One year later, Kurve/Rhong Tiam East decides to paint over the tags

The first tag appeared on the Fifth Street side of Kurve last April... since then, a few more have been added... and it looked like this...



Now, though, the paint came out...

First tag reappears on the Verizon building

Speaking of tags... nearly three weeks ago all the tags and graffiti on the 13th Street side of the Verizon building were painted over... Now, as EV Grieve reader Kim notes, the first tag has reappeared on the wall on the corner of Second Avenue... (And check out Kim's Flickr page here.)



Previously on EV Grieve:
Brownout: Verizon building graffiti painted over

Extra Place getting prepped to become a major thoroughfare?

There is a recent addition to the Extra Place roadway here...



Stop signs were painted on the blacktop ... In case someone can go 0 to 75 in a few hundred feet or gets the funny idea to start drag racing or they don't see the stop sign...




Not that you'll get too far onto First Street anyway ...

East Village Property Management hates trees

Or maybe there's another reason someone from the company double-taped dozens of apartment-for-rent flyers to trees (and lightpoles) all over the neighborhood...

iGetIt

Last week!



This week!

The old Cookout Grill gets some wood

Well, now... the work is getting serious at the old Cookout Grill on First Avenue and 13th Street...



I'm still waiting to hear what's going in this space... the work permits says it will remain a restaurant, so that rules out a sorely needed bank branch... given the pricey corner real estate, I'd imagine nothing but a chain could move in here... I hope that I'm very wrong.

Cafe Mocha closed for renovations

Second Avenue and Seventh Street.

A few people may know that Shepard Fairey is now working on Houston and the Bowery

On the Deitch Wall a little while ago...






For further reading:
Houston Wall (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)
Graffiti Wall Primed for Shepard Fairey (BoweryBoogie)

Speakeasy and Mardi Gras-themed bar coming to Avenue B

Grub Street has the details on a new venture coming to 25 Avenue B near Second Street ... in the former Rehab/Midway space (and, of course, Save the Robots). Per Grub Street: The owners hope to open the "'Bourbon. Beer. Rock'–themed Idle Hands in the basement space around Memorial Day (pending liquor-license approval), while upstairs a group with ties to Thunder Jackson’s and Point Break will open Billy Hurricanes, a Mardi Gras–themed bar trafficking in frozen daiquiris, Cajun food, and a signature drink that will be limited to two per person." I can smell the vomit already!

Not familiar with Thunder Jackson's? Here is a screenshot from their home page.

RIP Superdive: Is our 10-month nightmare over?

Eater brings us the story (and photo) of a "for rent" sign going up at 200 Avenue A, the home of late to Superdive. As Eater notes: "This is just the latest and probably the final twist in the ten month history of the East Village bar that has offered customers kegs, beer pong, all you can drink Champagne bashes, and of course, a midget."

Meet PS 122's new steel tower

As you know, PS 122 on First Avenue at Ninth Street is getting a facelift...



The Architect's Newspaper has the details on what all this might look like. According to the story:

The Department of Design and Construction (DDC) has commissioned Deborah Berke & Partners to complete a $16 million renovation of the aging structure and bring it up to current code requirements.

While the crux of the commission involves upgrading the 1894 building’s outmoded ingress/egress routes and substandard mechanical systems, Berke also saw the opportunity to improve the interior and how it was organized. The center’s primary inhabitants — PS 122 Gallery, Performance Space 122, and Mabou Mines — all grew into their rooms organically over the years, without much thought about how they functioned as a whole.

And!

The architects quickly determined that the most economic and elegant solution was to place the new elevator, fire stair, and mechanical ducting within a tower addition situated in a yard to the north of the building. “Typical of a 100-year-old building, it has a fragile structural system of terracotta arches between steel structural elements,” said Jones. “You can’t just pop holes in that.”

Consigning these upgrades to the add-on pavilion also preserved the historical character of the original building, which was valued by tenants and the DDC. To minimize its impact, the addition will be constructed of light and luminous materials. The tower itself, a steel structure, will be clad in glass with a perforated and corrugated stainless steel scrim. A canopy and marquee that jut into the street, announcing the new entrance, will also be of glass and perforated steel.

The construction is expected to be done by the summer of 2013. So three more year's of the sidewalk shed on the corner. At first glimpse of the renderings, this looks like an awkward marriage of the old and new...


[Images via]

By the way, did you see a naked guy standing on Houston and Suffolk Sunday afternoon?

From a reader:

Did you hear about the naked guy on Houston yesterday? There was a dude butt ass naked holding two pieces of paper over his parts crossing Houston at Suffolk with a very stoic look on his face. My wife witnessed it from the Dunkin Donuts around 4 pm. The cops approached and he just kinda stood there. Very weird for a Sunday afternoon.

The reader approached as the man was being escorted into an ambulance.

Anyone have more details? Photos? (Or not.)