NEW YORK CITY-New York University said Thursday it would eliminate a fourth tower, which would have been built in the landmarked section of the superblock containing its Silver Towers, from its Uniform Land Use Review Procedure application for expansion plans near Washington Square Park. Instead, the ULURP application will include a building on the university-owned site currently occupied by the Morton Williams supermarket.

Newfound opposition by architect I.M. Pei, who designed the original three-building Silver Towers complex in the 1960s, played a strong role in NYU’s decision. “From the beginning, we sought a design for the Silver Towers block that was most respectful of Mr. Pei’s vision,” says Lynne Brown, SVP at NYU, in a statement. “Some people disagreed with our proposed approach; others agreed. We believed that among those who agreed was Mr. Pei himself, who expressed no opposition to the concept of a tower on the landmarked site when we spoke with him directly in 2008.”

Now, however, “Pei has now had a change of heart” as expressed in a letter written to NYU on his behalf, says Brown. “The clarity Mr. Pei has now provided—that the Morton Williams site is ‘preferable’—is helpful to us in understanding how to proceed with our ULURP proposal.”

The announcement drew mixed reviews from the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, which has repeatedly expressed its oppostion to several aspects of the university’s NYU 2031 expansion strategy. “That the university has decided to shelve this plan is incredible news, and a fantastic victory for all of our efforts,” the group says in a statement. “However, NYU is insisting that they will move ahead with seeking permission to build on the adjacent non-landmarked supermarket site instead, and will also continue seek to approvals for the rest of its massive, two-million-square-foot expansion plan around Washington Square.  GVSHP is also adamantly opposed to NYU’s plans for building on the supermarket site (which they are currently prohibited from building on before 2021), as well as many others aspects of their massive plans.”

NYU says it expects to file a standardized Land Use Review Application with the Department of City Planning under the ULURP in the fall of 2011.