Mercer St, Greenwich Village

Mercer is almost entirely eaten by NYU in the Village. And, the buildings are so monstrous and ugly that it was the universities construction on this street that sparked the Preservation movement of Greenwich Village. They have managed to save a lot of buildings, but unfortunately, not many on Mercer.
The corner of Mercer and 8th houses two very incongruous buildings. The west side of the street has an old building that is now Pizza Mercato on the ground floor. Pizza Mercato is pretty good for fancy pizza if you're into that sort of thing. And, Italian people are always in the place which I think is a pretty good sign. Directly across the street is an apartment complex that is so huge and ugly it looks like a hospital. Apparently, there are around 400 units in the building which makes it even more massive and less private than a dorm. It's just too big to not be ugly and I wouldn't want 399 neighbors. The block south of Waverly is entirely NYU. The Tisch School which is one of the most famous arts schools in the country takes up the north part of the block. And, the philosophy school rears up the rest. The nice thing about the philosophy building is that it is actually the original building from 1890. NYU usually buys old and beautiful buildings and demolishes them to put up atrocious ones. So, good for them on this one count. Nearly the entirety of Mercer has been demolished and replaced by NYU so there's not a lot of noteworthy things on the remainder of the street as it extends through the village.
Case and point: an NYU dorm built on the corner of Mercer and 3rd. The dorm replaced The Winter Garden Theatre where the Booth brothers performed -- Edwin became a famous actor and John Wilkes became famous for killing the President. The Winter Garden Theatre replaced the Metropolitan Hall, a famous performance hall where James Fenimore Cooper's funeral was conducted. The site was always for the arts and now it will forever be for punk kids studying nothing for no reason. Directly across the street from the dorm is where Billy the Kid was born. The building still stands which is shocking for this street.