Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Ruination of the northwest corner of First Avenue and East 13th Street nearly complete
We've heard from several
By the way, does anyone have photos of the former tenant here, the Mee Noodle Shop, a favorite spot for Allen Ginsburg...?
Previously on EV Grieve:
Today in rumors of another Starbucks opening in the East Village
219 First Avenue ready for a chain store, probably
Starbucks confirmed for 219 First Ave., former home to Allen Ginsberg's favorite Chinese restaurant
What it costs to live in newly renovated apartments above a Starbucks in the East Village
EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning edition
On Broadway, part of poet Frank O'Hara's former home is becoming a fro-yo joint (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)
Revisiting the Sin Club on East Third Street (Flaming Pablum)
Q-and-A with CB3 member Ariel Palitz: 'I have nothing but love and compassion for my neighborhood...' (The Lo-Down)
Security watches while a vicious fight breaks out in Union Square (Gothamist)
What to eat at Masak on East 13th Street (Fork in the Road)
Read about NYU Faculty Against the Sexton Plan to overtake the Village (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)
A great old clock near Astor Place (Ephemeral New York)
There will be a bar called Brews & Dogs on Allen Street (BoweryBoogie)
Perhaps a last visit to Colony Records (Tripping With Marty)
Random: Documentary on the Dude on whom 'the Dude' was based (BoingBoing)
...and a photo via EVG reader Ted Roden on Seventh Street and Avenue C... showing an addition to the stupid Cole Haan ad campaign...
At the Church of the Rummage Sales
Arguably one of the most intriguing churches in the neighborhood sits on East Fourth Street near Avenue D. It's currently the San Isidoro y San Leandro Western Orthodox Catholic Church of the Hispanic Mozarabic Rite.
I don't know much about the building. I've poked around here and there on the Internet for more details. From a post at Slavs of New York:
Few specifics are available about the building’s history, but it was built in 1895 as the first home of the Roman Catholic St. Elizabeth of Hungary parish. When that parish moved uptown to Yorkville, the building became the Russian — Greek Orthodox Chapel of the Holy Trinity serving the Russian and Greek embassies. Later, it became the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas, which eventually moved to East 97th Sreet.
Today, the building is part of the Western Orthodox Benedictine Friars of the Hispanic Mozarabic Rite, though it still bears the royal seal of the Russian Czars on its façade.
Anyway, it's one of those places that I worry about, as I like to do. There was a small fire at the church in February 2011. (A previous post about the church is here.)
There are no longer any services at the church, which mainly seems to be used for rummage sales. I've bought a few books and records here. A book and record will go for about 60 cents. (I overheard the priest say that they were raising money to start up services again. They will need to sell a lot of books and records... and they will also gladly accept donated clothes and stuff.)
Given all the new construction in the immediate area (here and here and here), you have to wonder how long the church can hold out before a developer comes along.
Which is why a photographer with better skills than mine should go document 117 years of history.
Let's look at the new rendering for the former Amato Opera building on the Bowery
On the Bowery, the Amato Opera building has sat vacant since the company closed on May 31, 2009. In January 2009, Anthony Amato, the company’s 88-year-old founder, announced that he had sold the building that the Opera has called home since 1964. (He and his wife Sally, who died 12 years ago, started Amato in 1948.)
Through these years, we've pointed out the various for rent signs that have adorned the building. We even pointed out the most recent rendering people (scalies!) that the broker was using...
Very realistic — particularly the texting zombie walking right into traffic on the Bowery.
But that dose of realism wasn't really working. We need to see... the future! Not to mention some hot rendering ass.
Seems about right.
For further reading:
Amato Opera (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)
Life after the Amato Opera
Costume drama on the Bowery as the Amato Opera empties out
Ruin of the Bowery nearly complete: Last season for the Amato Opera
Go inside the Amato Opera here.
Through these years, we've pointed out the various for rent signs that have adorned the building. We even pointed out the most recent rendering people (scalies!) that the broker was using...
Very realistic — particularly the texting zombie walking right into traffic on the Bowery.
But that dose of realism wasn't really working. We need to see... the future! Not to mention some hot rendering ass.
Seems about right.
For further reading:
Amato Opera (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)
Life after the Amato Opera
Costume drama on the Bowery as the Amato Opera empties out
Ruin of the Bowery nearly complete: Last season for the Amato Opera
Go inside the Amato Opera here.
Out and About in the East Village
In this weekly feature, East Village-based photographer James Maher provides us with a quick snapshot of someone who lives and/or works in the East Village.
By James Maher
Name: Joey McGibbon
Occupation: Doorman, Retired
Location: 6th Street between Avenue A and B
Time: 1:52 on Sunday, Aug. 27
James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.
By James Maher
Name: Joey McGibbon
Occupation: Doorman, Retired
Location: 6th Street between Avenue A and B
Time: 1:52 on Sunday, Aug. 27
"I’ve lived in the neighborhood for 30 years. I was a doorman on the Upper East Side. The difference between the Upper East Side and here was like night and day. I worked for gazillionaires. What they paid for shoes and clothes, I could pay my rent for 3 months.
It was a different neighborhood 30 years ago. It was dangerous but I never felt really threatened. You just had to know your way about, where you were going, and what you were doing. Half this neighborhood was burnt out; every block had burnt out buildings. It was really empty. If you weren’t from around here people knew it because it was so depopulated.
I moved down here by accident. I was in love with this girl and we were in the throws of breaking up. I grew up in Queens. I had no intentions of moving down here, especially back then when this neighborhood was the way it was. But she moved here and I followed her. I thought maybe we’d get back together but it never happened and I ended up staying.
It was quite an accident and it changed my life. I met some wonderful people: artists, writers, and creative people. It’s always been a young neighborhood, but it wasn’t college students, it was young people on the fringe. It was quite some fun. You had the Robots; you had EPCs; you had the Limbo Lounge; Pizza a Go-Go; the Pyramid Club was in full swing. I got exposed to a lot of things I wouldn’t have been exposed to in Queens. There were some heartbreaking things too; I lost a lot of people to drugs and to the AIDS crisis.
They filmed 'The Godfather Part 2' on this block. All these buildings here still had the old fashioned storefronts. They were sealed up, but they all had the old-fashioned storefronts, so they fixed them up and created a barbershop and a candy store and put canopies on them. It’s the scene where that guy in the white suit [Don Fanucci] is going down the street, where he gets blown away by Robert DeNiro in the hallway. That’s where a lot of these trees came from, because the block association said, 'if you’re going to disrupt our lives we want some compensation', so they agreed to give them money for these trees."
James Maher is a fine art and studio photographer based in the East Village. Find his website here.
64 Second Ave. on the block for $7.3 million
The building between East Third Street and East Fourth Street arrived on the market yesterday. Nothing immediately alarming in the Streeteasy listing, such as air rights or single-family mansion:
64 Second Avenue represents an excellent opportunity to purchase a unique mixed-use asset on the Avenue in an up and coming East Village neighborhood. This building has significant potential as a cash flow investment, Live plus income opportunity, or a retail user opportunity. The 5 story property contains one ground floor retail unit along with 3 apartments above, including an Owner’s Duplex with a rooftop garden.
... This must be the owner's duplex...Or at least the rooftop gadren portion.
This is what the Village Voice offices looked like on Aug. 25, 2012
This year, we'll post photos like this of various buildings, streetscenes, etc., to capture them as they looked at this time and place... The photos may not be the most telling now, but they likely will be one day...
For further reading:
The Voice is leaving Cooper Square (DNAinfo)
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
[Updated] Report: Medical Examiner rules Carlisle Brigham's death an accident
However, DNAinfo reports that an autopsy today found that Brigham suffered "blunt impact injuries of the head and neck," per the Medical Examiner's Office.
According to the Post, this happened "possibly after tripping on her high heels following a night of drinking with college pals."
Updated 8-29:
As you can see, the Post reported today that Bingham's father "was scheduled to take his daughter to a rehab facility for alcohol and possible drug addiction, the sources said."
The Daily News reported today that Bingham had been living on Avenue B since the separation from her husband. Unnamed sources told the News that Bingham returned home late Sunday after she had attended a friend's wedding in Virginia ...and that Bingham "had partied so hard she had to be carried into the building" on Orchard Street where she spent the night Sunday.
However:
[A] longtime friend and neighbor of Brigham’s, who did not want to be named, did not believe she was drunk and said she only spent the night away from her sublet because she forgot her keys at the Virginia wedding. “She wasn’t a drinker,” said the friend. “She was building a career after a bad marriage. ... She was happy.”
Updated 8-29:
The New York Times has more on her life and death here. The paper notes that she was supposed to meet her father for lunch on Monday.
Per the article:
As he drove into the city from La Guardia Airport they talked by phone, first at 9:25 and then at 9:30, he said. Shortly afterward, her body was found by a 19-year-old neighbor, at the foot of the stairway. She was dressed entirely in white, with the contents of a large, clothing-stuffed weekend bag around her, according to interviews he gave NBC News and other outlets. Her father arrived just after the ambulance left the building.
“It’s just devastating, it’s so unspeakably difficult,” he said. “I’ve received 100 e-mails, and almost to a person everyone says I don’t know what to say. And I don’t either, in a way. It’s just devastating to lose such a beautiful creature.”
Trends: East Village is the leader in carts attached to things
About the 'Robokid V. East Village' video
You may have seen this video yesterday of 7-year-old East Village resident Jakob Kraus making the rounds (viral, woot!) ... I first spotted it on AnimalNY.
Today, the Daily News talks to boy's father ...
"He's a completely self-taught kid who loves to dance," said Matthew Kraus, who pointed out that he and his wife never pushed their son to dance. The idea behind the videos — there are five — is all Jakob's, according to the News.
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