A Brief History of NYU Land Battles

America's most heated preservation-development battle is back for another round: the nation's largest private university campus seeks to expand in the nation's most historically conscious neighborhood. As usual, the opposition in Greenwich Village includes some heavy hitters—actors, writers, the entire community board, and most of the university faculty.

Sometime in the next few hours, a New York City Council committee is expected to announce a decision on New York University’s 2031 plan, which aims to add over 2 million square feet of space to the school’s Greenwich Village campus and cost at least $4 billion, about twice the size of the university's endowment. Over the last year, the expansion—perhaps the largest single construction project in Village history, an addition of floor space that nearly amounts to an Empire State Building—has been clearing administrative hurdles, the land use battle shifting in the university’s favor.