Checking in on ABC No Rio's new home; old home still standing

It has been some time since we saw any updates about ABC Rio's new $3.4 million home on Rivington Street...

In his column this week at The Villager, Scoopy hears from ABC No Rio director Steve Englander, who says that he's still booking events through March ... "so the building will be up at least till then." (He says there is a lot of misinformation about the new building — with some people thinking that the current structure has already been demolished...)

Englander told Scoopy that ABC No Rio recently received $275,000 from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation for the project ... because of this, a federal environmental review is required, which is delaying the start of the new building.

Anyway, as you may know, architect Paul Castrucci designed the new building... he lives down the street and has shown his own work in the space... (He is also a co-founder of the Bullet Space gallery and squat and is the architect for several of the formerly squatted buildings on the Lower East Side...)

You can read more about the plans at ArchPaper.

ABC No Rio first unveiled the plans for the new building back in March 2008.

For further reading:
Looking at "ABC No Rio Dinero: The Story of a Lower East Side Art Gallery"

[Images Castrucci Architect via ArchPaper]