Washington Sq East, Greenwich Village

I love Washington Square Park and the neighborhood is incredibly picturesque; but NYU has completely taken over much of the neighborhood. That's not such a terrible thing now, but seeing as they have recently proven that they don't care much about demolishing historical landmarks to put up yet another unnecessary and ugly lecture hall, it makes me nervous that Washington Square East is going to fall victim to the school.
The most notable thing about the Park on the East side, aside from how awesome the park is in and of itself, is the Garibaldi statue. It's a pretty good reference park if you're trying to meet up with someone coming from the East side. Although the park isn't big, it's easy to lose people in the mix because this place is always swimming with people (and pigeons).
A perfect example of the treachery of NYU is on the north side of Wash Square East: Hemmerdinger Hall. It's the main building to NYU and though it was built in 1895, it replaced it's original building that was built in the 1830's and had a cool tower. The original building housed the invention of the first revolver, the telegraph, and several things pertaining to photography. Walt Whitman taught poetry in the original hall. Hemmerdinger can't claim any of this kind of history which is a crying shame. The other halls that line Washington Square East were all built around the same time as the replacement main hall. They're still old and pretty but not nearly as historically noteworthy as what was destroyed.

Washington Square Park is in the heart of Manhattan’s Greenwich Village neighborhood. It is a beautiful place where to spend time. In summer, excellent musicians play there, and interesting performances take place close to the park’s fountain. At the moment, the park is undergoing redesign, and only a small part of it is accessible. However, the works should hopefully end by this summer.