For the birds

Eating good in Tompkins Square Park today… photo by Bobby Williams

Area children possibly traumatized by discarded Spinmaster Elmo Giggle and Shake Chair

[Photo by Shawn Chittle]

Sad sight on East 12th Street between Avenue and Avenue B today.

How to explain this when asked? "The wiggles and giggles are gone?" "A new developer bought that building and..."

Surprise! Surprise! will close at the end of April

Surprise! Surprise!, the reasonably priced housewares store that has anchored the northeast corner of Third Avenue and East 12th Street for more than 25 years, is closing at the end of April, employees confirmed yesterday.

An obvious reason is behind the closure: The rents have gotten too high, a store employee said yesterday. (The staff first learned of the closure this past Friday.)

Surprise! Surprise!, which has furnished its share of apartments and dorm rooms through the years with everything from picture frames to shower curtains, will be having a 20-percent-off sale now through the end of April.



This is, of course, a highly desirable space with its proximity to NYU and Union Square.



On the southwest corner of this intersection, Westside Market NYC will anchor the base of the all-new retail-residential complex at 84 Third Avenue. The store will feature WiFi and state-of-the-art checkout counters.

One final thought … given its proximity to NYU, you'd think a store like this would be a goldmine … though NYU pointed parents and their incoming students elsewhere on the school's annual move-in day…



Thanks to EVG Facebook friend Jacquelyn Gallo for the tip.

Looking at Centre-fuge Cycle 12, which includes a tribute to founder Mike Hamm

The artists participating in Centre-fuge Cycle 12 completed their work this past weekend on the rotating outdoor gallery/construction trailer here along East First Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

Artists represented in Cycle 12 are Amar Stewart, BK, Col Wallnuts, Michael DeNicola, Numb-DSI and Vernon O’Meally.



The most recent recreation of Mike Hamm's work is permanently installed on the eastern face of the trailer.



Hamm, who worked at Lancelotti Housewares and Alphabets on Avenue A, was one of Centre-Fuge's creators. He died on Jan. 7, 2012, after doctors discovered an undiagnosed condition called arteriovenous malformation that caused a series of brain hemorrhages. He was 29. (Read more about Mike here.)

Also, as you may have read yesterday (the story made the rounds on the Internet), Cycle 12 includes Michael DeNicola's tribute to the late Philip Seymour Hoffman.



And an in-progress look from Saturday morning…



This western-facing side of the trailer was previously home to Danielle Mastrion's tribute to MCA of the Beasties Boys in the spring of 2012…



Find more info about each artist on the Centre-fuge Tumblr here.

What are these workers painting inside the retail space at the IBM Watson building?

Yes, the headline is the question! EVG regular William Klayer caught this action yesterday afternoon inside 51 Astor Place (aka, the IBM Watson building), where "they were painting like mad."

Hmm. What do you suppose is inside this new yellow box thing? (Something for the rabbit?)

Meanwhile, several readers have pointed out that the listings ("flagship opportunity!") for the three ground-floor retail spaces are no longer active on the RKF site. So perhaps a retail announcement is imminent.

EVG readers shared their thoughts last June on what kind of businesses they thought would lease these retail spaces. Popular answers included bank branch, bank and bank branch.

Previously on EV Grieve:
3 retail spaces available at 51 Astor Place (22 comments)

Deth Killers of Bushwick open pop-up shop at the former Downtown Auto & Tire on the Bowery

[EVG file photo from April 2012]

After sitting vacant for nearly two years, it looks as if the former Downtown Auto & Tire space on Great Jones and the Bowery has a new (temporary) tenant...


[Photo last night by Goggla]

The Brooklyn-based motorcycle club launched the Deth Killers of Bushwick brand in 2002... and 348 Bowery here will serve as a pop-up shop for their specialty $250 jeans. The Deth Killers say the shop will be open until at least September.

Here's more from the Times, who reported on this last Thursday:

The cultish label emerged out of a tight-knit motorcycle club in Brooklyn by the same name, limits itself to minuscule and sporadic production runs, and sells in only a few boutiques around the country.

In recent years, the label’s signature asphalt-resistant biker jeans, woven with Kevlar to combat road rash, have become a word-of-mouth phenomenon among grease-spattered gearheads and celebrities like Justin Theroux and Josh Hutcherson.

They opened last night with some kind of Fashion Week party that featured a wheelie machine and a punching competition.

The space hit the market in May 2010 ... In July 2010, a few people were hoping to open the first New York branch of Segafredo Zanetti Espresso Café, the Italian-style coffee bar, on this spot. They went before CB2, who rejected the proposal, which included a patio with a retractable roof with soundproofing ... and sound-resistant sliding doors. (You can read our coverage of the meeting here.)

Previously on EV Grieve:
Please meet the next corner of the Bowery primed for something luxurious

The last days of the Downtown Auto and Tire?

The Bowery to get a South Beach diet

Making Faces at the Downtown Tire & Auto Center

Downtown Auto & Tire has left the Bowery

Red Mango now open on Second Avenue

That crucially needed Red Mango has opened on Second Avenue between East Fourth Street and East Third Street … not sure exactly when it officially opened… though it has to be pretty recent given that the Red Mango sign is just plopped there on the sidewalk…

A Red Mango came and went pretty quickly on St. Mark's Place back in 2008… will this time be any different?

Previously on EV Grieve:
Uh-huh: Red Mango returning to the East Village (19 comments)

Campaign underway to landmark building that the Soho House is developing on Ludlow Street

From the EVG inbox this past weekend…

The Friends of the Lower East Side (FOTLES) and the East Village Community Coalition (EVCC) have launched a drive to advocate for the NYC landmark designation of the former H. Nieberg Funeral Home, a rare intact survivor of the many funeral homes that once served the Jewish community of the Lower East
Side.

A Request for Evaluation for the historic building at 139-141 Ludlow Street was recently submitted to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission in collaboration with Friends of Terra Cotta and Kerri Culhane, architectural historian.

Many funeral homes, like H. Nieberg, evolved from livery stables, providing all the necessary arrangements, from removal of the body to burial, and were viewed as important religious structures in the community. The structure spans 143 years and reflects the growth and development of the neighborhood through its changing usage: from a hay and feed store and single dwelling to apartments and a stable, from an automobile garage and Jewish funeral home to a printing plant and high-tech company and, currently, planned for a private members’ club connected to an international network.

In 1925, Harry Nieberg handled the highly publicized funeral and burial of noted gangster Morris Grossman, attracting a crowd of more than 5,000 spectators. Described in 1937 in the New York Evening Post as “the huge and jovial Ludlow Street undertaker,” Harry Nieberg became a well-known figure in New York City during his ownership of the building. He was admired locally for his generosity.

In 1928, The New York Times reported on Nieberg’s efforts to raise funds to bury an impoverished Roman Catholic neighbor. This act of kindness was characteristic of Nieberg who offered twenty-five free funerals a year to impoverished New Yorkers.

Politically, Nieberg was celebrated for challenging the corruption of Tammany Hall, although his Congressional campaigns in 1935 and 1937 – against Christopher D. Sullivan, brother of Tammany boss “Big Tim” Sullivan – were not successful.

You can find the petition here.

After a long battle, the Soho House won approval for a liquor license here last October. Reps for Soho House had reportedly agreed to work with preservationists to protect the building's facade.

BoweryBoogie got a look inside the building last year.

You may want to avoid this car parked over the smoking manhole on East 3rd Street

Anyway happen to know how long this car has been blocked off with the Con Ed tape and cone here on East Third Street between Avenue A and Avenue B?

Today's mid-morning Tompkins Square Park snow shot

[Photo by Derek Berg]

Heard some grumbling from residents about what they consider a fairly half-assed plow job in the Park this past week... Kinda have to pick your spots to walk...

New building at 227 E. Seventh St. — revealed

[227 E. Seventh St. from September 2012]

The construction netting came down Friday at the all-new 227 E. Seventh St. just west of Avenue C… here ya go…


[Photo by Dave on 7th]



What do you think?

Here was the rendering… as you can see, the developers ditched the all-glass façade...


[Via BuzzBuzzHome]

There are six condos here… we haven't seen any pricing yet for these homes. (Perhaps you have?) Regardless, one amenity is having the ability to be first in line for any matches showing at Zum Schneider next door.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Asbestos abatement on East Seventh Street, then a new 6-story building

3rd hearing set tomorrow for proposed hotel next to the Merchant's House Museum

Nearly a year has passed since the last time the developers of a proposed hotel next to the Merchant's House Museum made their case to the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC).

The groups will reconvene tomorrow for the third hearing on the matter. Folks from the Merchant's House Museum on East Fourth Street between the Bowery and Lafayette as well as other local residents and officials are concerned that the proposed 9-story hotel would compromise the structural integrity of the Merchant's House.

During the second meeting before the LPC last March 12, the developers provided what Curbed described as a thorough nine-part presentation on how the construction would be completed in a manner that would not damage its historic neighbor. In the end, the LPC "had significant objections to the proposed design of the hotel itself" and were looking for a third-party expert to weigh in on the matter.

Here's the message from the Merchant's House website ahead of tomorrow's meeting:

A developer is planning to build a 9-story hotel at 27 East 4th Street, adjacent to and towering over the Merchant’s House Museum. The new 9-story building would not only overwhelm the 180-year-old landmark Merchant’s House and be strikingly inappropriate to the historic residential context of East 4th Street within the Noho Historic District, but the construction process for a building of this scale is absolutely guaranteed to damage the house.

The potential damage to our very fragile 1832 landmark building — a federal, state, and city landmark, inside and out — during demolition of the existing garage and construction of the new hotel is huge. According to analyses performed by structural engineers, if our building shifts, even 1/4 inch — as is predicted by the developers — the original landmark 1832 decorative plasterwork, considered the finest extant in New York City and a national treasure, will be damaged.

While there isn't any public testimony tomorrow, the Merchant's House is encouraging people to show up in support. (Find more details on the meeting, which starts at 2 p.m., here.)

Find Curbed's coverage of the proposed development here.

The Merchant's House was the sixth landmark designated in 1965, when LPC was first created.

The space next door to the museum is currently this one-level structure… housing Al-Amin Food Inc., which stores food carts…


[Via Google]

Previously.