Tap dancing to Maroon 5 covers in Union Square.
[Via Poppy Cedes]
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Taking a look at 52E4, and where the Moby mobile may park
I've been trying to avoid the construction hell on the Bowery between Third Street and Fourth Street, the stretch that will soon be home to the new 52 East 4th Street -- feel free to refer to it as 52E4 here on out!
Now that the construction has quieted down a bit, it's time to revisit the spot and enjoy exactly what's going up in this luxurious 15-story condo. The promo photos, previously available on the 52E4 Web site, are up for the unwashed masses to see. Let's take a look!
You have your roof deck and pool and, as various commenters have pointed out, no Cooper Square Hotel blocking your Midtown views...
And whatever this is.
And this is the best: The parking spot, where soon-to-be-tenant Moby will keep it real and park his Moby mobile.
Not sure exactly where the parking spaces will be kept. I'm assuming on East Fourth Street then...?
Anyway, the 59R2ERW site has more details. And images.
For further reading:
Another Bowery tower (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)
Now that the construction has quieted down a bit, it's time to revisit the spot and enjoy exactly what's going up in this luxurious 15-story condo. The promo photos, previously available on the 52E4 Web site, are up for the unwashed masses to see. Let's take a look!
You have your roof deck and pool and, as various commenters have pointed out, no Cooper Square Hotel blocking your Midtown views...
And whatever this is.
And this is the best: The parking spot, where soon-to-be-tenant Moby will keep it real and park his Moby mobile.
Not sure exactly where the parking spaces will be kept. I'm assuming on East Fourth Street then...?
Anyway, the 59R2ERW site has more details. And images.
For further reading:
Another Bowery tower (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)
Brick by brick
Every time I walk by the former Love Saves the Day store, something is different. Yesterday, the windows were inexplicably bricked up.
Oh, and while I was standing there, a cabbie got a ticket.
Oh, and while I was standing there, a cabbie got a ticket.
One year ago today on EV Grieve: John Varvatos, preservationist
From the EV Grieve archives: April 7, 2008:
The New York Post has a piece today on the new John Varvatos boutique, which opened over the weekend at the site of the former CBGB on the Bowery.
According to the Post article, written by Serena French: "[P]unk preservationists will be glad to hear that the Bowery site -- which once hosted such pioneers as the Ramones and Blondie -- hasn't been sanitized beyond recognition.
The stage is gone, replaced by a tailoring shop, but it's encased with gold Alice Cooper records.
And those who remember the walls encrusted with posters and stickers will be relieved to find them intact and preserved behind glass."
Hmm. So Varvatos has reportedly made the shop equal parts museum and retail space. "I wanted to combine music, fashion, memorabilia and really make it like a cultural space," he told The Post. He's planning on holding monthly concerts there too.
What do some old-timers think?
"I like it. I'm relieved," Arturo Vega, creative director for the Ramones, who has lived around the corner from the club since 1973, told the Post. "We were expecting a drug store in the space," he said. "So when I found out it was Varvatos moving in, it was a relief."
Yesterday, in the Post's Page Six Magazine, Dana Kristal, son of CBGB founder Hilly Kristal, was asked whether he thought his father would approve of eight high-profile new ventures on the Bowery. Interestingly enough, he wasn't asked about this shop.
The New York Post has a piece today on the new John Varvatos boutique, which opened over the weekend at the site of the former CBGB on the Bowery.
According to the Post article, written by Serena French: "[P]unk preservationists will be glad to hear that the Bowery site -- which once hosted such pioneers as the Ramones and Blondie -- hasn't been sanitized beyond recognition.
The stage is gone, replaced by a tailoring shop, but it's encased with gold Alice Cooper records.
And those who remember the walls encrusted with posters and stickers will be relieved to find them intact and preserved behind glass."
Hmm. So Varvatos has reportedly made the shop equal parts museum and retail space. "I wanted to combine music, fashion, memorabilia and really make it like a cultural space," he told The Post. He's planning on holding monthly concerts there too.
What do some old-timers think?
"I like it. I'm relieved," Arturo Vega, creative director for the Ramones, who has lived around the corner from the club since 1973, told the Post. "We were expecting a drug store in the space," he said. "So when I found out it was Varvatos moving in, it was a relief."
Yesterday, in the Post's Page Six Magazine, Dana Kristal, son of CBGB founder Hilly Kristal, was asked whether he thought his father would approve of eight high-profile new ventures on the Bowery. Interestingly enough, he wasn't asked about this shop.
Into the danger zone
Not sure exactly what was happening yesterday at the 20 Pine condoplex in the Financial District...but it involved plastic...
...some scaffolding...
...and some DANGER signs!
...some scaffolding...
...and some DANGER signs!
Revisting March 7, 2009
Found a stack of paper's sitting down the street. Last month at this time... The Wall Street Journal from March 7, 2009. The unemployment rate was only 8.1 percent ... oh, and Bernie Madoff was still a free man.
Monday, April 6, 2009
When busloads of tourists take part in studies: The buzziest areas in NYC are around Lincoln and Rockefeller Centers
From the Times:
Apologies to residents of the Lower East Side; Williamsburg, Brooklyn; and other hipster-centric neighborhoods. You are not as cool as you think, at least according to a new study that seeks to measure what it calls “the geography of buzz.”
The research, presented in late March at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, locates hot spots based on the frequency and draw of cultural happenings: film and television screenings, concerts, fashion shows, gallery and theater openings. The buzziest areas in New York, it finds, are around Lincoln and Rockefeller Centers, and down Broadway from Times Square into SoHo.
One more day like yesterday, please
Though Saturday may have been more entertaining in Tompkins Square Park. In which the fellow kept yelling "Die. You're all idiots. Die."
Now pitching for the Mets...
[Updated: Oops! Had the schedule wrong...Mets open at home NEXT Monday... They're in Cincinnati today...]
And if the bullpen car is to return, the van pictured above by Chico seen around the East Village gets our vote. I think JJ Putz will love it.
Definitely cooler than this.
Or this.
And if the bullpen car is to return, the van pictured above by Chico seen around the East Village gets our vote. I think JJ Putz will love it.
Definitely cooler than this.
Or this.
R&S Strauss has closed: What's next for the corner of East 14th Street and Avenue C?
We've been keeping our eye on the R&S Strauss auto parts store on East 14th Street at Avenue C. Last May, the building was reportedly quietly put on the market for $13 million.
The store is now closed. The location has already been removed from the R&S Strauss Web site.
According to the Massey Knakal Web site, the building was sold in January for $12.3 million. As the site noted: "The lot measures 114’9” x 88’and has a total buildable square footage of approximately 36,125 sq. ft. for residential use or 68,262 sq. ft. for a community facility, which will likely be the ultimate use of the property." No word yet on who bought the space.
News of a possible community facility is a relief for those among us thinking this sale could signal "an opening for the overall Meatpacking effect that is rippling up and down this main artery to reach deep into the East Village."
Still, probably not a lot of room here for development with Stuy Town to the north, the ConEd plant to the east and the Pedro Albizu Campos Plaza to the south.
The store is now closed. The location has already been removed from the R&S Strauss Web site.
According to the Massey Knakal Web site, the building was sold in January for $12.3 million. As the site noted: "The lot measures 114’9” x 88’and has a total buildable square footage of approximately 36,125 sq. ft. for residential use or 68,262 sq. ft. for a community facility, which will likely be the ultimate use of the property." No word yet on who bought the space.
News of a possible community facility is a relief for those among us thinking this sale could signal "an opening for the overall Meatpacking effect that is rippling up and down this main artery to reach deep into the East Village."
Still, probably not a lot of room here for development with Stuy Town to the north, the ConEd plant to the east and the Pedro Albizu Campos Plaza to the south.
East Houston Street reconstruction won't include protected bike lanes
Bowery Boogie had the news last week about the reconstruction of East Houston from the Bowery to the FDR.
The project, which will be put out to bid this summer, calls for the widening of sidewalks, enlarging of medians, installation of new pavement markings and bicycle lanes from Second Avenue to FDR Drive; and creation of two new plaza areas.
StreetsBlog.org breaks it down for bicyclists. As they note, the project calls for bigger sidewalks but no protected bike zone. (StreetsBlog published this depection of East Houston; the existing street is shown in the inset)
As Streetsblog notes:
Meanwhile, the project is expected to be completed in 2011. Which, if you're cynical, means 2013. Or so. And improvements aside, I can't help but wonder how much the reconstruction may change the character of the street.
The project, which will be put out to bid this summer, calls for the widening of sidewalks, enlarging of medians, installation of new pavement markings and bicycle lanes from Second Avenue to FDR Drive; and creation of two new plaza areas.
StreetsBlog.org breaks it down for bicyclists. As they note, the project calls for bigger sidewalks but no protected bike zone. (StreetsBlog published this depection of East Houston; the existing street is shown in the inset)
As Streetsblog notes:
Currently, 70 percent of drivers on East Houston Street speed, according to studies conducted by Transportation Alternatives. "It's hard to imagine that paint will offer the kind of protection mainstream New Yorkers will need to feel safe biking on this crucial, yet dangerous corridor," said TA's Wiley Norvell. "The city has innovative physically-protected designs on hand, and to not use them on Houston would be a huge missed opportunity."
In response, DOT emphasized the project's pedestrian improvements. DOT considers protected bike paths less-than-ideal for typical two-way streets, and the agency expects the removal of two traffic lanes to reduce vehicle speeds.
Even if traffic calms somewhat, the buffered lane will invite the same double-parking that plagues other Class 2 lanes. People choose to bike based on their perceptions of safety, and a buffer can only shift perceptions so far.
"Houston is by no means a typical two way street," said Norvell. "It is exactly the type of wide arterial roadway that calls for a physically separated lane. This city's bike network will continue to remain unusable for the average New Yorker until streets like Houston are provided with the protected lanes they require to be safe."
Meanwhile, the project is expected to be completed in 2011. Which, if you're cynical, means 2013. Or so. And improvements aside, I can't help but wonder how much the reconstruction may change the character of the street.
Thanks for the memories
"The cleanup crew at Webster Hall was left with quite a mess on its hands after country crooner Keith Urban's performance last Wednesday. According to sources at the club, someone aboard a Verizon-sponsored Keith Urban tour bus emptied the vehicle's septic tank outside the East 11th Street club at 3 a.m., after the show. "There was about 150 square feet of gunk, a half an inch think, outside the main entrance," says one employee. "It was a literal [expletive] show." (Page Six)
Coming soon to Avenue B: The AlphaBet Cafe at the site of the former Dynasty Restaurant and Coffee Shop
The former Dynasty Restaurant & Coffee Shop on Avenue B and 14th Street is set to reopen...
...as the AlphaBet Cafe. A worker there told me they should be set to go in two weeks or less. I've heard various versions of this story...that the former owners Peter and Chris simply sold the place and moved on... or...the Health Department shut the place down late last fall...(the telltale yellow stickers are still visble on several of the windows in the bottom photo....) Based on the canopy and phone number -- the place kind of looks the same.
Well, the same as it looked the last few years. The place opened in 1955. Here's what it looked like in October 2002 before the remodeling:
[Photo via]
...as the AlphaBet Cafe. A worker there told me they should be set to go in two weeks or less. I've heard various versions of this story...that the former owners Peter and Chris simply sold the place and moved on... or...the Health Department shut the place down late last fall...(the telltale yellow stickers are still visble on several of the windows in the bottom photo....) Based on the canopy and phone number -- the place kind of looks the same.
Well, the same as it looked the last few years. The place opened in 1955. Here's what it looked like in October 2002 before the remodeling:
[Photo via]
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