The beat goes on with new plaque honoring Ginsberg and Burroughs on 7th Street

Photos by Stacie Joy 

Last evening, Village Preservation unveiled a plaque outside the former residence of Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs at 206 E. Seventh St. between Avenue B and Avenue C, where the two lived in a third-floor apartment in the early 1950s. 

According to NYU's Grey Art Gallery, "Ginsberg took some of his best-known photographs of the Beats in this apartment, on the building's roof, and on the fire escape."

Speakers included downtown poet Bob Holman, Ginsberg memoirist and playwright Bob Rosenthal, and filmmaker and culture critic Regina Weinreich.

Here's Village Preservation Executive Director Andrew Berman... 

... and the new plaque... 

Beat happening: A plaque unveiling at the former residence of Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs

Tomorrow evening, Village Preservation is unveiling a plaque outside the former residence of Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs on Seventh Street. 

The event takes place outside 204-206 E. Seventh St. between Avenue B and Avenue C, where the two lived in a third-floor apartment in the early 1950s. According to NYU's Grey Art Gallery, "Ginsberg took some of his best-known photographs of the Beats in this apartment, on the building's roof, and on the fire escape."

Per the Village Preservation invite: 

We will install a plaque to commemorate the Beat Generation at a building where Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs lived early in their careers. The two and occasional visitor Jack Kerouac formed the nucleus of this influential post-war countercultural movement. We will hear excerpts from their work and a discussion of the importance of the Beat Generation and of these authors' early work. 

The festivities begin at 5:30. Village Preservation asks attendees to register here in advance. 

Ginsberg lived in multiple apartments in the neighborhood from the 1950s to his death in 1997, including 170 E. Second St., 704 E. Fifth St., 408 E. 10th St., 437 E. 12th St. and 404 E. 14th St.

Residents continue to speak out about living conditions in Jared Kushner's 170-174 E. 2nd St.

[EVG file photo]

Fourth Arts Block (FABnyc) and the Cooper Square Committee issued the following news release yesterday regarding the ongoing drama at the Jared Kushner-owned 170-174 E. Second St.

What follows is an edited excerpt:

Countering the common narrative that artists drive gentrification, many East Village artists are actually long-time residents, fighting to remain in affordable housing with their neighbors, reported Cooper Square Committee, a 50-year old tenant advocacy organization.

Like many buildings in the East Village, 170-174 East 2nd Street has long been home to writers, painters, sculptors, and musicians, including beat poet Allen Ginsberg. However, since December 2013, when Jared Kushner purchased the buildings, 70 percent of the 170-174 East 2nd Street's 45 units have been vacated. Of the 9 remaining tenants, half are working artists with deep roots in the neighborhood, including Tony Feher, Richard Weinstein and Dianne Bowen.

"Unfortunately this situation is not unique. I frequently work with artists who live here in the Lower East Side who are being pushed out by profit-driven speculators," said community organizer Brandon Kielbasa from Cooper Square Committee. "These aggressive efforts to create luxury housing in communities like the Lower East Side are wiping out the affordable housing, homogenizing the diversity, and picking apart at the cultural assets of the neighborhood,"

"The arts and culture are such an important part of the life and identify of the East Village and Lower East Side," said Tamara Greenfield, executive director of Fourth Arts Block. "Historically, artists joined with other low income residents to advocate for and build affordable housing in this community. As important as it is to create new affordable housing across the City, we have to work equally hard to preserve existing affordable housing from being lost."

In December of 2013, Jared Kushner purchased 170-174 East 2nd Street buildings for $17 million, and quickly followed the purchase with the distribution of eviction notices to tenants of the two buildings. During the past nine months under the ownership of Kushner, tenants of both buildings were subjected to lengthy and severe construction work which has resulted in ceiling collapses, eroded floors, broken tiles, cut off gas service, and unannounced hot and cold water interruptions. Impacts on artists in the building range from fear of displacement, to damage of artwork, and compromised ability to do creative work under the stress and noise of construction.

"The constant barrage of emergencies for 7 months — water shut offs, violent levels of noise from jack hammering, missing steps on the stair, building floods, fire department safety inspections — create extremely challenging and draining conditions for living and working creatively," said musician Cypress Dubin. "Under these extreme circumstances and to marshal my creative resources, I made the choice to focus deeply on community organizing. As the communications director of our tenants association, I spend hundred of hours a month working to channel that same energy, integrity, and creativity that is foundational to my work as a vocalist, producer and yoga educator into protecting our homes, and preserving this part of the city that continues to be a thriving and diverse community of artists."

"The overwhelming, lightning-fast, rapid gentrification and over-development of the Lower East Side and East Village raises a great concern for the cultural heritage of an iconic NYC neighborhood," said painter Richard Weinstein.

"Gentrification in New York City has never been so aggressive and destructive as it has been in the past 8 years," added multimedia artist Dianne Bowen. "The bottom line is profit; value is a monetary term with no regard or connection to human beings or the life of the city created by all that inhabit it."

Ironically, the buildings' creative history is now being included in its marketing:

"Built in 1899, this beaux-arts building dovetails modern comfort with an older East Village - that same collision of grit and grace that inspired the likes of beat poet Alan [sic] Ginsberg, who called this building his home from 1958-1963."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Inside a classic East Village tenement before the whole building is renovated

Jared Kushner not done buying every walk-up in the East Village

Two East 2nd St. buildings sell for $17.5 million; will new owner still honor Allen Ginsburg?

Tenants claim: Kushner and Westminster want to destroy this building's beautiful garden

Reports outline how Kushner Companies is aggressively trying to empty 170-174 E. 2nd St.

Local politicos join residents of 2 Jared Kushner-owned buildings to speak out about poor living conditions, alleged harassment

Report: Local politicos criticize Kushner's treatment of tenants at 170-174 E. 2nd St.

Two East 2nd St. buildings sell for $17.5 million; will new owner still honor Allen Ginsburg?

[Via Massey-Knakal]

Two buildings on East Second Street between Avenue A and Avenue B — No. 170-172 and 174 — have been sold for $17.5 million. (The buildings hit the market in July 2012 for $16.5 million.)

There's no word on the new owners, per BuzzBuzzHome, who reported on the deal yesterday.

Combined, the buildings contain a total of four ground-floor retail spaces and 43 apartments. The original listing noted that No. 174 has nearly 3,600 square feet of air rights available.

As you may know, Allen Ginsberg lived in apartment 16 at No. 170 from August 1958-March 1961 ... one of the many places he lived in the East Village until his death in 1997

In a Habitats feature from August 2000, The New York Times ran a feature on the apartment where Ginsberg wrote "Kaddish" — "a mournful elegy for his mother, Naomi, that is considered one of his best works."

(New York Songlines also noted that Ginsberg edited "Naked Lunch" while living here... as well as "where Ginsberg and Timothy Leary began planning the psychedelic revolution.")

As the Times said of this block, "Not long ago, this was major drug territory, and landlords had to defend their turf assiduously; now it is being infiltrated by students from New York University."

The Times reported that two NYU students were living in the two-bedroom apartment, paying $2,000 a month in rent.

To the article:

When the plaque went up on the East Village building saying that it was where Allen Ginsberg once lived, the two young men who now occupy the poet's old apartment had only this to say:

Who was he?

Perhaps the new owners will see fit to leave this up outside No. 170...

Happy birthday Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac was born on this date in 1922...

In his honor, a photo of Kerouac that Allen Ginsberg shot in the East Village outside Tompkins Square Park...


The caption reads:

Jack Kerouac wandering along East 7th street after visiting Burroughs at our pad, passing statue of Congressman Samuel "Sunset" Cox, "The Letter – Carrier's Friend" in Tompkins Square toward corner of Avenue A, Lower East Side; he's making a Dostoyevsky mad-face or Russian basso be-bop Om, first walking around the neighborhood, then involved with The Subterraneans, pencils & notebook in wool shirt-pockets, Fall 1953, Manhattan.

You can find other photos online that Ginsberg took of Kerouac and Williams Burroughs in the East Village ... like this one from Ginsberg's apartment at 206 E. Seventh St.

Outside 170 E. Second St.

Just a quick follow-up to our post yesterday about 170-174 E. Second St. hitting the market for $16.5 million... Allen Ginsberg lived in 170 for a few years... I realized that I didn't have a photo of the plaque that notes this... figure I'd better get it for the archives... before a new landlord buys the building, strips it of every shred of character while converting one-bedroom homes into three-bedroom rec rooms and quadrupling the rent...

170-174 E. 2nd St. hits market for $16.5 million; Allen Ginsberg among the former tenants

Massey Knakal added the listing today:

The subject properties are two well-managed adjacent mixed-use buildings located on the North side of East 2nd Street, between Avenues A & B. 170-172 East 2nd Street has 3 retail stores and 34 residential units; 27 Free market, 6 Rent Stabilized and 1 Rent Controlled. 174 East 2nd Street has 1 retail store and 9 residential units; 8 Free Market and 1 Rent Stabilized. The buildings share a boiler that burns #2 oil from a 4,000 gallon tank. The electrical systems/wiring were upgraded in 2008 and tenants pay their own electricity.

And No. 174 has nearly 3,600 square feet of air rights available. Total price: $16.5 million.

Anyway, you may have seen the plaque out front of No. 170 showing that Allen Ginsberg lived in apartment 16 from August 1958-March 1961 ... this was one of the many places he lived in the East Village until his death in 1997

In a Habitats feature from August 2000, The New York Times ran a feature on the apartment where Ginsberg wrote "Kaddish" — "a mournful elegy for his mother, Naomi, that is considered one of his best works."

(New York Songlines also noted that Ginsberg edited "Naked Lunch" while living here... as well as "where Ginsberg and Timothy Leary began planning the psychedelic revolution.")

As the Times said of this block, "Not long ago, this was major drug territory, and landlords had to defend their turf assiduously; now it is being infiltrated by students from New York University."

The Times reported that two NYU students were living in the two-bedroom apartment, paying $2,000 a month in rent.

To the article:

When the plaque went up on the East Village building saying that it was where Allen Ginsberg once lived, the two young men who now occupy the poet's old apartment had only this to say:

Who was he?

Allen Around the Park

Scenes from the Howl! Festival via ~Joan...

The Beats will live again at the Holiday Cocktail Lounge (for one day, anyway)

So you know that the Holiday Cocktail Lounge closed on St. Mark's Place back on Jan. 29. Robert Ehrlich, the founder of Pirate Brands, and Barbara Sibley, the owner of La Palapa next door, will open a tavern-restaurant that serves staples such as fish-n-chips.

Allen Ginsberg, among many other literary luminaries, frequented the Holiday back in the day ... so it may not be so strange then that crews will film scenes for "Kill Your Darlings" at the Holiday on Monday.

IMDB simply puts the plot this way: "A murder in 1944 draws together the great poets of the beat generation: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs." The crew has been shooting scenes around the city, including at Columbia, the last several weeks. (The Times has a lot of the backstory about the murder here; that the version of the story for this film can be found in "And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks," the 1945 novel by Kerouac and Burroughs.)

Sibley told us that crew members will arrive today to transform the interior to look like the 1940s, which, given the bar's timeless look, likely won't take too much.

In the drama, Daniel Radcliffe plays a collegiate-age Ginsberg just as he's meeting Kerouac (Jack Huston) and Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan). Elizabeth Olsen is Kerouac's first wife, Edie Parker, and Ben Foster portrays William Burroughs. Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Jason Leigh, David Cross and Kyra Sedgwick round out the cast.

[Lucien and Allen in the movies. Via]

As for the rest of the renovations, Sibley says they are coming along slowly. There's major work ahead, including with the sewer line.

Noted

From Page Six today... under "Sightings"...

DANIEL Radcliffe, preparing to play Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, having his hair permed and dyed darker by Louis Licari at his Fifth Avenue salon.

[EVG flashback] Allen Ginsberg's former 12th Street apartment now on the market

The item yesterday about Larry Fagin, who lives down the hall from Allen Ginsberg's former apartment, prompted me to revisit the following post. This entry first appeared on Aug. 25, 2010, and became one of the most visited EVG posts in our nearly four-year history.

The Allen Ginsberg Project recently had the chance to see Ginsberg's longtime home at 437 E. 12th St. — up on the fourth floor. As Jill reported at Blah Blog Blah back in June, Ginsberg's apartment — where he lived from 1975 to 1996 — is being renovated. (He had three apartments in the building: this one in which he lived; one in which he worked; and one that he sublet to friends and students. As NYC Songlines notes, he lived here longer than any other home in New York.)

Jill's friend, whose apartment looked into Ginsberg's kitchen, shared some memories in June about her neighbor here between First Avenue and Avenue A. "We didn't bother with each other much, but he'd take photos of my shirtless carpenter boyfriend when he'd use the fire escape for an impromptu workshop. You never knew who'd be gathered around his kitchen table: a PBS film crew, a minion of men with black garb and payis chanting Sabbath prayers, etc. I never took photos of him, but Allen with his robe open illuminated by refrigerator light is burned into my retina, for better or worse! After he left, I found myself missing him."

Peter Orlovsky, the poet and longtime partner of Ginsberg, stayed in the apartment up until about a year ago, I was told. (Orlovsky died this past May of lung cancer at a respite care center in Williston, Vermont.) The apartment sat empty for nearly a year before the renovations started late in the spring.

Here's a photo that The Allen Ginsberg Project took a few weeks ago... along with one of Ginsberg's own shots...




The Ginsberg caption reads: "View out my kitchen window August 18 1984, familiar Manhattan back-yard, wet brick-walled Atlantis sea garden's Alianthus (stinkweed Tree of Heaven) boughs waiving in rainy breeze, Stuyvesant Town's roof two blocks north on 14th Street - I focused on the raindrops on the clothesline." [Allen Ginsberg Estate]

I figured this apartment was probably ready to hit the market. I contacted Dmitry (Daniel) Kramp, Kramp Residential Team, City Connection Realty Inc., who has been renting some of the other renovated apartments in the building.

I asked him when the apartment might be available for rent and if the listing will include a mention of its former occupant. Kramp responded, saying he wasn't sure if Ginsberg's name would be referenced since he already had a suitor lined up for the apartment.

Later, though, Kramp sent along the listing, which includes a line about Ginsberg, as well as photos of the renovated space. The apartment is going for $1,750.







Harry Smith stayed here for nine months in 1985 while he recovered from an accident. The small spare room he used (dubbed "Harry's Room") has been converted into a bathroom.



Through the years, this building has been host to an array of poets, musicians and artists.... some of whom are in the photo below...



Via: Edith Ginsberg, Cliff Fyman, Bob Rosenthal, Allen Ginsberg, John Godfey, Steven Taylor, Peter Orlovsky, Greg Masters, Michael Scholnick, in front of 437 E. 12th St., where all except Edith lived. Nov. 14, 1982. photo: c. Stephen Shames.

Among the many other notables.... Arthur Russell lived here for many years... ditto for Richard Hell.

Despite all this history, I'm not sure what kind of spirit, if any, can still exist in such an extensively renovated apartment, a place where Ginsberg, Orlovsky and assorted guests such as Herbert Huncke and William Burroughs held forth around a crowded kitchen table.

As Jill's neighbor wrote back in June: "Soon I'll look out at yet another set of white mini-blinds behind cheap replacement windows, illuminated by halogen floor lamp, with soundtrack by yet another long-past-teenage idiot amping-up to "Baba O'Reilly" as irony sails over his head and out into the beer-soaked night."

For further reading:
Howl (Blah Blog Blah)

The Allen Ginsberg Project



Via: Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, Louis Cartwright, Herbert Huncke, William Burroughs, Allen & Peter's new apartment, 437 E. 12th St., New York City, December 1975. Photographer unknown.

This weekend, the Howl! Festival; plus Allen Ginsberg photos

You can visit the Howl! website for schedules and stuff. There are more details at the East Village Howler blog.

Meanwhile, Allen Ginsberg was born on this date in 1926.

And here are two photos Ginsberg took of Jack Kerouac in 1953... you may have seen other shots from this series on Seventh Street...

...and in front of Vazacs on Avenue B and Seventh Street...

... and lastly, Ginsberg walking on, according to the Getty Images caption, 10th Street at Avenue B in June 1966.

Hurry! Listing for the last of the Allen Ginsberg apartments goes live this morning

Given how much interest there was the last time around... Dmitry Daniel Kramp at City Connections Realty tells me that the listing will be live this morning. It will appear at Streeteasy later. $1,875 for a renovated one bedroom.... More info here on the history.


Previously on EV Grieve:
Allen Ginsberg's former 12th Street apartment now on the market

Allen Ginsberg's former apartment quickly rented

Last one of Allen Ginsberg's former apartments ready to hit the market

Another one of Allen Ginsberg's former apartments at 437 E. 12th St. (he had three units there) is ready to hit the market, The Real Deal reports. This one will be going for $1,875 per month. The unit will be ready Oct. 1. Here are the details.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Allen Ginsberg's former 12th Street apartment now on the market

Allen Ginsberg's former apartment quickly rented

[Photo via The Real Deal]

A case for Allen Ginsberg Way

From the comments on the Allen Ginsberg's former apartment quickly rented post:

As a long time resident of East 12 Street (I am between A & B) a project I looked into but never took on is to have East 12 Street between 1st and A renamed Allen Ginsberg Way. It is a totally doable project requiring signatures and bringing it up the community board #3. Anyone interested in taking on such project?

Anyone?


[Image via]

Three days of Howl!

Speaking of Allen Ginsberg.... the Howl! Festival is under way... with three days of activities in Tompkins Square Park this weekend...


[Blue Glass]

Visit the Howl! site... and the East Villager Howler...

Allen Ginsberg's former apartment quickly rented

Just last Wednesday we did that post on Allen Ginsberg's former apartment at 437 E. 12th St. hitting the market.... the freshly renovated one bedroom unit was listed at $1,700.

Dmitry (Daniel) Kramp, Kramp Residential Team, City Connection Realty Inc., told me that the apartment has been rented.



And the new tenant is aware of the apartment's history, he said. (Kramp also said that he received a lot of calls from people who read the post via New York's Daily Intel and Curbed.)

Meanwhile, several of Ginsberg's friends left comments on the post...

I'll share one of them:

Rosebud Pettet said...
I had the great joy and privilege of knowing Allen for 33 years. Lived with him and Peter on and off during that time — at 5th st., 10th st., and long time at 12th st. I2th street was always "home" to me.
Allen was always kind, generous, patient...he gave me the small (Peter's) apartment next door to live in with my son whenever we were in NYC, but mostly we lived in Allen's.
Went back to see the place the day before it was completely gutted, and Peter Hale took some photos. It was so very hard to say goodbye to the place, all the memories...Burroughs, Dylan, the Bad Brains, all the amazing people who spent time there, esp. my "spiritual husband" Harry Smith...
Met my former husband Simon at Allen's, then we lived downstairs for years-Allen "best man" at our wedding.
Loved Allen like a father, was at his side when he died. Will always miss him and our little home on 12th street.
AUGUST 30, 2010 1:25 PM

Via: Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, Louis Cartwright, Herbert Huncke, William Burroughs, Allen & Peter's new apartment, 437 E. 12th St., New York City, December 1975. Photographer unknown.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Allen Ginsberg's former 12th Street apartment now on the market

Allen Ginsberg's former 12th Street apartment now on the market

The Allen Ginsberg Project recently had the chance to see Ginsberg's longtime home at 437 E. 12th St. — up on the fourth floor. As Jill reported at Blah Blog Blah back in June, Ginsberg's apartment — where he lived from 1975 to 1996 — is being renovated. (He had three apartments in the building: this one in which he lived; one in which he worked; and one that he sublet to friends and students. As NYC Songlines notes, he lived here longer than any other home in New York.)

Jill's friend, whose apartment looked into Ginsberg's kitchen, shared some memories in June about her neighbor here between First Avenue and Avenue A. "We didn't bother with each other much, but he'd take photos of my shirtless carpenter boyfriend when he'd use the fire escape for an impromptu workshop. You never knew who'd be gathered around his kitchen table: a PBS film crew, a minion of men with black garb and payis chanting Sabbath prayers, etc. I never took photos of him, but Allen with his robe open illuminated by refrigerator light is burned into my retina, for better or worse! After he left, I found myself missing him."

Peter Orlovsky, the poet and longtime partner of Ginsberg, stayed in the apartment up until about a year ago, I was told. (Orlovsky died this past May of lung cancer at a respite care center in Williston, Vermont.) The apartment sat empty for nearly a year before the renovations started late in the spring.

Here's a photo that The Allen Ginsberg Project took a few weeks ago... along with one of Ginsberg's own shots...




The Ginsberg caption reads: "View out my kitchen window August 18 1984, familiar Manhattan back-yard, wet brick-walled Atlantis sea garden's Alianthus (stinkweed Tree of Heaven) boughs waiving in rainy breeze, Stuyvesant Town's roof two blocks north on 14th Street - I focused on the raindrops on the clothesline." [Allen Ginsberg Estate]

I figured this apartment was probably ready to hit the market. I contacted Dmitry (Daniel) Kramp, Kramp Residential Team, City Connection Realty Inc., who has been renting some of the other renovated apartments in the building.

I asked him when the apartment might be available for rent and if the listing will include a mention of its former occupant. Kramp responded, saying he wasn't sure if Ginsberg's name would be referenced since he already had a suitor lined up for the apartment.

Later, though, Kramp sent along the listing, which includes a line about Ginsberg, as well as photos of the renovated space. The apartment is going for $1,750.







Harry Smith stayed here for nine months in 1985 while he recovered from an accident. The small spare room he used (dubbed "Harry's Room") has been converted into a bathroom.



Through the years, this building has been host to an array of poets, musicians and artists.... some of whom are in the photo below...



Via: Edith Ginsberg, Cliff Fyman, Bob Rosenthal, Allen Ginsberg, John Godfey, Steven Taylor, Peter Orlovsky, Greg Masters, Michael Scholnick, in front of 437 E. 12th St., where all except Edith lived. Nov. 14, 1982. photo: c. Stephen Shames.

Among the many other notables.... Arthur Russell lived here for many years... ditto for Richard Hell.

Despite all this history, I'm not sure what kind of spirit, if any, can still exist in such an extensively renovated apartment, a place where Ginsberg, Orlovsky and assorted guests such as Herbert Huncke and William Burroughs held forth around a crowded kitchen table.

As Jill's neighbor wrote back in June: "Soon I'll look out at yet another set of white mini-blinds behind cheap replacement windows, illuminated by halogen floor lamp, with soundtrack by yet another long-past-teenage idiot amping-up to "Baba O'Reilly" as irony sails over his head and out into the beer-soaked night."

For further reading:
Howl (Blah Blog Blah)

The Allen Ginsberg Project



Via: Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, Louis Cartwright, Herbert Huncke, William Burroughs, Allen & Peter's new apartment, 437 E. 12th St., New York City, December 1975. Photographer unknown.

Jack Kerouac on Seventh Street

Thanks to EV Grieve reader Mykola "Mick" Dementiuk for sending along this link to Book Patrol... As you may know, there's an exhibition of Allen Ginsberg photos now on display at the National Gallery of Art in D.C. titled "Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg."

Here's one of the photos...



The caption reads:

Jack Kerouac wandering along East 7th street after visiting Burroughs at our pad, passing statue of Congressman Samuel "Sunset" Cox, "The Letter – Carrier's Friend" in Tompkins Square toward corner of Avenue A, Lower East Side; he's making a Dostoyevsky mad-face or Russian basso be-bop Om, first walking around the neighborhood, then involved with The Subterraneans, pencils & notebook in wool shirt-pockets, Fall 1953, Manhattan.

The exhibit runs through Sept. 6.

219 First Avenue shows progress, extra floor and all

The building at the corner of 13th Street and First Avenue (219 First Avenue to be exact), has been a boarded-up mess/construction site the last four or so years... Here's a shot of the corner from 2007....


(Via Flickr)

However, there has been some slow progress to report of late. According to the work permits, an additional two floors are being added on top of the existing four-story structure.

For starters, we're intrigued by the new roof...



Oh, anyway, if you look carefully at the building, there seems to be something off about it...like that seventh floor (technically the attic?)



Which may be one reason people have called in nearly 60 complaints about this site since 2005. (Several callers reported seeing squatters coming and going from inside the abandoned site.) The last complaint was logged in late summer:

CLR STS AT ABOVE CONSTRUCTION SITE, PERMIT POSTED IS FOR 2 ADDITIONAL STORIES, BUT 3 STORIES ARE BEING BUILT. WORK IS BEING DONE OUTSIDE THE SCOPE OF THE PERMIT #104894152-01 AL

So now what, lop off that slanted roof?

UPDATED: Per a commenter, there was approval for the addition.


Meanwhile, you may recall what used to be in this space -- the Mee Noodle Shop. As NY Songlines noted, it "was Allen Ginsberg's favorite Chinese -- and mine, too, I guess. It closed in 2005 after the building started to collapse."

As the Times noted in its obituary on Ginsberg from April 1997:

Ah Lan Chong, a waitress at Mee's Noodle Shop and Grill on First Avenue, which was Mr. Ginsberg's favorite Chinese restaurant, remembered Mr. Ginsberg in simpler, less heavily freighted terms.

Sure, she knew he was someone important, someone artistic. She could tell that from overheard conversations and from the way other diners would sometimes point at him when he entered. But to Ms. Chong, he was mainly the unfussy man with a dependable hankering for steamed flounder in ginger sauce. "When he came in," she said, "we knew what he wanted."