[EVG file photo]
The reconstruction around Cooper Square and Astor Place is upon us... Yesterday, officials shipped out the, uh, official news release about the project (which we didn't receive!*) ... and Curbed has the details ... as well as some slightly updated images ...
[New trees help block out Chase branch]
The plan remains the same ... which includes enlarging Cooper Park, streamlining the street grid and creating new permanent pedestrian plazas. Not to mention adding 60 additional trees. Curbed notes that the work will cost $16 million. The work will start at East Fourth Street, "where new drainage catch basins, curbs and sidewalks are being constructed."
And the project will work its way north over the next two years.
Meanwhile, there hasn't been any official word about what will happen to Jim Power's mosaics that adorn Astor Place.
Per Serena Soloman at DNAinfo yesterday:
"They should not be removed," said Power, who plans to put up signs saying the mosaics are in danger.
"We are being pushed around by this so-called redesign. This is our neighborhood," he said.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Five years later, Astor Place apparently ready for its 2-year reconstruction project
* Our fax machine has been out of paper since 1999.