40 First Avenue | Block : 430 | Lot #1

Building Date : 1960
Original Use : Residential

Original Owner : New York City Housing Authority
Original Architect : Gustave W. Iser & Walter G. Leicht

Description & Building Alterations

The Village View Houses were constructed in 1960. The project was originally intended to serve as low-income housing and was to be called the Franklin D. Roosevelt Houses. However, prior to the completion of the project, it was renamed and converted into middle-income cooperatives sponsored by a group of five colleges: NYU, Bank Street College of Education, Cooper Union, Mills College of Education, and the New School for Social Research.

Block : 432 / Lot : 1 / Building Date : 1960 / Original Owner : New York City Housing Authority / Original Use : Residential / Original Architect : Gustave W. Iser & Walter G. Leicht

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What is the Building Blocks Project

What does a building mean to someone who lives there? A person who lives on the block? In the neighborhood? In the city? This site presents a wealth of historic information gained from GVSHP’s architectural research survey about the buildings located in the East Village.

The site explores the area generally considered today as the East Village: from a northern border of 14th Street to a southern border of Houston Street, Avenue D in the east to 4th Avenue/the Bowery to the west. You can explore the information about the blocks and buildings featured here in two ways.

Pick a block. Maybe it’s yours, or perhaps it is just your favorite place to shop, grab a bite, or just people watch. Then explore the buildings that make up that block. Or take one of the many guided tours on the site, curated by a collection of organizations and experts from the neighborhood. See how they experience the neighborhood. Then tell us what the neighborhood means to you. The site’s comments section allows you to open a dialogue with others who feel just as passionately as you do about the East Village.