The owners of an I.M. Pei-designed office tower in Lower Manhattan say that a proposed newsstand in front of the building would defile the famed architect's work of beauty.

Orient Overseas Associates, the company that owns the 33-story Wall Street Plaza building at 88 Pine St., has vehemently opposed Brooklyn resident Muhammad Ahsan’s application for a newsstand on the curb along Water Street, between Maiden Lane and Pine Street. The proposed newsstand, per Ahsan’s application, would sit directly across a wide stretch of sidewalk from Wall Street Plaza’s main entrance.

“It’s like someone squatting right in front of you,” said John Liu, president of Orient Overseas Associates. The company has owned the tower, designed in 1968 by Pei, since its opening in 1973. Today, it houses Pei’s design firm—Pei Cobb Freed and Partners—as well as several law offices and investment firms.

“There are run-of-the-mill buildings, and there are iconic buildings, and this is an iconic building,” Liu said in an interview with the Trib. “It should be afforded a certain amount of dignity, which the construction of a newsstand would certainly damage. It just isn’t right.”

Wednesday night, a Community Board 1 committee voted its advisory approval of Ahsan’s application, but urged the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs to consider moving the newsstand away from the main entrance, to a spot in front of the sculpture garden on the building’s south side.

“There’s a bit of balancing that should be done here,” said committee member Michael Ketring. “It’s not all about congestion on the sidewalks. This is an iconic building, and we should think about where these newsstands might be placed.”

During the committee’s meeting, Ahsan said he picked the Water Street location primarily because of the expansive, 40-foot-wide sidewalk outside the tower, and its proximity to Wall Street and the Pier 11 ferry terminal.

“It’s a really huge sidewalk,” Ahsan said. “You have the ferry right there, the buses are there. I think it would be very convenient for people who are working down there.”

But Liu, hoping to convince the committee members to vote against Ahsan’s application, said his company had “gone to great expense” to maintain the granite sidewalk, sculpture garden and public plaza outside the tower, and that he didn’t think there was any appropriate location in front of the building for a newsstand. Liu also cited a handful of movies and television shows—including a forthcoming Matt Damon project—that have used the building’s exterior for a backdrop, something he said would likely never happen again if the newsstand was installed.

“We’re not arguing that it has a legal right to be built, but you have to look at the overall picture,” Liu said.

Architect Ian Bader, a partner at Pei Cobb Freed, said at the meeting that the plaza surrounding the building’s western façade was “a very important part” of its overall design, and that a newsstand had no place on the same block “with such an iconic building.”

“We believe the placement of a newsstand anywhere in front of the building would greatly diminish the architectural quality of the space,” Bader said.

Liu said following the committee meeting that he was considering involving the Orient Overseas Associates’ lawyers in the matter. Beyond the full Community Board’s advisory vote later this month, he and his company have the option of submitting their objections to the city’s Public Design Commission, which will evaluate Ahsan’s application for its aesthetic “relationship to its surroundings,” according to a spokeswoman for the Department of Consumer Affairs. Those reviews are typically open to the public.

“Just because we have a nice, wide sidewalk...to me it’s illogical,” Liu said. “It should not be on the block at all. It would be a shame.”