West Village Houses, 156 Bank Street: Review and Ratings
between Washington Street & West Street View Full Building Profile
The cooperative conversion of West Village Houses, a 42-building, low-rise complex between Bank and Morton Streets and Washington and West Streets in the Far West Village was completed in 2006. The complex was planned with the help of Jane Jacobs in the 1960’s and the first buildings were completed in 1974. The plain, brown buildings, many of which have fire escapes, were designed by Perkins & Will and built under the Mitchell-Lama housing subsidy program. In 2002, the owners of the complex announced they were opting out of the program and many residents faced enormous rent increases.
The complex was described by Elliot Willensky and Norval White in their book, "The A.I.A. Guide to New York City Architecture, Fourth Edition" (Three Rivers Press, 2000), as "The scene of the great war between the defenders of 'Greenwich Village scale' and the Establishment, which proposed another high-rise housing project." In a May 15, 2005 article in The New York Times, Josh Barbanel described the development, which contains numerous gardens, as "once the ugly duckling of Greenwich Village."
Its location, however, has changed radically and is now one of the most desirable in the city as a result of the building of Hudson River Park nearby and the booming redevelopment in recent years of the Far West Village and Chelsea neighborhoods.
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