Workers are on the scene chopping them down right now...
...to make way for the ugly new office building here.
Previously.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Workers chopping down the trees at 51 Astor Place
You know all those nice trees out front of 51 Astor Place?
Workers are on the scene chopping them down right now...
...to make way for the ugly new office building here.
Previously.
Workers are on the scene chopping them down right now...
...to make way for the ugly new office building here.
Previously.
27 comments:
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I feel sorry for any guy who has to remove all the rat-filled shrubbery at that location. The situation improved when they put in all the gravel, but an early morning stroll always felt like a walk past the rats of NIMH.
ReplyDeleteGood riddance! Those trees used to whisper nasty things to me as I passed them [wink, twitch, wink].
ReplyDeletewhy don't we all sell out
ReplyDeleteto our landlords
to developers
all of us get out while there is time and the prices are high
there is so little left to destroy and we can't stop any of it
316-318 is such a beauty
the trees take so long to grow tall
all that will be left will be bars and artisanal food
then all those "hipsters" can move in and party all the time
What a shame. All I can say is I hope the new occupants fry in the sun. Or are they removing the sun too?
ReplyDeletef*cking outrageous. wrong in every way, the whole thing. THIS IS THE VILLAGE NOT MIDTOWN!!!!
ReplyDeleteUgh! What a sad sight.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, glamma.
ReplyDeletei don't understand why some architects, think their buildings are *that* beautiful to require their buildings to stand alone without trees.
ReplyDeletehackitechs should learn a thing or two about urban planning and design, what makes our cities and communities livable. trees help make neighborhoods livable and inviting. the only architects who should be allowed to have tree-less designs are those with projects containing amazing architecture and design, like this one. http://www.flickr.com/photos/28402310@N06/5858024940/
all other hackitects (especially ones with ugly glass boxes) should just be stoned, or requird to hide their monstrocities behind a forest of trees.
UGH UGH UGH
ReplyDeletebtw, does anybody remember the name of the sandwich company that opened that cafe at cooper union (company was brought out by starbucks a long time ago). but that cooper union cafe (on the corner of third ave) was one of their original stores.
ReplyDeleteWaaah.
ReplyDeleteYes it's terrible about the trees, but this whole thing is a terrible idea.
ReplyDeleteThe WSJ says this is the first new spec office building since the financial meltown of 2008. It's being built without ANY pre-leasing. Most of the city's office space is midtown or in the Financial district, but the developer thinks because his building skirts the EV he can compete with West Chelsea for youth-oriented high tech firms and ad agencies and investment banks. I'm no real estate imagineer, but that would have sounded like a really bad bet 6 months ago. Since the stock market started sending signals to everyone with half a brain that our economy is going nowhere fast, it sounds even worse.
it would be more significant if a for-profit developer "built without ANY pre-leasing" (WSJ)
ReplyDeletecoper union can afford it
cooper union pays no tax nor rent on this city-owned land
i'm sure they save on sales tax, water costs, etc.
then there are those building fund contributions
Where are the Ents when you need 'em?
ReplyDelete@Bowery Boogie - I think they're having a general assembly in TSP...
ReplyDeleteMakes me ill -- the architects could not have designed their new structure with the existing trees in mind? Yeah, it would have been cumbersome, no doubt, to build/construct around them but it would have been worth the effort.
ReplyDeleteDo they even envision scrawny saplings along the street after the new structure is finished? Someone will appreciate them 20 years from now.
Meh.
blue glass, it looks like Cooper Union gave the developer a 99-year lease and that lease also entitles CU a percentage of the building’s future income.
ReplyDeleteThe idea is that this new building will provide CU with a mixed-use commercial and academic property, with income from the commercial space used to secure CU's financial future. The amount of pre-leasing would seem pretty indicative of demand for commercial space in this building at this location, at this time.
did anybody notice that the tree removal company is called "green leaf tree removal"?
ReplyDeleteken - thanks for the info
i guess cooper union gave developed a 99 year lease because that's what they had.
it's all profit for them.
so much for a free school for neighborhood working folks' children
I'm a neighborhood working folk- and I went to Cooper- and so did one of my sons. He got a great bio-engineering education and is now a research microbiologist.
ReplyDeleteFYI- you'd be surprised how many neighborhood kids and sons and daughters of immigrants get into Cooper every year and go on to socially responsible careers.
I'm gonna miss that cafe under the trees. Pasqua Coffee, Starbucks, Film School. I don't care. There aren't that many places to enjoy the morning paper and a coffee while watching the neighborhood crowds make their way to the 6 train.
ReplyDeleteWhere's Tyler Durden when you need him?
ReplyDeleteNow we're waxing poetic over fugly buildings like this one? Jesus christ.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the replacement will also look awful (what new building in this city doesn't), but a landmark this ain't. And if the new building's footprint covers the trees, it's kind of hard to leave them standing.
As much as you hate Bloombuck$, I think he's planted a lot more trees than he's taken down. If I'm wrong please correct me.
For the few of you who liked sitting in that particular spot, I'm sorry. For the rest of you, it's 3 trees and an ugly building. You're complaining because it's the only thing you know how to do when facing change. Usually you're right. In this case, who cares. Save your energy for a battle that matters.
Lyn Pentecost and Anon @ 1:17 AM -you've made some of the only reasonable comments.
ReplyDeleteIncome generating properties are what make CU's free tuition possible.
The new buiding renderings do indeed show trees. Just look at earlier postings on this website.
Go to http://www.milliontreesnyc.org/html/home/home.shtml
for info about street trees (Bloomberg ponied up $10,000,000 of his own money). Close to half a million trees have been planted already.
@ Lyn
ReplyDeletethat's nice that you went there but we don't like what CU has done and is doing
@anon 10:39 "Income generating properties are what make CU's free tuition possible' at the expense of our community
ReplyDeletethe redevelopment of this particular area Astor Place, and the entire Bowery, is one of the biggest failures of our time, the catalyst towards our demise......
@Anon 11:05 - "that's nice that you went there but we don't like what CU has done and is doing"
ReplyDeleteWho is this we you are referring? I may not agree with everything done by Cooper Union but I support their mission and understand the East Village and the world would have been a very different place without them and not for the better.
One of Rocky's boyhood friends from a working class fanily in Queens also went to Cooper and is now making rockets for the military so not everyone who goes to Cooper ends of doing good things for humanity, but I digress. Cooper, NYU, SVA - you name it only care about themselves and their mission and will dance and deal with the devil if it benefits them. Cooper made a very deliberate decision about this property and did it at the expense of the community it is supposedly part of. They will take the trees, they will take Jim Power's beautful mosaics down, they will take whatever is in their best interest and the rest of the neighborhood be damned. They are no better than the rats I live next to in TSP.
ReplyDelete