How about this for a new 51 Astor Place?

Last week, the 51 Astor Place People released new renderings of 51 Astor Place ... and not everyone is so keen on the look of the Fumihiko Maki-designed office building.

Our friends at Curbed asked their readers to redesign 51 Astor Place.

And here is the winner.

The winner, Dustin Tobias, received a $100 gift certificate to St. Mark's Bookshop.

Tobias explained his rendering to Curbed:

"The proposed building would be composed of fragments of lost East Village landmarks. An unfinished work, the building would be continuously assembled, growing taller and more visible as the neighborhood continues to vanish."

Check out some of the other submissions here.

On second thought, the Standard East Village didn't open a new restaurant this week (ping-pong — yes)

[UrbanDaddy]

On Wednesday, we posted that bit from UrbanDaddy about the Standard East Village debuting its new restaurant (The Restaurant at the Standard East Village) ... not to mention the outdoor ping-pong table.

Well, a reader left us this comment:

The hotel manager claims that the urbandaddy story is totally false; the standard has not finalized its plans for it's restaurant (ie he denies the ping pong concept.) certainly the standard's neighbors would not be happy with outdoor ping pong noise and hopefully the standard gets it.

We did a little checking ... while there is a ping-pong table for now (confirmed via this tweet) ... a newly rebranded restaurant has not opened.

In a blog post yesterday, "Stan D’Arde ... the perennial voice of The Standard Hotels" explained that UrbanDaddy's story was, well, wrong.

To Stan!

Listen…there is nothing more that I love than a game of ping pong coupled with a BLT Turkey Club or Pappardelle with Ragu Bolognese, Peas & Parmesan or a Pan Roasted Half Chicken with Rosemary Smashed Potatoes & Brussel Sprouts or Tomato Soup with Basil Oil and Cheddar Croutons.

BUT…painting the walls and dropping a ping pong table in for a little bit of fun doesn’t necessarily make for a grand opening ... if you revisit our original announcement when we took over the hotel, you’ll see that The Standard, East Village is a slow work in progress which will be completed over the next year. It will be quiet and intimate with food that not only is comforting but hopefully food coma inducing (I haven’t finalized the menu just yet).

I think that, when we’re officially ready to launch something, you’ll want to hear it first hand from me…and not your daddy, n’est-ce pas?

The Delancey Underground's Kickstarter campaign

On Wednesday night, the fellows behind the plan to build a park in an abandoned trolley station below Delancey Street (the Low Line or the Delancey Underground) launched a Kickstarter campaign.

Their goal is to raise to raise $100,000 to fund a large-scale demo of technology they developed to transport sunlight underground, as The Lo-Down noted. (You can find the Kickstarter page here.)

There's a video explaining all the particulars on the Kickstarter page...



Several people have pointed out one moment in the video... at the 25-second mark ... the line about the Lower East Side being "full of culture and history ..." is set to an image of the now-demolished Mars Bar...

Previously on EV Grieve:
Day trippers: Picture yourself in a park under Delancey

This is what the northwest corner of Avenue B and East Houston looked like on Feb. 20, 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...

Spring in Tompkins Square Park

Feb. 23, and we're in bloom ... Photo by Bobby Williams.

A nice day for a sack lunch in the cemetery

At the New York City Marble Cemetery on East Second Street today.

Photo by Bobby Williams.

So how many new 7-Eleven stores does this mean for the East Village?

You may have seen this in Crain's yesterday ... Basically, 7-Eleven is taking over the place. There will be 14 new 7-Elevens in the city this year. Then!

Beginning next year, 7-Eleven plans to ramp things up, adding 20 locations —ranging in size from 1,500 square feet to 3,000 square feet — every year until 2017.

They aren't ramped up already?

One more thing!

The company, which boasts 7,200 locations across the U.S. and a whopping 44,000 worldwide, is working toward converting many of its corporate-owned outposts to franchised outlets. In New York that also means working with existing bodega owners to persuade them to transform their businesses into 7-Elevens. Three such conversions will open here this year, Mr. Porter said. Typically it costs between $200,000 and $1 million to open a 7-Eleven franchise.

No! Don't fall for the 7-Eleven Mind Warp!

So... we have the new one on the Bowery... then, as we first reported, there's the one coming to St. Mark's Place near Second Avenue.

Given the number of new locations spawning ... expect more hereabouts. We're still speculating that one will open in the Red Square strip mall... And how about at a newly renovated 100 Avenue A?

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

[Outside Cooper Union this morning]

RIP Barney Rosset, the owner of Grove Press (The New York Times)

An interview with Rosset in his East Village home (The Paris Review)

Richard Edson revisits the East Village (The Villager)

Remembering Ira Cohen (BoweryBoogie)

The "red-soled, toddling vampires" continue to take over the Far West Village (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Celebrating local bookstores (Off the Grid)

For everyone who got shut out of buying Kraftwerk tickets at MoMa (Stupefaction)

Savoy reopening at Back Forty West (Grub Street)

First public meeting on Pier 42's future (The Lo-Down)

And Bobby Williams notes that Jim Power continues to work on a new mosaic outside the Bean on Second Avenue...

RIP Markand Thakar

[Photo by Thomas D. Ward]

The folks at Sophie's and Mona's passed along the sad news that Markand Thakar, a longtime regular at the bars, died this week. He was 82. We don't have a lot of details at the moment about a service or any possible celebrations of his life.

His artwork adorns the walls at both bars. He was a regular at the popular Tuesday night jazz sessions at Mona's. You've probably seen him there. And you'd remember having a conversation with him.

You can read about his life and work and view his art at his website, The Skunk Museum & Library. (We particularly like his oil paintings of bar scenes from the 1970s and 1980s.)

Part of his life, in his own words:

I've been asked, on numerous occasions, to explain the origins of my name and of my antecedents - and, just how did my parents, being of such different backgrounds, manage to meet? It has become obvious, that in this day of the American hyphenate, merely stating that I was born in New York City, on the 4th of July, in the fateful year, 1929 — and being the sixth child of a father born in India, and a mother born in Belgium, makes for an insufficient life history...

-------

After the drafting, during WWII, of my three older brothers, I began working as a gofer at a haberdashery that furnished the uniforms for Columbia's Navy ninety-day-wonders, then worked as a soda jerk — during which time I dropped out of High School. On July 18, 1946, shortly after I turned seventeen, I enlisted in the Regular Army and served for about a year in the post-WWII occupation of Japan. As a result, I joined my three older brothers as WWII veterans (all of us having served during WWII's emergency years).

-------

After my discharge, and over the years, I used up my GI Bill schooling allowance — during which time I worked at numerous jobs: soda jerk, bank page, RR dock worker, apprentice machinist, model maker — all the while, and from then on, I was more or less involved in the making of art. Then, from late 1953, before selling my business in 1974, I supported my wife, Betty Huber (a German Baptist, born in Meriden, Connecticut, in 1926, who was in the process of obtaining a Ph.D.) and our three children as a licensed customhouse broker and registered foreign freight forwarder. My wife of over half a century (now deceased), after obtaining her PhD. carried much of the burden of supporting the family — from 1974 on.

-------

We featured Thakar in a post this past Dec. 22.

[Photo by Thomas D. Ward]

Report: 9th Precinct adding more cops to crack down on nightlife-related problems

Capt. John Cappelmann, the 9th precinct's new commanding officer, told residents that eight to 10 officers would join his ranks next month to help crack down on nightlife-related problems, DNAinfo reported.

During a Community Council meeting Tuesday night, "Cappelmann said he was responding to concerns he has heard from East Village residents since taking over the command about a month ago. Many residents turned out for Tuesday night's meeting to complain about noise and unruly crowds emanating from the neighborhood's densely packed bars."

He said that he'd assign the extra officers to the midnight conditions and midnight anticrime teams. (And how about a Sunday Brunch conditions team?)

Blockbuster closes on March 18

On Jan. 29, we noted that the Blockbuster on East Houston in the Red Square strip was going out of business ... At the time, a Blockbuster employee said that they'd close on Feb. 29.

However, we just heard that the Blockbusterers pushed the date back to March 18 (confirmed by a Blockbuster employee) ... so in case that you are in the market for any previously viewed DVDs or DVD display cases...

Now.

Two questions.

1) Has anyone checked out the sale items? Worth a look? We've never had a Blockbuster membership. Do you need to be a member to buy any of the crap?

2) The store has been on the block for a year now ... looks as if Sleepy's is part of the deal too ... the listing has it going for $75 a square foot... What would you like to see in the space? (Shoe store! Egg shop! Zine store! Heh.) What do you think will end up in the space? (And please be more specific than, say, "something shitty.")

Sorry — that was four questions.

Take a bath, get transported to Italy

Oh, just pointing out a listing for a two-bedroom home at 119 E. 10th Street — "central village" as the listings always list ... Nice place. Which is what you'd expect for $6,000 in rent per month.

Per the listing:

With two wood burning fireplaces, North and South views and a bathroom which transports you to Italy, this home will not disappoint!