How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
Is living in downtown Brooklyn preferable to the Financial District? Tisch junior Andrew Butler seems to think so.
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EXPANSION | Lynne Brown talks remote locations for NYU with Tisch junior Andrew Butler.
"Being a drama student I would much rather be in Brooklyn than Governors Island. There is a whole scene there, it's a happening place," Butler said at a 2031 discussion on remote locations for expansion. "I'd almost rather live there than in Water Street."
In an effort to involve student input in its long term planning process, NYU's Strategic Assessment and Planning Department hosted an open conversation about future development last night.
The sites discussed were Governors Island, downtown Brooklyn and the Health Corridor.
The downtown Brooklyn discussion revolved around the arts scene in the area, the recent agreement between NYU and Polytechnic University and lower living costs that currently draw many undergraduates and graduate students to the area.
Governors Island, which would require a commute by ferry to reach Manhattan, was looked favorably on because of the possibility of large amounts of free space. However, the difficult commute was a major criticism by students in attendance.
The event was part of a series of student outreach events to allow students to learn about future NYU plans and to gain feedback according to the event invitation.
The discussion was led by Lynne Brown, a university administrator, and facilitated by Marlon Aranda, the project manager for strategic assessment and planning design.
Only five students attended.
The conversation also touched on the NYU image as it expands to new areas in the city, especially the almost completely undeveloped Governors Island.
"What is in the DNA of NYU that makes it NYU, that makes some of these things not seem to fit with us while others do?" Brown said.
Some of these characteristics mentioned by students included retail stores, coffee shops, public transportation, being in an urban environment and a location with an active nightlife.
Some students asked why NYU needed to expand at all.
"I think that instead of adding more area we should focus on improving the area we already have," CAS sophomore Alan Shen said.
The plans for expansion are intended to allow the university to have future space flexibility with the development of new fields or popularity of existing departments, Aranda said.
"I mean, no one anticipated a genomics building five or 10 years ago; the discipline just didn't exist," he said.
Catherine Manfre is deputy university editor. E-mail her at cmanfre@nyunews.com.
