Pei’s Silver Towers, Owned by NYU, Could Win Protection as Landmarks

New York City’s Landmarks Commission will hold a public hearing on whether to extend landmarks protection to a set of 1966 high-rises owned by New York University. The three-building complex, Silver Towers, was designed by I.M. Pei, the noted Modernist, and won an American Institute of Architects Honor Award in 1967.

The three 32-story buildings are constructed of cast-in-place concrete. Two of them house faculty members; the third is reserved for middle-income housing in NYU’s high-priced Manhattan neighborhood. The towers were put up on a five-and-a-half-acre “superblock” as part of a mid-century slum-clearing effort. The university also owns two adjacent buildings: a supermarket and the Coles Sports and Recreation Center.

But now NYU is looking for potential building sites as it plans to expand by as much as six million square feet — and the land around the Silver Towers could be in play. An article in The Architect’s Newspaper says the university supports extending landmarks protection to the towers themselves but is considering how to make the best use of the land around them. Options could include putting up a fourth tower, on the supermarket’s site.