East 12 St, NoHo

This part of 12th isn't bad but I'm not a huge fan. It's very commercial and the buildings are all giant (few with character). It's really oppressive and not noteworthy in any way. It has a central location but no charm.
The corner building on 4th and 12th is an apartment building called the Petersfield (named for the Stuyvesants). It doesn't look like much from the outside but the apartments are awesome -- and ridiculously expensive. There's a Crunch Gym in on the ground floor of the building which takes a little away from the old world aesthetics but if a gym is more than 3 blocks from where you live, you'll never go. There's nothing less motivating than trying to make yourself get up at 6 am to work out when there's a blizzard you have to endure for more than five minutes. Utrecht, the art store of all art stores, is across the street from the Petersfield. This place has everything (and a lot of hipsters to boot). There's also a lot of students at this store thanks to the NYU dorm that went up over what used to be an old rectory. Ok, yes, there would still be art students at the art store -- I just wanted to complain about NYU again. The entrance to this dorm is actually the only thing that remains of a crumbly, old church. It's a cool way to enter a building. It's just sad that NYU demolished the majority of what was clearly a gorgeous building.
The rest of the block is what seems to be a dorm war between NYU and the New School. They kept the majority of the old buildings, and I'm sure the insides are very cool, you just can't see them unless you're a student which is a shame.
Because so much of 12th in Noho is taken up by NYU, it's hard for me to not consider this part of town as Greenwich. It's just Greenwich without the charming, small buildings and restaurants.