And here shall rise a 14-story mixed use development.

It is a story that has been writ repeatedly on the landscape of New York: neighborhood transforms from working class haven to bohemian haunt to the place where every developer in the city wants to build a luxury condo with a bank of boutiques on the bottom floor.

And yet, there are few places that have been assaulted as mercilessly as Greenwich Village, Soho and the enclave nestled between their two historic districts—and thus highly attractive to developers— known as South Village. It is an area flush with building permits, preservation battles—activists have spent the last few months fighting to stop the historic townhouse at 186 Spring Street from being torn down to make way for a condo project—and a languishing landmarks proposal.

Now, with a plan for a 14-story mixed use development at 180 Sixth Avenue moving forward, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation is pleading, once again, for contextual rezoning and the creation of a South Village Historic District.

The 180 Sixth Avenue development, located between Vandam and Spring Streets, filed an application with the DOB yesterday indicating that the building would have 61,471 square feet of residential space and 8,075 square feet of commercial space. While it will be built on an empty lot next to a strip of one-story retail stores (not exactly a pristine spot), preservationists argue that the tall building, to be designed by BKSK Architects, will be out of context with the surrounding neighborhood.

"The latest planned 14-story building at 180 Sixth Avenue is particularly concerning for a variety of reasons," wrote GVSHP executive director Andrew Berman in a letter to Landmarks Chair Robert Tierney and Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden. "It would replace several one to four story buildings, some of which (already demolished) were nearly 200 years old. It is surrounded largely by three to six story buildings, which it would tower over precipitously."

The GVSHP is also questioning the use of development rights for the site, some of which were purchased from a local charity that was given a formerly city-owned building with the stipulation that it be used as a facility serving the community.

The empty lot changed hands last year for $17 million, passing from Extell to the Texas-based Tavros Capital Partners. And while we do not know the developer's specific plans (BKSK said that it was not authorized to comment on the project), it seems safe to say that the residential units will be almost certainly be either luxury rentals or luxury condos.

The Preservation Society also points to a number of other out-of-context developments rising nearby: 178 Bleecker Street, 209-229 Sullivan Street (Children's Aid Society), 140 Sixth Avenue/78 Sullivan Street, 73-75 Sullivan Street, and 182 Spring Street.

The Preservation Society submitted a formal request for landmarking of the South Village district in 2006; in 2010, the Commission landmarked a small area as an extension of the Greenwich Village Historic District.

"The City promised to consider this entire area for landmark designation years ago, but is yet to fulfill its promise," Mr. Berman wrote The Observer in an email. "In the meantime everyone from NYU to Rudin Management and now to Trinity Realty are getting upzonings from the City, increasing development pressure in the area, but these community-requested neighborhood preservation measures can't even get their day in court with a public hearing."

kvelsey@observer.com

The elevated park nearly got another high-flying neighbor yesterday at 837 Washington Street, a lot across the cobblestoned road from the Standard Hotel, though the proposal was ultimately turned down by the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission.

The new office building, being developed by Tacononic Investments, is designed by Morris Adjmi, the architect of the nearby High Line Building, which is, along with the Standard, the only edifice that will ever overhang the park. 837 Washington is currently a two-story meatpacking building, and Admji has proposed a torquing glass-and steel tower atop it, creating an unusual design that nods to both the Manhattan street grid laid out in 1811 (paralleled by the building's top) and the older, confusing-even-to-natives streets of Greenwich Village (the bottom).

"I think this building tries to be a metaphor for what's happening in the Meatpacking District," Adjmi told The Observer Monday. "It's a very modern structure of glass encased within a steel lattice that nods to the High Line and the area's industrial past." Plus, the original 1938 Art Deco meatpacking building remains relatively intact, instead of being demolished.

It would be a ravishing addition to the neighborhood, and might even be taller than its proposed eight-stories, were it not located in a historic district--one created to head off over-development such as that created by the Gansevoort Hotel and the Bumble and Bumble Building, both built before the area received historic status.

Adjmi presented the project to the commission yesterday, and while it won praise from some local developers, preservationists were bothered by the proposal. The biggest issue seemed to be that the building's height--many others in the district are much shorter, like the building currently at 837 Washington--that and Taconic's desire to replace a building deemed a contributing piece of the Gansevoort Market Historic District when it was established in 2003. At the time, the commission said it was an exemplary building from the market's latter day architecture.

"The existing landmarked building is once again merely playing base to a grandiose, out of context structure, and that is not the role of a contributing building in an historic district," Nadezhda Williams of the Historic District's Council argued in her testimony to the commission. Andrew Berman of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation told The Observer that the building actually had "an interesting design." Still, there's that whole height issue. "The big thing for us is a seven-story addition dwarfing a one-and-a-half-story contributing building," Berman said.

The commission seemed to agree, telling Adjmi he should come back soon with a shorter proposal. "I don't know how I'm ever going to get to the size making any sense at all," Commissioner Elizabeth Ryan said. The commissioners were, however, impressed with the marriage of new and old and did not seem bent on ensuring the building remains as is. The architect argued that his building, being located on the border of the district, and just across the street from its taller neighbors, could serve as a transition, but even this argument did not fly.

In reality, though, this may all be part of the plan. From St. Vincent's aborted hospital to 980 Madison, developers know full well to push the limits as much as possible at the commission. That way, when they return months later with their relatively more conservative proposals, they can, typically, be easily approved.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @mc_nyo