THE “OVERBITE BUILDING.”

THE “OVERBITE BUILDING.” Are there any buildings that are loved by no one? Another step has been taken toward the demolition of the O’Toole Building in Greenwich Village. Here is an earlier article about the building with a good picture of it. The linked article is by an organization opposing the demolition so there are those who love it. It was designed by a student of Frank Lloyd Wright and was completed in 1964. It was a landmark in the Village in the sixties in the sense that it had a prominent location and dominated its neighborhood. I never knew anybody who liked it, but I never heard it called the “Overbite Building”, as it now seems to be known. I checked my AIA GUIDE TO NEW YORK CITY from 1968 and it is a described as a “huge double-dentured monument.” Paul Goldberger in 1979 was harsh: “…pretentious claptrap. Maybe this white building with round holes and round versions of sawtooth cornices is trying to make us think of ships [it was built for the National Maritime Union]; maybe it is trying to make us think of space travel; maybe it is trying to make us think of how nice the Village used to look before it got modern architecture.” (Goldberger’s THE CITY OBSERVED: NY is available at Amazon with lots of vivid commentary like this). In the end, however, there are those who love the building and want to save it.