The two-story building at 82 University Place between 11th and 12th Streets will be enlarged by about 7 stories to accommodate residential condominium apartments above the Cedar Bar.

The Cedar Bar now fully occupies the building and has a large skylight over its second floor. When the project is completed, the famous saloon, which is expected to close for about 6 months during construction, will remain on the first floor of the building where it has a very large and very handsome wooden bar and many stained glass fixtures.

The Cedar Bar originally was located further down University Place between 8th and 9th Streets and in the 1940s and early 1950s it was the "hang-out" of choice for many artists including many of the most famous Abstract Expressionist artists such as Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock and Beat Generation writers such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsburg.

The bar, which was demolished for a new apartment building in the 1950s, was notable for its lack of design embellishments whereas its present incarnation is quite attractive.

This stretch of University Place was filled with many auction galleries in the 1940s and 1950s such as Kalisky & Gabay and Lawner's and in more recent times has been home to some of Greenwich Village's nicest jazz clubs such as the Knickerbocker at 9th Street and until recently Bradley's between 10th and 11th Street. There are numerous good restaurants in the vicinity such as Japonica at 12th Street.

Garth Hayden is the architect for the project, which is expected to have full-floor units. The location is convenient to Washington Square and Union Square parks.