If Village Green is so green, why are the lights left on all night?

Here we are at Village Green, the new condo going up at 311 E. 11th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue. It is said to be the first LEED Gold certified building in the East Village. According to the marketing copy:

It began with a belief that better living is achieved through harmony: of mind and body, of time and place, of luxury and lifestyle. Introducing 311 E 11: Village Green. Developers Michael and Izak Namer created 311 E 11: Village Green with one goal in mind: to define environmentally responsible 21st century luxury living. 311 E 11: Village Green is targeted for LEED-Gold certification and serves as the vanguard for a new wave of eco-indulgent lifestyles. From its energy efficient amenities to the sophisticated wellness center it houses, 311 E 11: Village Green is the template for what all future luxury living will be.

I realize the lights will help keep intruders at bay. And I'm certain these are energy efficient lighting that makes the place a beacon of light from the avenues every night.





Anyway, the building is shaping up. Here's a view from the rear — also known as 12th Street, home, possibly of The Penistrator.








There are 36 units in total. Corcoran has 23 of them listed — with six in contract.

UPDATE: Curbed has more on it.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Village Green ready for sales action

Village Green ready for sales action

Village Green, the new condo going up at 311 E. 11th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue, advertised in the Post's real-estate section yesterday. It aims to be the first LEED Gold certified building in the East Village. Prices at the former parking garage range from $730,000 to $1.9 million.

Meanwhile, here's some of the marketing copy on the 311 Web site that's now live:

Upon entering 311 E. 11: Village Green, you are greeted with a welcoming smile from the 24-hour doorman. From the ice white quartz floors to the embroidered accent walls, the lobby is the perfect fusion of modern elegance and 21st century technology.

The accompanying lounge by interior designer Andi Pepper is a serene go-to spot to meet new friends and greet old ones.

Here's one of the renderings of 311... there's a gym on the street level for the pervs to gawk...



And a word of caution once this place is open.... Watch out for the cars driving by at 125 mph! Hey, Vin Diesel!



For further reading:
New East Village Building Outed as Hippyish "Village Green" (Curbed)

P.S.
I just feel like hearing this now...

Village Green sheds the sidewalk shed

Some day soon, Village Green, the "eco-indulgent" new condo on 11th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue, will look like this...



...where residents enjoy "serenity in the city" while cars roar up the street at 100 mph...



...and we've been eagerly awaiting what this will really look like...



And now, the sidewalk sheds have been removed...







Previously on EV Grieve:
Village Green opening its houses this weekend

Now trending: East Village and Williamsburg in 10 years

There's a discussion going on at StreetEasy titled "East Village and Williamsburg in 10 years?"
The talk kicks off with:

Curious what you guys predict Williamsburg and the East Village to look like in ten years, residential property-wise. It seems like the East Village is sort of rundown these days, with a large number of empty storefronts and little development (other than on the overpriced stuff on the Bowery). On the other hand, some of the new buildings there seem to have sold out quickly like that place on B and 13th and Village Green. Will people buying into this neighborhood now see a good return on their investment ten years down the road or will this place remain humdrum? When and if the EV bounces back, will it be a cultural destination or Park Slope Manhattan?

A few of the responses...

East Village is a pain in the ass to get into and out of.
Williamsburg is and always will be a toilet.

And!

East Village in 10 years will continue to improve as a neighborhood. Better goods and services, less riff-raff.
Williamsburg in 10 years...how can I put this...any day it's gonna improve...any day now. the EDGE, still unsold refuses to lower it's asks.

And!

Despite the East Village's recent troubles, I think it's well-positioned to do well in the long-term. The major difference (IMHO) between it and Williamsburg is the quality of its older housing stock. Yes, there are many tenements and walk-ups, but in many cases those buildings have good bones or have been well maintained. It's the one thing that could continue to push it towards the West Village in terms of desirability and aesthetics. Many have lamented the reduced grit that the area was always known for (and I miss it a bit myself), but that trend probably favors property values in the long run.

And so it goes. It's an interesting discussion (and our friend Glamma is part of the conversation...). I don't know much about Williamsburg real estate. So I'm not up for any comparisions. But I do wonder what the East Village will look like in 10 years. Just think, of course, how much the neighborhood has changed in these last 10 years...

Out and About in the East Village

In this weekly feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village.



By James Maher

Name: Hal Hirshorn
Occupation: Artist
Location: St. Mark's Place and Avenue A
Time: 3:15 on Monday, Aug. 29

I came here after college in my early 20s. Oh you know, everybody comes to New York and there was a lot going on then. It was the tail end of the 1980s art scene. I just missed the East Village art boom. I got here in the summer of 1989 and by then most of the galleries moved to SoHo. I lived in the West Village because at that time there were apartments that were slightly cheaper than the East Village. Otherwise, I would have gone East Village. Everybody had talked about how the East Village had been priced out, but that’s nothing in comparison to today.

I’m a painter and a photographer. My studio is in Brooklyn now. I do oil painting, these strange abstractions that are a cross between landscape and abstract paintings — imaginary landscapes. There’s always been a back and forth between the two from the beginning of landscape paintings that were considered abstract paintings.

It’s been up and down, but I managed to hold things together somehow. The art world is doing well right now, so I’m OK. I have some people who work with me in terms of dealing and stuff like that. But that’s changing too and now everything in Chelsea is coming back to the Bowery and Lower East Side, but not the East Village.

Basically within a five-minute walk [today] most of the East Village that I’ve known over the course of 25, almost 30 years is gone, just gone, not like in bits and pieces, shifting here and there — just one fell swoop. Just to see everything radically redeveloped is what’s so stunning, because it used to happen in bits and pieces as the real estate went up. Now they’re doing blocks instead of buildings.

Bloomberg in his third term gave away much of the city to developers under the table. De Blasio seemed really great. I don’t know whether he’s had his hands too full or maybe he’s not as left as he said he is, but… he’s become very nebulous. But before de Blasio, you had other people like Mark Green running against Giuliani or I forget who ran against Bloomberg, but these guys didn’t stand a chance. They were just crushed.

Giuliani was real estate friendly, lets say, but he wasn’t like a real estate mogul. I think what we’re seeing right now is just a direct result of Bloomberg. He’s treated the city as though it were the Bloomberg Corporation’s property and his to sign off and sell away.

There was a rent stabilization law that was trying to cut back on rent stabilization and rent control, and they came up with a figure where anything above $2,500 was considered luxury housing. In those days, if you were able to afford an apartment that was that much money, you were pretty well off. Now that’s like kids out of college or crazy situations where you have four people living in apartments.

It’s almost reverting back to the tenement-like density and that’s just a result of the rent, unless you’re well off enough to be able to have over $25,000 a year to spend a year on rent. But the whole thing of the $2,500 figure is that is where the regulation was cut off, so now real estate, a lot of which was protected has effectively become market rate, and then the only thing that can change that is some big downturn or catastrophic event.

James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.

About those detailed East Village drawings at the new Trader Joe's on 14th Street

If you've been to the new East Village Trader Joe's that opened early last week, then you've likely noticed the nearly 200 drawings that adorn the store's interior at 436 E. 14th St. near Avenue A.

East Village-based illustrator Peter Arkle created the drawings, which are an appreciation of street scenes and architectural details that he has spotted throughout the neighborhood... from more celebrated sites such as the Cube on Astor Place to the lesser-known features like the water fountain/wash bowl with the bronze figures (circa 1890s) outside the Immaculate Conception Church on 14th Street.









Arkle, who has lived here since 2002, met EVG contributor Stacie Joy last week to look at the work in the store — as well as a few of their real-life locations. (You can do it too if the mood strikes — there's a map in the store with corresponding locations of all the drawings.)



Arkle also answered a few questions about the project ...

How did the invitation to do the artwork at this location come about?

Jon Basalone, the president of Trader Joe’s, approached me at the end of 2018, saying that a new East Village store was opening and asked me if I would like to draw something for it. He knew my work from reading [my Tumblr] Peter Arkle News, which he subscribed to back in 2003.

Did you have carte blanche on the theme for the illustrations? Did Trader Joe's want something East Village related?

Jon was already very familiar with that side of my illustration work. He said I could do anything I liked as long as it had some kind of East Village theme.

Peter Arkle News contains drawings and descriptions of everyday life — things I come across on the street, the subway, in the Post Office or wherever.

How did you decide on what scenes from the East Village to depict?

I decided to walk along every street in the East Village. I started by drawing a map and as I explored each street I would mark it with a red line. It took me about two months to visit every street — walking slowly, looking carefully and trying not to freeze to death as this was during December 2018 and January 2019.

I took photos and made notes. Very quickly I realized that it would be better if I drew things that were more permanent so I focused on sculptures and other architectural details, weird pipes, parts of electrical sub stations that look like robots, etc. This way, people would be able to go out and find them.

I am very happy to have been able to draw lots of those sculpted heads — gargoyles, kings, gods, goddesses, angels and cherubs — that appear on so many East Village buildings. Many of these are crumbling away or being painted over so many times that they are turning into blobs. They need to be celebrated. Many of them are very high up on buildings and hard to see without a zoom lens — it amazes me that so much detail was added by architects in places where it could hardly be seen. Did people have better eyesight back then?





Then what?

When I’d visited the whole East Village I then sat down to select which things to draw. This was not a very mysterious process — I basically chose, in most cases, the things that I would enjoy drawing the most.

By late spring, I had completed a set of 185 small ink drawings. I then scanned these and enlarged them so they could be turned into vinyl transfers to be stuck on the store walls.




[In Village View]

Are these permanent? Or is this a temporary exhibit in the store?

They are permanent — unless Trader Joe gets bored of them. I actually had a dream the night before the store opened that I went to visit and they had painted over all of my drawings with thick green paint because someone had complained.

Hope that doesn’t happen.

What neighbor of Katz's has a new $250,000 roofdeck with private hot tub?

This press release came over the transom yesterday...

New York City-based Town and Gardens, Ltd. and green wall manufacturer greenscreen® collaborated to transform two city rooftops into inviting spaces with great views and green benefits. The uniquely designed East Village Penthouse Terrace and Museum Towers Terrace, located in Manhattan, feature greenscreen® green walls to provide privacy in the form of aesthetically appealing vertical gardens. Town and Gardens contributed to both the design and build of each project.

The East Village Penthouse Terrace, located across from the well-known NYC eatery Katz’s Delicatessen, consists of roughly 3,000 square feet. The $250,000 project, which began in 2008, was designed to feature a play area for kids, space for entertaining and a large hot tub. The rooftop is part of a private residence that had recently been completely renovated on the interior.

Lead designer Eric Greenblott of Town and Gardens worked with the facility owner to develop the owner’s vision for the building’s terrace. The goal was to create a clean look with various levels. Town and Gardens helped to design and install a sunken play area covered in rubber mats as well as a private space for the rooftop hot tub. Because of the hot tub’s location, privacy was a main concern.

“The client wanted something different than traditional parapet walls to surround the terrace,” Greenblott explains. “Town and Gardens was familiar with greenscreen® and suggested using greenscreen® green walls and clips to attach the wire trellising structures to the parapet walls.”

The vertical gardens created by greenscreen® feature a mixture of vines and grasses that, according to Greenblott, only require maintenance twice a month. The green walls increase privacy and camouflage graffiti on the surrounding buildings. Additionally, the installation creates a lush backdrop for the enclosed hot tub while the natural city skyline and Empire State Building serve as the background for the rest of the East Village Penthouse Terrace.

What, exactly, is the East Village Penthouse Terrace? And where is it? Plenty of clues in the press release... and I did a search on Google, but the aerial view is old...



(And why is the listing for Max Fish in the middle of Houston?)

A visit to Obscura Antiques and Oddities, closing soon on Avenue A

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

Mike Zohn, co-owner of Obscura Antiques and Oddities, 207 Avenue A near 13th Street, is circling the neighborhood looking for parking when we meet up to talk, take pictures, and reminisce about East Village people and places over the years.

I’d bought my first piece of adult furniture more than 20 years ago at the first of the store’s three locations and Mike was the guy who sold it to me. I still have the vintage green school desk, a photo of which I show him on my phone once I sweet talk the FedEx guy into moving his truck so Mike can park out front of the shop.

I have a similar conversation the following day when I drop by again to talk to co-owner Evan Michelson, chatting about places I’d seen her and her band perform and way the neighborhood has changed over the years.

Both Zohn and Michelson have moved out of the neighborhood, Zohn to Easton, Pa., and Michelson to Plainfield, N.J., and both commute in to work at the store.


[Evan Michelson]


[Mike Zohn]

As first reported by EV Grieve, the shop is closing up after almost a quarter of a century in business, so this was an especially poignant A Visit to… feature for me. We talked about the history of the shop, what’s changed for them and what their future plans may be.

What is the history of Obscura Antiques and Oddities?

Mike Zohn: We grew out of Wandering Dragon Trading Company, which was the shop Adrian Gilboe started many years ago on 10th Street. I would buy then sell items to him and hang out there at all hours. After he moved his shop to Brooklyn, Obscura was born.

Evan Michelson: In 1991, a few years after I first moved to the East Village, I happened upon a tiny shop on East 10th Street called Wandering Dragon Trading Company. It was run by a gentleman named Adrian Gilboe, and it was aesthetically perfect. There was an old Chinese lantern framed by faded drapes in the window; inside there were assorted wax mannequins, ethnographic objects, antique clothes, and pieces of taxidermy. It was an enchanting, somewhat shabby, lived-in cabinet of curiosities; stepping over the threshold was like stepping back in time. It was magical.

Adrian had an incredible eye. When I first met him, I told him that I was in love with the shop. I told him, “This looks like the inside of my own head.” We became friends and worked together on occasion. Eventually Adrian opened a store in Brooklyn, and Mike and I started Obscura in the old Wandering Dragon space.







What drew you to the East Village? Why was it important to you to stay in the neighborhood as you moved locations?

Michaelson: My husband and I first moved to the East Village in 1989; we were musicians and performance artists, and the Village at that time was a fantastically edgy, affordable neighborhood where creative people could live, rehearse, perform and spend time with like-minded folks who came from all over the world to make amazing things happen. From Wigstock to the Pyramid Club to the Collective Unconscious, the East Village was a cultural engine, and we were very lucky to be a part of that.

I’ve always seen Obscura as an extension of that creative, anarchic energy; the East Village has always been the only home this shop could possibly have.

Zohn: Back when we first started out the East Village was affordable. It was cool and fun and exciting. It was a place where you could open a neat little business and do ok. With very affordable rent, it was ok if sales were slow. You could still pay the rent and your bills and enjoy what you were doing. The East Village had so many unique places and things to do back then. It was a great place to be.

How has the retail landscape in the neighborhood changed since you first opened?

Zohn: The whole city has changed as has business and retail. Look at all the empty shops, all the long-standing business that are closing or have moved away. Look at what we do have shop-wise. There is clearly an issue.

Michelson: The East Village has changed tremendously in the last 20-plus years. The rents are very high, the regulations are rigorous, many long-time residents have been priced out and most of the businesses I’ve come to know and love over the years have had to close up or move. It’s a process of gentrification that is seen in so many cities; the East Village was once so vital, and so wild, and it has become relatively tame.









Your shop was a neighborhood fixture for almost a quarter of a century. What factors led you to the decision to close the store?

Michelson: Brick and mortar is hurting everywhere; lots of folks shop online these days. Also, when the shop started, we were one of the few places where you could find most of these strange and mysterious objects. Thanks in part to the TV show “Oddities” that culture has now become fairly mainstream.

We’ve also been around — in one form or another — for more than two decades. We’ve had a long, successful run and now just seems like the right time to move on.

Zohn: The business has changed and the neighborhood as well. The overhead is just too much. Between rent, taxes, insurance, payroll, garbage carting, etc., it’s a lot of money to keep a small business running. Now with the 12th and 13th Street bike lanes eliminating parking spots in the neighborhood, it’s that much more difficult. I need a vehicle for my business.

How has it been since the news got out? What can customers expect when they visit the shop before the end of the year?

Zohn: Lots of people have come out of the woodwork to say how sad they are about it. The shop will be the same until we close. We are bringing in new stuff as always. It won’t get depressing until we clear the place out in January.

Michelson: Folks have been stopping by the shop to say goodbye and share their favorite memories and experiences. It’s been really lovely. We hope to maintain our usual hours through the end of the year but things are a bit unsettled, so I’d call to make sure we’re open before heading over or making a special trip.



What’s next for you?

Michelson: There are so many things I’d like to do! My life has been focused on Obscura for so long that I’m going to have to decompress for a while before I figure out exactly what comes next. I love writing and I’ve had a few essays published; I have a rather esoteric book almost ready to go and some ideas for other written and spoken projects that really excite me.

Ultimately, however, I’m an antiques dealer, and I’ll probably get back to that in a few years. There are other aesthetics I’d like to explore, other forms of time travel, history and remembrance that I’d like to put out there in the world. If I’m lucky, I’ll have that chance.

Zohn: I’m planning on doing more online plus my Oddities Market events — Philly, Atlanta, Nashville, and more cities to be announced soon. We have discussed a pop up now and then but no final decision has been made on that.



---

Obscura will be closing at the end of this year, but may have odd hours in January as Mike and Evan shutter the store. They both recommend calling to make sure the place is open before making a special trip out: 212-505-9251.

First resale at Village Green?

At the Village Green on 11th Street, everyone's favorite eco-indulgent condo, a one-bedroom apartment is back on the market — listed at $1.05 million....

Here's the Corcoran listing:

Great south facing one-bed one-bath with an office. This 880 square foot apartment provides room for generous room proportions, office, and a washer/dryer. Floor-to-ceiling windows add to the feeling of spaciousness. There are solid FSC certified 4-inch wide white oak floors throughout. There is also a shallow balcony off the living room for those who enjoy growing their own herbs or just some beautiful flowers in the gorgeous southern light!The master bath features Persian green marble countertops, glass tiled walls, Zuma tub/shower and advanced water conservation Toto toilet and fixtures.

According to StreetEasy, this unit was sold last December for $1,041,280. It was recently relisted for $1,170 million... and, last week, the priced was shaved 10 percent to 1,050 million. See if for yourself during open houses on Sunday and Wednesday. As far as I can tell, only one other unit — the $1.9 million penthouse — remains on the market ... with 34 of the 36 homes taken...

Opinion: COVID-19 + Storm Surge = Catastrophe for the Lower East Side and East Village

[Photo by East Village resident Amy Berkov]

Op-Ed by Pat Arnow

An especially dangerous hurricane season starts this June. “With top hurricane forecasters predicting 16 named storms and warning of potentially up to four major Category 3, 4, or 5 storms this year, a hurricane hit in the midst of a pandemic is likely,” writes Craig Hooper in Forbes.

A storm flooding the Lower East Side and East Village would be even worse than Superstorm Sandy that devastated our neighborhood in 2012. Besides facing damage to our homes, we could be forced into shelters, exposed to the potential spread of coronavirus. “There is no plan in place to support virus-safe social distancing for hurricane evacuees,” says Hooper.

Seeking protection now

Months ago, the Mayor and City Council promised to study interim protection for our Lower East Side and East Village neighborhood. We have nothing. Our lives are at stake. We need flood barriers now.

This is not a new demand by neighborhood residents. It has been one of the reasons for widespread community opposition to the $1.45 billion East Side Coastal Resiliency (ESCR) plan. The project will take at least three years (and likely much longer) to build flood protection.

This badly conceived flood control project would be a disaster for our neighborhood under normal circumstances. During this pandemic, the flaws in the plan are even more stark.

Demolishing a park during a pandemic

Sixty percent of the 1.2-mile park will be closed and bulldozed this fall. That’s a problem. It’s the only place in the neighborhood to go for fresh air and exercise with room enough for social distancing. We should keep 100 percent of the park open for the duration of the pandemic.

That’s especially true now that so many of the NYCHA campuses in our area have been torn up and surrounded by chain-link fences. Hundreds of large trees have already been felled. Twelve playgrounds have been closed. This is construction for a flood control project.

However, protection is for the buildings and utilities only. Residents will still have to evacuate during a storm surge. How can those who are displaced be protected from COVID-19?

Demolishing more than half of the park will cause even more damage during this pandemic. “The majority of conditions that increase risk of death from COVID-19 are also affected by long-term exposure to air pollution,” reports The New York Times. The park eases the effects of our city’s pollution. If dust-raising construction begins during the pandemic, we can anticipate additional fatalities, because “even a small increase in exposure to fine particulate matter leads to a significant increase in the Covid-19 death rate.”

This is a neighborhood that already suffers higher rates of asthma and other upper respiratory diseases, due to emissions from traffic on the adjacent FDR Drive.

The pandemic just adds to the arguments the community has been making all along about the mental and physical health effects on our community from the ESCR, and why it is important to redirect the plan.

“I was so pleased to see how the entire path from 34th Street all the way south was so frequented the last few days in particular. Bikers, runners, walkers, dogs, baby strollers — just how it should be. I couldn’t help thinking if the pandemic came one year later [when the park is torn up], we would have no refuge,” says Lauren Pohl, a local resident.

“Perhaps the city can reallocate the funds from destroying our green space to trying to provide food to so many in need and help with rent and the like,” Pohl suggests.

The densely populated neighborhood along the park could use it. This is the unwealthy side of the Lower East Side and East Village. Residents are suffering now from the economic impact of New York’s shutdown — and from high rates of infection from Covid-19.

Seeking a green recovery

Now New York City is facing a potential shortfall of $9.7 billion in tax revenue in 2020 and 2021. The economy is free falling into a depression era-disaster. Does it make sense for the government to invest $1.45 billion in a flood control project that does not provide flood protection for years and that will destroy a park that is vital to the health of the community?

Legislators must revisit the poorly conceived ESCR project and come up with a better plan that provides immediate flood protection, saves the open green space of East River Park and does not endanger the health of our community and that includes community input and oversight. We need a truly green recovery.

-----

Pat Arnow is the founder of the grassroots community group, East River Park ACTION, which advocates for flood protection with minimal destruction of the park.

The opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily represent the the editorial position of this website.