Astor Place

Astor Place

Astor Place is the geographical nexus of the greater East Village, a vast open space that operates as a kind of depersonalized staging ground for the eclectic neighborhood. Named for the family of John Jacob Astor, the beaver pelt peddler-turned-mercantile millionaire who lived just south of here, on Lafayette Street, this polygonal plaza offers a compelling collection of sights, services, and amenities, but suffers from a conspicuous lack of personality. Astor Place is located just above a subway station, and, at its best, the plaza seems like a gathering place for many of the city's disparate elements. On the South side of the square is the newly built, and preposterously named, Sculpture for Living, an architecturally compromised condominium development faced with curving green glass. The Sculpture for Living was built on land bought from Cooper Union, the university that sits just south of the new development. That scholarship-only private school, with some of the finest engineering and design programs in the country, was the first coeducational college in America, the first open to all races and creeds, and the first to offer adult education courses. With a speech here, Abraham Lincoln made a name – and a presidential campaign -- for himself. Located just south of Astor Place on Lafayette Street is the world-renowned Public Theater, which regularly produces some of the most daring, engaged plays in New York, and is particularly well-known for the long-running series of free, Shakespeare in the Park productions mounted every summer. Just west of Astor Place, is Astor Wines and Spirits, one of the city's most comprehensive liquor stores, and a large Barnes & Noble outlet. To the east stretches the anarchical bustle of St. Mark's Place.