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Voice leaves the Village, moving close to Wall St.

By LINCOLN ANDERSON  |  The Village Voice has left the building — and left the Village entirely, for that matter. Its new home is on the 21st floor at 80 Maiden Lane, a few blocks away from what some say is a fitting symbol for the Voice’s new corporate ownership, Wall St.

The Bedford + Bowery blog reported Sept. 13 that the Voice had vacated 36 Cooper Square, where the well-known weekly had been based since 1991.

Rumors that the Voice would be leaving the Village began swirling about a year ago.

Founded in 1955, the Voice was the original alternative urban weekly paper. It was launched in a two-bedroom apartment in Greenwich Village, which was the area it covered most heavily at first. In the 1960s the paper expanded to cover the city. The Voice’s offices in the ’60s were in Sheridan Square.

This past spring, the Voice laid off some of its most well-known writers and columnists, including gossip columnist Michael Musto.

As quoted in Bedford + Bowery, the alt weekly’s new editor in chief, Tom Finkel, said the new space is better configured.

Asked, though, if it’s really the Village Voice if it’s not in the Village, Finkel replied, “It’s not a neighborhood paper, it’s a New York paper.”

Although 36 Cooper Square is in the Noho Historic District, Andrew Berman, director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, said the Village Voice’s name won’t necessarily have to be preserved on the building’s facade. The Landmarks Preservation Commission has a rule under which exterior signage is not required to be kept. At most, if new signage is added, it might have to be the same style as the Voice signage, he said.

Grace Church School will reportedly move into the vacated space at 36 Cooper Square.