Landmarks Preservation Commission spares historic stable from the condo afterlife

From the EV Grieve inbox...

After a six-year campaign led by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP), the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) today voted unanimously to landmark 128 East 13th Street, between 3rd and 4th Avenues. The building is believed to be the city's last surviving horse auction mart building, served as the studio of artist Frank Stella, and during World War II was an assembly-line training center for women. The structure was designed in 1903 and by the firm of Jardine, Kent, and Jardine.

In July 2006, the GVSHP discovered there were plans to tear the place down to make way for a seven-story condo.

Previously.

[Updated] Report: Woman jumps to her death on East 11th Street

Details are still coming in regarding an apparent suicide on East 11th Street at Second Avenue this evening around 5:30. Witnesses put the incident occurring at 300 E. 11th St. According to the Post, EMS rushed the woman to Bellevue where she died.

Updated.

A reader said that she was upset to see remnants from the tragic scene left behind on the sidewalk this morning ...

Updated:

In the comments, someone left the URL to the woman's obituary in The New York Times. You can access that here.

Taking another look at the 154 Second Ave. rendering

Just continuing to watch the interior demolition at 154 Second Ave., the former Sigmund Schwartz Gramercy Park Chapel between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street.

[Friday]

Plans call for several new floors here for "luxury rental apartments" ... as well as nearly 4,600 square feet of ground-floor space "perfect for: retail store, restaurant," per the Icon Realty listing.

And there's an updated rendering for the building too.

Previously.

[Image via Off the Grid]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Former funeral home looks to double in size with help from 'the controversial penthouse king of the East Village'

Redeveloped funeral home looking for a few live retail tenants

Was that a UFO over the East Village yesterday?

From reader Brian B. ... this incident occurred yesterday.

I was walking west on 10th Street between Ave A & B at 5pm today, I looked up and spotted a small red dot floating stationary way up in the clouds.

At first I assumed the red dot was a a child's "toy" balloon that had floated up out Tompkins Square Park. For most of the sixty seconds it took me to travel the block, I watched the red "ballon" remain in a stationary position (against the edge of the buildings in the distance).

When I got to the corner of 10th & A, I watched the "balloon" for a few more seconds, then turned my attention to the pedestrian traffic in front of me as turned right and began walking north on Avenue A.

While I was waiting for light at 12 Street, I looked up and noticed that the "red ballon" that had been floating stationary back over 10th Street was now traveling in a straight line across the horizon acting very much UNLIKE a balloon.

I took out my camera and shot this video. (Canon PowerShot ELPH 300HS 13X optical zoom)

The sun was still pretty bright at 5pm and I my camera's display was too dim for me to see if I was capturing the tiny dot that was hardly visible to my eye. I figured that with the camera zoomed in all the way, the footage would be too shaky to show much.

For most of the footage, the object looks dark, but during the last few seconds of the footage, you'll notice the red coloring I saw when I first mistook it for a balloon.

I don't think it's an alien space craft or anything, but it was definitely a UFO in the sense that it was flying and I couldn't identify it. I'm postive it wasn't a plane or a helicopter. Some kind of surveillance drone? Anyone have any idea what this could be?

I'm totally going with alien spacecraft. But I'm a realist.

You? Your thoughts on what this was. (Aside from Lady Gaga or Lana Del Rey, of course.)

And keep in mind: This isn't the first time for something like this happened around here. Remember this. Or this.

A note from Cesare the dog

Spotted on the front door of an East 12th Street apartment building. Photo by Andrew Adam Newman on Avenue C.

EVG respost: St. Mark's and First Avenue, 1993

Speaking of St. Mark's Place and First Avenue... I posted this four years ago ... dug it out again... per the YouTube description: "a time lapse of that corner in NYC back in '93 or so from a 3rd floor window..."

Demolition under way inside the former Sigmund Schwartz Gramercy Park Chapel

Work is under way inside 154 Second Ave., the former Sigmund Schwartz Gramercy Park Chapel between East Ninth Street and East 10th Street. Plans call for several new floors here for "luxury rental apartments" ... as well as nearly 4,600 square feet of ground-floor space "perfect for: retail store, restaurant," per the listing.

Here's a look at the interior demolition late last week via EV Grieve reader Terry Howell...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Former funeral home looks to double in size with help from 'the controversial penthouse king of the East Village'

Redeveloped funeral home looking for a few live retail tenants

Welcome to Burger Town?

Came across this article at Bloomberg Businessweek ... it's about Hilary Mason, a chief scientist at Bitly, the link-shortening service ... and a side project of hers called "menu hacking."

Anyway, this jumped out at me:

The 33-year-old wrote a program to crawl the Web and download menus from New York eating places. It took her down a rabbit hole of restaurant exploration. She didn't figure out the perfectly average spot, but she learned that there are 173 different burgers to order in the West Village — but 363 in the East Village, and at lower prices.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Does the East Village have enough places now to order hamburgers?

[Image via]

Checking in on the community center-supportive housing project on East Ninth Street

Here's a construction project that we haven't looked in on in some time. Over on East Ninth Street just east of Avenue C, workers are converting the former Henry Street Settlement Day Care #3 into a community facility space on the ground floor...

... the upper levels will house 46 units (28 studios and 12 one-bedroom apartments). The housing will serve homeless young adults and young adults aging out of the foster-care system. An additional 12 units will be set aside for young single adults with a child. The city OK'd plans to add an addition floor to the existing structure.

Here's how the renovations are going as of yesterday ... in these photos via Bobby Williams...

The project is a joint venture among Phipps Houses ... University Settlement/The Door ... and Loisaida, Inc. SLCE Architects created the plans... We're not sure of the timetable for completion...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Community center and supportive housing coming to East Ninth Street

Redeveloped funeral home looking for a few live retail tenants

On Monday, we pointed out that workers have the scaffolding and sidewalk shed in place outside 154 Second Ave., the former Sigmund Schwartz Gramercy Park Chapel. Plans call for several new floors here with the help of architect Ramy Issac.

And we spotted a listing (PDF) for the retail space over at developer Terrence Lowenberg's Icon Realty....

There is nearly 4,600 square feet of ground-floor space "perfect for: retail store, restaurant," per the listing. Rent is upon request.

The rendering looks similar to Lowenberg's other current projects at 147 First Ave. and 326-328 E. Fourth St.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Former funeral home looks to double in size with help from 'the controversial penthouse king of the East Village'

Going to the former Chapel, and we're gonna get three new floors

The scaffolding and construction netting is now in place at the former Sigmund Schwartz Gramercy Park Chapel on Second Avenue between 10th Street and Ninth Street.

As Off the Grid first reported last summer, there are plans on file to "Remodel the existing three story building and add 3 stories on top."

According to the DOB, city officials have approved those plans on Jan. 10. Here's the DOB language:

REMODEL EXISTING THREE STORY BUILDING AND ADD 3 STORIES ON TOP OF EXISTING BUILDING. SECOND AND THIRD FLOORS TO BE CONVERTED TO RESIDENTIAL ONLY. FIRST FLOOR TO BE USED AS A COMMERCIAL USE.

And yes — we've run out of headlines.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Former funeral home looks to double in size with help from 'the controversial penthouse king of the East Village'

Noted

Via an interview from the Daily News real-estate section the other day with BOND senior vice president Mary Lou Currier:

What’s your next hottest nabe in NYC?
The East Village/Bowery. It’s really heating up and getting fancier. I consider the East Village the last "authentic" neighborhood in NYC.

Present your vision about bicycling in the East Village

52 years ago today: First mention of the 'East Village' in The New York Times

Some time ago, our old friend Pinhead sent along a clip from The New York Times ... As far as his research could tell, the first time that The New York Times mentioned the East Village in print was on Feb. 7, 1960 — 52 years ago today.

The article was titled "'Village' Spills Across 3D Ave." And it appeared on Page 1. As the article notes, the destruction of the Third Avenue El in 1956 "helped stir up a minor social and realty revolution on the Lower East Side."

And, here we go...

Uh-oh...

And here come the rental agents... in the eighth paragraph of the article, "East Village" makes its appearance...

The article makes a lot of interesting observations... such as the growth of "high-rent apartment houses" that popped up along Fourth Avenue, replacing some second-hand book shops in the process.

You can access (buy) the article at the Times here.

Future trivia: Feb. 5, 2012, was the first day that the Times mentioned "NoEVil."

Late this afternoon and early evening

Photos by Bobby Williams.

The end (of the view and daylight) is near

On Monday, we had an update on the former Sigmund Schwartz Gramercy Park Chapel on Second Avenue between 10th Street and Ninth Street. Plans call for an additional three floors here.

A reader sends along an aerial view looking north at the property. As you can see, construction hasn't started yet.

However, when it does, the folks living next door with the south-facing windows will likely lose any view and daylight. Which really sucks.

Report: Historic carriage house on East 13th Street now up for auction

The long, complicated history of 128 E. 13th St. between Fourth Avenue and Third Avenue is about to get more complicated. This afternoon, The Real Deal reports that the circa-1903 carriage house that once belonged to famed sculptor Frank Stella is now up for auction.

This is believed to be the last surviving horse and carriage auction mart building in New York City, according to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP), who helped keep the structure from becoming a seven-level condo back in 2006.

The Peridance Center has a lease there now for a dance studio.

According to the Real Deal:

A state Supreme Court judge has ordered the sale of a historic East Village art studio and former horse auction house, after two new investors, Isaac Mishan and Joseph Sabbah of Ultimate Realty, failed to gain approvals for a proposed condo project and defaulted on $10.5 million in loans.

(Read the whole article here.)

While preservationists thwarted the previous condo takeover attempt, the building was never landmarked, likely making it vulnerable again for a modern glass-and-steel death.

Previously.

Looking for an explanation about those bloodcurdling screams

A reader sends along the following:

I live on Second Avenue, between Fifth and Sixth Street, and this is the second night since last week that I've heard bloodcurdling screams around 12:30 a.m. outside of my window toward Sixth Street. I've reported it to the 9th precinct, but was just curious if anyone else in the neighborhood has heard this or has any info on what's going on.

The reader lives facing a courtyard, not Second Avenue.

This was a few days ago. There is a follow-up note:

I heard it last night. It woke up both myself and my roommate around 3 a.m. I'm really curious to know if anyone else heard it and what theories they may have on what it was. Our first thought was of course an animal, but this was extremely human-like — scary.

Anyone with theories?

3 new floors ready to rise from the dead funeral home on Second Avenue

Renovations have started at the former Sigmund Schwartz Gramercy Park Chapel on Second Avenue between 10th Street and Ninth Street. Workers boarded up the front doors last week.

As Off the Grid first reported last summer, there are plans on file to "Remodel the existing three story building and add 3 stories on top."

According to the DOB, city officials have approved those plans on Jan. 10. Here's the DOB language:

REMODEL EXISTING THREE STORY BUILDING AND ADD 3 STORIES ON TOP OF EXISTING BUILDING. SECOND AND THIRD FLOORS TO BE CONVERTED TO RESIDENTIAL ONLY. FIRST FLOOR TO BE USED AS A COMMERCIAL USE.

The architect on this project is Ramy Issac, once dubbed by New York magazine as "The controversial penthouse king of the East Village." Developer Terrence Lowenberg of Icon Realty is behind the project. Icon is currently renovating 147 First Ave.

Check out this history of the Sigmund Schwartz Gramercy Park Chapel at Jeremiah's Vanishing New York.

Here's what the address looked like in the 1940s, via Vanishing New York...

Will a gut renovation and three-floor addition be enough to wipe out the spirits of the funeral home?

Previously on EV Grieve:
Former funeral home looks to double in size with help from 'the controversial penthouse king of the East Village'

This is what Tompkins Finest Deli will look like

Well, speaking of new delis... The other day, Bobby Williams passed along photos of the new deli coming to Avenue A near 10th Street... the one that is replacing the previous deli here...

Matt LES_Miserable took a look inside...

He notes: "Looks like every other deli that's opened the last few years. Well, at least they were happy and invited me in to look."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Ave. A Mini Market abruptly closes

On second thought, Avenue A Mini Market not reopening

Avenue A Mini Market now without part of its front window