New York University announced today that it was withdrawing its application to the Landmarks Preservation Commission to erect a 400-foot-tall tower on the superblock site of Silver Towers north of Houston Street, which is the site of three residential towers designed by I. M. Pei.

According to an article in today in The Villager by Albert Amateau and John W. Sutter, the decision "was driven by a letter that Henry Cobb, a partner of the architectural firm, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, sent to the L. P. C. on Nov. 10 saying that Pei, 93, was strongly opposed to the proposed tower on the landmarked potion of the superblock that N.Y.U. design consultants had said would complement the 'pinwheel' arrangement of the Pei design."

"The Cobb letter," the article continued, "also said the firm preferred the alternate N.Y.U. proposal to build on the northwest corner of the superblock not landmarked and occupied by the Morton Williams supermarket. N.Y.U. officials said on Thurs., Nov. 18 that the decision was made as a mark of respect for Pei's vision and the L.P.C., which in 2008 granted landmark protection to the Pei-designed Silver Towers plaza and its three 300-ft.-tall residential buildings surrounding the 36-ft. tall rendering of Picasso's Bust of Sylvette."

According to the article, "the alternative building proposed for the Morton Williams site, not yet designed, would be considerable shorter that the withdrawn proposal for the tower - about 17-20 stories and 200 ft. tall, N.Y.U. officials said. But because the alternative site footprint is much larger, the building would have roughly the same 225,000 sq. ft. as the previous proposal."

Alicia Hurley, N.Y.U. vice president for government affairs and community engagement, told The Villager that the university plans to keep "all of the proposed uses, including hotel and housing, in the mix" for the site.

Lynne Brown, N.Y.U. senior vice president, said in a prepared statement, "From the beginning, we sought a design for the Silver Towers block that was most respectful of Mr. Pei's vision. Some people disagreed with our approach, others agreed. We believed that among those who agreed was Mr. Pei himself who expressed no opposition to the concept of a tower on the landmarked site when we spoke to him directly in 2008. Mr. Pei has now had a change of heart. The clarity Mr. Pei has now provided that the Morton Williams site is preferable is helpful to us in understanding how to proceed with our Uniform Land Use Procedure proposal."

The city ULURP will be needed for the approval of the entire NYU 2031 proposal to build up to 2.2 million sq. ft. in the two superblocks, Brown noted.

The Cobb letter to Landmarks Preservation Commission chair Robert Tierney said that "a fourth tower is profoundly destructive of the landmarked entity because it closes a composition that was intended to be open and upsets the carefully considered balance between solid and void. It also seriously compromises the generous visibility of Picasso's Bust of Sylvette."

Cobb said that the alternative proposal on the Morton Williams site was "unattractive as represented in its filing, but as an as-of-right building...is nonetheless preferable to the proposed fourth tower."

Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, issued a statement today that said he was "deeply gratified that in the face of overwhelming opposition" NYU has chosen to withdraw its plan for a 400-foot-tall tower, but he maintained that "NYU's insistence on moving ahead with seeking public approvals for its alternative plans for a development on the adjacent non-landmarked supermarket site, as well as the remainder of its massive NYU 2031 expansion plan to add 2 million square feet of space around Washington Square Park, shows that the university still does not get it."