The nine-story structure, to be built on the site of a house once lived in by Edgar Allan Poe, is scheduled for delivery in 2004. It will be used for classrooms, offices, faculty residences and the NYU Law School Clinics and Global Law Center. When completed, it will be the first academic building to open at the school since 1954.

Located at 85 W. 3rd St., the 170,000-sf building caused a major ruckus when it was proposed two years ago. Preservationists say Poe lived in the red-brick row house from 1845 to 1846 and that during that time he worked on what many regard as his greatest works, "The Raven" and "The Cask of Amontillado." The law school disputes the claim.

A coalition of Greenwich Village groups led by the Historic Districts Council took the school to court, eventually settling for a smaller structure than the originally planned 13-story building, with elements of the Poe house incorporated into the design. The school hired preservationist consultants Higgins & Quasebarth to create a design that retains the façade of the Poe house and incorporates various artifacts from it in an interior commemorative space honoring Poe.