Even with the Alamo, an iconic piece of public art more often referred to as 'The Cube,' restored after several years absence, this is not the Astor Place of old. No longer grungy, filled with gutter punks and squatters, this new iteration is also no longer a plaza. It's an orderly block between Broadway and Lafayette surrounded by sleek, glittery buildings and outfitted with well-designed benches and granite blocks good for people-watching.

The large, brownstone Cooper Union, the public college founded in 1859 by glue millionaire Peter Cooper, dominates the area – now more than ever, when in 2009 the school opened its first new academic building in over 50 years, a wildly futuristic nine-story sculpture of glazed glass wrapped in perforated stainless steel (and LEED-certified, too) by architect Thom Mayne of Morphosis.

Originally a square, it was named after the Astor family, who built an early New York fortune on beaver pelts (check out the tiles in the wall of the Astor Pl subway platform) and lived on Colonnade Row, just south of Astor Pl; four of the original nine marble-faced, Greek-revival residences on Lafayette St still exist.


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1. Cooper Union Building

0.04 MILES

The large brownstone Cooper Union is a private college offering degrees in architecture, fine arts and engineering; it was founded by glue millionaire…

2. 41 Cooper Square

0.08 MILES

This state-of-the-art academic building, which opened in 2009, was designed by Pritzker Prize–winning architect Thom Mayne. One of the more eye-catching…

3. Mosaic Trail

0.12 MILES

Follow St Marks Pl from Broadway to Ave A to seek out the tile-encrusted street poles of this grassroots civic-art project, now in its fourth decade. In…

4. Grace Church

0.14 MILES

This Gothic Revival Episcopal church, designed in 1843 by James Renwick Jr, was made of marble quarried by prisoners at ‘Sing Sing,’ the state…

5. Merchant's House Museum

0.18 MILES

Built in 1832 and purchased by merchant Seabury Tredwell three years later, this red-brick mansion remains the most authentic Federal house in town. It's…

6. St Mark's Church in-the-Bowery

0.19 MILES

Though it’s most popular with East Village locals for its cultural offerings – readings hosted by the Poetry Project or cutting-edge dance performances…

7. St Marks Place

0.24 MILES

One of the most magical things about New York is that every street tells a story, from the action unfurling before your eyes to the dense history hidden…

8. New York University

0.28 MILES

In 1831 Albert Gallatin, formerly Secretary of the Treasury under President Thomas Jefferson, founded an intimate center of higher learning open to all…