[Photo by Vinny & O]
The weekly Astor Place Construction bulletin (PDF) issued last Friday revealed that the Alamo would return on Wednesday to Astor Place...(Workers packed up and carted off the Alamo for safekeeping for the duration of the reconstruction back on Nov. 25, 2014.)
Perhaps city agencies all didn't confer on this. Despite this news bulletin inclusion, the Parks Department came out on Monday with an announcement that the cube wouldn't return until August, as amNY first reported:
Although there were fliers posted in the Village that gave a June 22 date for the art piece’s re-installation, the agency said it is being inspected by a conservator for final preparation.
“NYC Parks has historically contributed its expertise to the upkeep of the Cube,” Parks spokeswoman Maeri Ferguson said in a statement.
So, until August, please enjoy the ghost cube sticker... it doesn't spin, though...
Also, as we first reported on Tuesday, the first of Jim Power's mosaic lamp posts was put back in place, nearly two months ahead of what was expected.
[Photo via an EVG reader]
By the end of the day, workers wrapped up the light pole... which makes sense given that this is still an active work zone... (still curious about the timing on this pole's return...)
Also! The Astor Place Subway Plaza for the uptown 6 is coming together... workers have planted trees here...to replace the ones that got chopped down in October 2013...
Still no official word when all the reconstruction work will finally be complete on Astor Place and Cooper Square.
Previously on EV Grieve:
The Alamo returns to Astor Place this Halloween
Five years later, Astor Place apparently ready for its 2-year reconstruction project
This is what it might be like living inside the Alamo on Astor Place
RIP Tony Rosenthal, the sculptor who created the Astor Place cube
19 comments:
um, that wrapped light pole is a bit obscene, no?
It's cold 6:35am.
This construction is a complete disaster. Finish up already.
I like the Alamo cube thingy, but there are other things in life. I can't think of them now, but there are other things.
Almost three years so far to repave a plaza and change the traffic direction? Still no trees or public sculpture.
I shudder to think how much the contractors have extorted the city for over this time - stretching 2-3 months of work to 10 times that. I'm happy that I finally moved out of the city and won't be paying for this bullshit corruption and theft any more.
Ya know, that empty plaza, that wide open space, it looks kind of good! At least in the first photo you posted?
Talk about a whole lotta nothing.
Astor Place looks like a plaza in a city with a population under 200,000.
Why is the cement field made of very dark cement? It's hard to differentiate it from the street, particularly in the spots where the plaza and streets are level with each other.
It's just pavement. It's for the Frat bros and NYUers. Open space for vomiting, skateboarding, biking. Why put in trees to spoil the fun?
Just another legacy of Bloomberg.
This entire project is nothing but a transfer of taxpayer dollars into the pockets of construction companies (read: Campaign Contributors). F*cking disgusting!
There were lovely birch trees on that triangle by the uptown 6 station. How ironic. Tear down trees. Plant new trees.
I think the whole project was a waste of money better spent on improving the crumbling infrastructure, increase police presence, facilities for the homeless, etc. . You're correct. A Bloomberg legacy just like the bike lanes and the ridiculous parking markings.
It could be good. Open squares have a long tradition. Time will tell if it works well.
That area will be even bigger pits when the buildings flanking the beginning of St.Mark's Place are replaced by more glass ugliness.
RIP Continental and Ray's Pizza Bagel Cafe (not that they've been any good for the past decade plus but they were EV fixtures.)
I would expect this project to be finished in another 5 years or so, give or take a decade.
- East Villager
"Why is the cement field made of very dark cement? It's hard to differentiate it from the street, particularly in the spots where the plaza and streets are level with each other."
Maybe to help hide the disgusting gum stains which will accumulate from the slobs who thrown and spit their gum out on the street.
- East Villager
Why so little green? Where are the trees?
Bring me...a shrubbery!
- East Villager
Have any of you bitchers and moaners actually ever walked around there lately? I walk through it twice a day every workday. It's actually pretty impressive work.
There's already a row of new trees all along the 'new' Cooper Square, extending down to 4th street. And there's pits indicating more are more coming. There are four plots in Astor plaza that look like they will hold greenery. There's new trees coming in front of the IBM building to replace the dead ones. And there already 5-6 new trees in the new (and much better) subway plaza. And there's more coming there too.
THe project involves deep removal and and then resurfacing of all the roads (and some sidewalks) around Cooper Square (down to 4th street), Astor place, ad Subway plaza and (for some reason) 4th St between Lafayette and Bowery, with all the pipe/sewer work that comes along with it. A lot of that has now reached the stage where the concrete underlayment has been poured, and its ready to be surfaced. There's still some more to do, up 4th ave and 3rd Ave, and in intersections. Then I expect they will begin asphalt surfacing of the whole thing, in stages. And there will be more planting/landscaping. So I'm gonna guess: done within a year, possibly even before the coming winter.
to @5:14PM - I walk through there at least twice a day also. I think it's bad. This took three years of constant inconvenience? Why? And immediately before this was two years of adjoining DeathStar construction, so this is currently totaling 5 long years of frustrating detours and noise. Also something about that new plaza design makes its pedestrians constantly cut off and bump into each other. I don't know why this is but maybe it's that tourists and new luxury condo people think NYC residents walk sidewalks in an aggressive free-for-all when in reality all of us residents know the rule: everyone stays to their goddamned right.
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