Some buildings that should be torn down

Nicolai Ouroussoff has an interesting idea in the Times today:

So here’s what I propose. True, the city is close to broke. But even with Wall Street types contemplating the end and construction of new luxury towers grinding to a halt, why give in to despair? Instead of crying over what can’t be built, why not refocus our energies on knocking down the structures that not only fail to bring us joy, but actually bring us down?

Ugliness, of course, should not be the only criterion. There are countless dreadful buildings in New York; only a few (thankfully) have a traumatic effect on the city.

Among the buildings that he suggests tearing down: That ugly curved glass residential building at Astor Place designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates:

[T]he crude quality of its execution is an insult . . . Gwathmey’s tower is squat and clumsy. Clad in garish green glass, it rests on a banal glass box that houses — what else? — rows of A.T.M.’s inside a Chase bank.

But lack of taste is not the point here. Neighborhoods are fragile ecosystems. And while enlightened designs can challenge the past, that is not the same as being oblivious to it. Astor Place would seem more comfortable in a suburban office park.

The East Village is saturated with memories of youthful rebellion. In recent years it has emerged as a crossroads between the world of would-be punks, awkward students and rich Wall Street types. The Gwathmey building serves only the last camp: it’s a literal manifestation of money smoothing over the texture of everyday life.

[Photo by everystreetinmanhattan via Flickr]

Do you have what it takes to tear down Yankee Stadium?

New York City is looking for demolition companies that think they can tear down Yankee Stadium without damaging any of the seats or other pieces that might be sold to collectors.

The razing of the famous ballpark is scheduled to start in March and last as long as a year, according to a solicitation form issued by the city’s Economic Development Corporation. The first stage of the demolition will involve salvaging all of the stadium seating as well as some large features like the white frieze that adorns the wall behind the bleachers and the 120-foot-tall bat-shaped boiler stack outside the main entrance.

(City Room)

More Yunnies out to destroy the past

Catching up on some reading...saw this discouraging item in Scoopy's Notebook in The Villager this week:

Sign of the times: A decades-old mural of the neighborhood in the Brevoort East’s lobby at 20 E. Ninth St. will be removed if the building’s co-op board has its way. Word is that the building’s board is made up of “a group of young people who are focused on modernizing the lobby.” Yet, we hear there’s “considerable opposition among shareholders,” a core of whom would like to keep the artwork. The mural was created in the early 1960s and is a depiction of Village life at the turn of the century, featuring the Washington Square Arch and lower Fifth Ave. “Since this mural is clearly visible from the street, I believe that its removal should be of interest to the general Village community,” one co-op owner e-mailed us. “I have lived in the Village my entire life and know that residents of this community oppose unnecessary changes that diminish the historic nature of this unique community.”

[FYI -- The artwork above is not the mural in question...just the flier for the musical from 1924]

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