New York University is kicking off its massive Greenwich Village expansion with design and prep work at the site of Coles Sports Center, at the corner of Mercer and Bleecker streets. In a memo sent to the NYU community and spotted by DNAinfo, NYU's vice president of operations said that architectural teams have started boring into walls for "sub-surface" information that will inform the demolition of the grim, dated gym at 181 Mercer Street. The gym will remain open until at least mid-November, and will then take up operations in Crunch's old space on Lafayette Street.
In December, NYU named firms Davis Brody Bond and KieranTimberlake as the expansion's architects. A design for the building that will rise on the Coles site hasn't been presented yet, but it seems safe to assume that the original Zipper Building design of 2011, is all but dead. DNAinfo points out that NYU is only allowed to do work on one building at a time, which is a condition of the plan that won the City Council's approval in 2012.
· NYU Expansion Project Begins With Plans to Demolish Coles Gym [TRD]
· NYU Is Finally Cleared to Expand Greenwich Village Campus [Curbed]
· All NYU Expansion coverage [Curbed]