Heights acquired the building from Greco and converted it into a residence for its members, Jehovah’s Witnesses. The building was sold for $18.6 last March to G C Livingston (LLC) of Manhattan and now is leased to NYU, reports the Property Shark website.
Announcement of the leasing June 21 aroused concern about NYU’s possible further expansion in Brooklyn, since the university has raised residents’ hackles in Greenwich Village over building so many facilities around its cramped Washington Square campus.
“For the moment we raise no objection to students living there [67 Livingston St.],” Judy Stanton, executive director of the Brooklyn Heights Association told the Metro newspaper. “I don’t anticipate any problems.”
“I strongly urge [local groups] to engage NYU to ensure the process contributes to the quality of life there,” said Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation The Polytech head said the two institutions share key values and have a strategic need for each other.
Polytech will gain through the “acceleration of our strategic objectives,” he said. Polytech will gain national prominence, an outstanding science faculty and a broader range of courses for their students.
“Polytech will move forward faster, and NYU will be closer to the comprehensive university they want to be — and it’s good for Brooklyn,” Hultin said.
Both schools are over a century old. Polytechnic opened in 1853 and now has about 3,000 students. NYU dates from 1831 and now has an enrollment of 50,917.
There is now a collegiate population of about 35,000 in Brooklyn’s downtown and neighboring areas, estimates Joe Chan, president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and an alumnus of NYU. He calls Polytech one of the hidden academic gems of New York City.
Downtown Brooklyn collegiate campuses within walking distances of one another in addition to Polytechnic include the New York City College of Technology (City Tech), Long Island University, St. Francis College and Brooklyn Law School. Slightly farther to the east are Pratt Institute and St. Joseph’s College. Both LIU and Polytech have limited on-campus dormitory space.
In addition, City Tech will have dormitory space in a tower to be erected on the southwest corner of Tillary and Jay Streets.
The law school opened a high-rise dormitory on Boerum Place last fall and has residences for students and faculty at 184 Joralemon Street, 2 Pierrepont Street and several other locations. A housing service for several hundred students from a number of schools operates in the St. George Hotel at Clark and Henry Streets.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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