Friday, May 01, 2009

RIP Catholic Center at NYU

Walking to Bobst Library along West 3rd this morning I caught an unexpected view of Washington Square Arch. This site has only been cleared in the last few days . The bit of it facing the Park used to be the site of the Catholic Center at NYU, which is to be replaced by another big NYU tower (including, I understand, more space for the Catholic Chaplaincy than they had before, though I've also heard that the chaplaincy has moved to St. Joseph's on Sixth Ave.). I'm not sure anyone really regrets the passing of this building - the inside (my pics are from August '06) was like what a chapel on Battlestar Galactica might have felt like.

On February 19th, earlier in the destruction, I noticed the door open and peeked in, to find a space entirely dark - the windows had been removed and boarded up (see pic). I assume the furnishings have not been destroyed but moved to one of the huge warehouses where no longer needed Catholic church parapher-
nalia live. But has the CC vanished without a trace? Maybe not... A strange ghost of the Catholic Center and its big trapezoidal Jesus occupied a parallel street today, part of the NYU Strawberry Festival!