Showing posts with label save the Bowery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label save the Bowery. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

The Bowery's last gasp fairly audible

I've been waiting to write the obituary for the White House (or Whitehouse to some), the last of the neighborhood's SROs at 338 Bowery. There's a long history at this four-story building erected in 1916 that's now serving as a hostel as well as a permanent home for a handful of low-income residents... The building’s owner, Metro Sixteen, is affiliated with the hotel developer Sam Chang. Their plans: demolish the White House and replace it with a nine-story hotel.

And this item at Curbed today makes me think the end will be here sooner rather than later:

A Curbed tipster notes, housing court hearings for remaining residents — many of whom are in pretty rough shape — are something of a regular occurrence.




Previously on EV Grieve:
White House blues

[Photo via Curbed]

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

White House blues



If I did one of those "stories to watch" features at the beginning of the year, then the White House, the last of the neighborhood's SROs at 338 Bowery, would be on that list. There's a long history at this four-story building erected in 1916 that's now serving as a hostel as well as a permanent home for a handful of low-income residents...

The building’s owner, Metro Sixteen, is affiliated with the hotel developer Sam Chang. Their plans: demolish the White House and replace it with a nine-story hotel. Because we really need another luxury hotel around here. (For more read this article in The Villager... or this piece from the Times from last May.) As the Times reported, after Metro's purchase in 2007, the building was included in an extension of the NoHo Historic District, putting a damper on the developer’s plans.

Per the Times:

Metro Sixteen has applied to the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission for permission to develop the site, asking to be considered under the commission’s hardship provision. The city has not yet ruled on the request. But if it is granted, the developer could demolish the hotel and rebuild on the site, effectively bulldozing one of the last remnants of the Bowery’s flophouse past.


Here's a shot by Spencer Platt via Getty Images from 2002...it's of Don, one of the White House's permanent residents...wonder if Don is still around, and if anyone has had to open those instructions on the wall behind him...



Last September, a sidewalk shed went up for, according to permits, "emergency repairs."




The sidewalk shed remains today...



...butting up against the brand-new Subway next door. (Perhaps it was the Subway manager who complained in December that he/she could not put up a business sign because of the sidewalk shed...)

Imagine if could be easy/convenient to say the emergency repairs weren't enough -- and the building has to be razed. As BoweryBoogie has reported, other parcels of this stretch are now primed for demolition, including 185-191 Bowery.

Let's hope that this address can be preserved/refurbished. There has to be a better alternative than just simply tearing a building down and putting up a luxury glass box.

Meanwhile, a "partial vacate" order exists at the White House...



Back to that Times piece...

Some tenants ... resent the fact that the White House is regarded as a repository of "human interest" stories. At the same time, the convenient concentration of so much human frailty has transformed the hotel into a living museum of sad stories.


It will be another sad story the day the White House goes.

[Top photo via Curbed]

Friday, June 26, 2009

The plan to save what's left of the Bowery


The Villager has coverage this week of the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors (BAN) meeting from June 16.

From The Villager:
The Bowery Alliance of Neighbors (BAN) last week presented a plan to limit the size of new buildings and preserve traditional commercial uses on the east side of the Bowery between Canal and E. Ninth Sts.

The alliance, which includes artists, loft dwellers and local merchants, has been calling for preservation of the east side of the thoroughfare for the past three years as new high-rise residential and hotel towers have been threatening to overwhelm the low-rise character of Bowery.

“This is the first step in gathering support for the plan,” said Anna Sawaryn, president of BAN, who led the group’s June 16 forum. “We intend to present it eventually to Community Board 3 and ultimately to City Planning.”

“We felt it was important to preserve the wholesale lighting, restaurant-supply and jewelry businesses that remain on the Bowery,” said Mitchell Grubler, a member of BAN. “Rezoning was the only way to do that before those businesses are forced out by expensive high-rise development.”


There's more coverage at Save the Lower East Side! and BoweryBoogie.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Reminder: Help save the Bowery tonight

BOWERY ALLIANCE OF NEIGHBORS
presents
AN EVENING TO SAVE THE BOWERY

Saturday, Sept. 27
6:30 - 9:30 p.m.
at
BOWERY POETRY CLUB
308 Bowery
(one block north of Houston)

music, poetry, film
--art auction--
--raffle--

Information via Bowery Boogie and Save the Lower East Side!

And please none of those arm thingees...