WDF Finds Match in Village Voice

August 9, 2007 by jack petrie.

Ultra 16 Leases New Offices at 36 Cooper Square

Web Design Firm (”WDF”), Ultra 16, recently found new office space in the Village Voice Building located at 36 Cooper Square. Ultra 16 is an interactive agency that specializes in web design for the media/entertainment/fashion/beauty industries and has a client list that includes Redken, ABC, FHM, American Movie Channel, MTV, Ann Taylor and the Cleveland Browns.  Ultra 16 was represented by CresaPartners’ Kristian Hansen and Jack Petrie. 36 Cooper Square is owned by Hartz Mountain Industries, who’s principal owner, Leonard N. Stern, coincidentally once owned The Village Voice, as well.

Major Tenant: The Village Voice

36 Cooper Square is best known as the home to The Village Voice, who relocated after its inception in 1955 in Sheridan Square. The “Voice” was the originator of the free alternative weekly tabloid format focusing on politics, the arts and entertainment. The weekly has launched the careers of several underground cartoonists such as Jules Feiffer, Matt Groening, Lynda Barry, Stan Mack and Mark Alan Stamaty.

About the Neighborhood

Cooper Square is located where Third & Fourth Avenues merge into the Bowery. It is named after Peter Cooper, the founder of the Peter Cooper Institute, now The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (”Cooper Union”). Cooper Union is one of the few American institutions of higher learning to offer a full-tuition scholarship to all admitted students. Consequently, Cooper Union boasts one of the most selective acceptance rates (13%) in the U.S. and is tied for 6th place (with Columbia University and the U.S. Naval Academy) in U.S. News & World Report’s survey of America’s Best Colleges 2007. Famous students of Cooper Union include Thomas Edison, Milton Glaser and Daniel Libeskind.

Founded by a Famous New Yorker

Peter Cooper was a famous industrialist and inventor (think of Instant Gelatin, now commonly known as Jello) who once campaigned for the Presidency in 1876 as the Greenback Party nominee. Cooper designed and built America’s first steam railroad engine and made his fortune with a glue factory and an iron foundry. As President of the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company, he was instrumental in supplying the first TransAtlantic cable.

The Great Hall

The 900-seat auditorium at Cooper Union has witnessed many historic speakers including Presidents Lincoln, Grant, Cleveland, Taft, Roosevelt, Wilson and Clinton. Abraham Lincoln’s address was to an audience of 1,500 (including Horace Greeley and William Cullen Bryant) at Cooper Institute in 1860 on behalf of the Young Men’s Republican Union. This speech contained the now famous expression “Right makes Might”.

And to bring it all back home to a technology focus, The Great Hall is currently the home of the NY Tech Meetup, a showcase for entrepreneurs and startups to the Venture Capital and Technology communities. http://newtech.meetup.com/1/

Posted in Media/P.R. | No Comments »