NYU breaks promise to preserve Provincetown Playhouse walls
The historic Provincetown Playhouse and Apartments, 133-139 MacDougal Street, with area NYU has proposed to preserve highlighted
Last week GVSHP discovered that NYU had broken its commitment to preserve the walls of historic shell of the the Provincetown Playhouse Theater; neighbors sent GVSHP pictures showing that, behind its construction walls, NYU had dismantled large chunks of the theater’s north wall. In 2008 NYU promised to preserve all four walls and the entrance to the theater (see highlighted area in photo), even as it demolished the other 94% of the building in which the theater was located at 133-139 MacDougal Street. GVSHP and many others objected to this plan, but with approval by the local community board, it went forward. Now NYU claims that with the rest of the building demolished, sections of the the walls of the theater were found to be “structurally in very poor condition” and thus were removed.
This calls into serious question, yet again, NYU’s willingness and ability to keep its word and to be honest in its dealings with the public. See the letter on this and other recent NYU issues from GVSHP to Borough President Scott Stringer, who chairs the Community Task Force on NYU Development, of which GVSHP is a member. Borough President Stringer has written to NYU President Sexton regarding the university’s destruction of the Playhouse walls. See coverage in the Architect’s Newspaper, the New York Press, and The Villager.
