1st permits filed for renovation of Walter De Maria's former home-studio on East 6th Street

Back in August, news reports confirmed that billionaire art collector Peter Brant bought Walter De Maria’s former home and studio at 421 E. Sixth St. for $27 million.

In May, a tipster told us that The Brant Foundation would use the building between First Avenue and Avenue A as an exhibition space.

While Brant's reps haven't released any further details on what he plans on doing with the address, work is underway on the building. Plans filed with the DOB Friday call for the rather generic "removal of interior non loading bearing partitions and related finishes."

Gluckman Mayner Architects are listed as the architects of record. Among their projects: the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, N.M., the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin, the renovation and expansion of the Whitney and the conversion of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

De Maria died of a stroke in July 2013 at age 77.

Per artnet: "De Maria is best known for The Lightning Field (1977), 400 stainless steel poles planted in a one-by-one-mile grid in the New Mexican desert. The famously isolated piece can only be visited by six guests per day, each of whom must stay overnight in an isolated cabin."

The property, which includes the empty lot to the west, had been listed for $25 million. It was built in 1920 as a ConEd substation, but had been converted into a photography studio after De Maria bought it in 1980.

Previously on EV Grieve:
About that "giant-robot laboratory" on East Sixth Street

RIP Walter De Maria

What is your East Village dream home?

Walter De Maria's 'giant-robot laboratory' going for $25 million; inside is amazing as you'd expect

Walter De Maria's home/studio on East 6th Street is now on the market for $25 million

Rumor: The Brant Foundation buying Walter De Maria's E. 6th St. studio for an exhibition space (19 comments)

Confirmed: Peter M. Brant buys Walter De Maria's amazing East 6th Street home and studio

The Thirsty Buddha has closed; Taqueria St. Mark's on deck

Paper is up in the windows now at The Thirsty Buddha, the third bar (Saints Tavern! Kamikaze & Co.!) to give 79 St. Mark's Place a whirl.

Coming next: Taqueria St. Mark's, the former Taqueria Lower East Side, one of the restaurant victims who was looking for new home after Ben Shaoul bought that East Houston and Orchard corner space.

As we've mentioned, there seem to be plenty of places in the neighborhood now for tacos... with one more after Empellón al Pastor (bar meets tortilleria) opened yesterday on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Taqueria Lower East Side relocating to St. Mark's Place

A look inside the incoming Momofuko Ko on Extra Place

We took a walk on a very quiet Extra Place on Friday afternoon, where we spotted a crew working on the new Momofuko Ko space...



As you can see, there looks to be quite a bit of work left on the 25-seat restaurant...





The construction at 4-8 Extra Place hasn't made at least one neighbor too happy...



Meanwhile, across East First Street at the former Veselka Bowery, work continues on the incoming steakhouse-oyster bar Bowery Meat Company ...



... a name that conjures up two nearby former businesses — Bowery Wine Company and Bowery Beef...



Previously on EV Grieve:
With new restaurant opening, will Extra Place finally become a dining destination?

Extra Place now officially a Dead End

Extra Place and Heidi currently 'closed for renovation' in Extra Place

Red Hook Lobster Pound in the works for Extra Place

United (States Post Office) we fall

On Saturday, EVG reader Mr. Baggs noticed a worker removing the remaining letters outside the former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office at 432 E. 14th St. near Avenue A.



As we noted last week, demolition permits are on file to bring down the post office and former Stuyvesant Stationery shop next door for some unspecified new development.

Previously on EV Grieve:
First sign of more development on East 14th Street?

Asbestos abatement to begin at former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office

Davey drill arrives ahead of rumored development at former East 14th Street post office

Former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office slated to be demolished

Noted

bros kicking dropped wings at the bodega employees & calling them terrorists. guess this is east village now pic.twitter.com/P2IeQf9TT3

— C A M P B E L L (@MountWuteverest) October 19, 2014

Avenue B between East Seventh Street and East Sixth Street

Week in Grieview

[Chewie, Avenue B]

Former Peter Stuyvesant Post Office slated to be demolished (Monday)

Boarding up the Alamo on Astor Place (Wednesday)

Out and About with Wasim Lone of GOLES (Wednesday)

An appreciation: Raquel's garden on First Avenue (Thursday)

Q-and-A with Richard Ocejo, author of 'Upscaling Downtown: From Bowery Saloons to Cocktail Bars' (Tuesday)

The former La Vie prepped for the condo afterlife on East First Street (Tuesday)

Never-ending construction at 185-193 Avenue B continues to never end (Monday)

Gutting the former Odessa Cafe and Bar (Tuesday)

Checking in on the Tuck Shop (Friday)

A look at the first East Village apartment building named after a secondary character in an Ayn Rand novel (Wednesday)

Your chance to become a gypsy (Wednesday)

98-100 Avenue is now the pits (Monday)

Parmys Persian Fusion becoming Ravagh Persian Grill (Thursday)

The guy with the kids-in-the-car line is back (Sunday)

From Five Points to Vic's on Great Jones (Friday)

Korilla BBQ soft opening on Third Avenue (Wednesday)

Important post about Halloween costumes (Friday)

Researchers discover rats grosser than originally thought (Wednesday)

Wash House space for rent (Friday)

Empellón al Pastor is now open on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place

Empellón al Pastor, the third restaurant from Alex (Empellón Cocina, Empellón Taqueria), is now open.

The doors opened at 12:30… or at least that's what the signs promised… that and football...



Here's a look at the menu… four of the five menu panels are devoted to alcohol …





There's also delivery via Caviar.

And Stupak said this about the space to WWD:

His choice of venue drives home the point: in the Eighties, it was a punk dive bar called Alcatraz. Stupak tapped several artist friends to re-create graffiti on the inside to look weathered.

“At the end of the day, I wanted it to feel like a quirky dive bar that someone happened to inject a taqueria into,” he says.

Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Chef Alex Stupak vying for former Sushi Lounge space on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place

As the for rent signs turn on Avenue A

Here are a few scant details about chef Alex Stupak's new venture on St. Mark's Place

CB3 OKs liquor license for Alex Stupak's new restaurant on St. Mark's Place

More about Empellón al Pastor, opening this fall on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place

You might be seeing more of these Amazon Fresh trucks on East Village streets in the weeks ahead

EVG reader Michael Hirsch spotted this Amazon Fresh truck on Avenue A and East Third Street yesterday afternoon.

On Friday, Amazon launched its grocery delivery business on the East Coast with service for now to Park Slope.

According to Re/code, who first reported on the service here:

Amazon Fresh customers in the city who place orders before 10 am will receive deliveries later that same day; orders placed after that time will be delivered the following day. The service is known mainly for groceries, but also offers thousands of other items such as electronics and toys that are available for same-day delivery as well.

A spokeswoman declined to say when the service might be available in other parts of New York City, including Manhattan.

The driver told Michael that the service would begin in the East Village in the next few weeks.

Re/code noted that the company is storing Amazon Fresh food in a new warehouse in Avenel, N.J.

EVG Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought...

Noted

Spotted by Dave on 7th outside Tompkins Square Bagels on Avenue A...

Report: Police searching for suspect in attempted Stuy Town rape

Stuy Town tenants received the following alert:

At about 4 a.m. on Friday, October 17, a 20-year-old woman was assaulted by a would-be rapist who followed her into the elevator of her Stuyvesant Town building on the 600 block of East 14th Street. She fought him off, and he fled. The man's image was captured on security cameras in the Terrace and Main lobbies, the elevator, and then later in the street. He was seen climbing down a tree to get to street level.

Per CBS New York:

The suspect is wearing a dark hoodie, a dark t-shirt, blue jeans and white sneakers and carrying a white plastic bag, perhaps filled with groceries. Police said he is Hispanic.

Here is video via Gothamist...



According to the Stuyvesant Town Report, "The woman was badly injured and treated at Beth Israel Medical Center."

Anyone with information that could help in the investigation is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). You may also submit tips online.

Two weeks ago, a man with the same general description was spotted by a neighbor trying to attack a young woman on East Eighth Street at Avenue B. The neighbor who intervened placed these flyers around the neighborhood.

The East Village Community Flea & Market back in action today

A Saturday without rain. Shocker! Which means that the East Village Community Flea & Market returns today to Second Avenue … some details via the EVG inbox…

This Flea Market features several vendors whom you may recognize as veterans of the Flea Market circuit in New York City. For the remainder of October & November, before the typical Holiday hordes descend, you can take the time to try on, ask questions, browse, shop, cruise, and hang out. No chain stores here... Come out & show that DOWNTOWN, New York City can still support local artists, small businesses, and a Flea Market!

The East Village Community Market is located just outside the gates of the St. Mark's Church in the Bowery (and turns the corner, continuing down 11th Street). It takes place every Saturday from 11AM until 7PM.

You can usually expect between 10 and 20 vendors…

Pace yourself

Halloween is still about two weeks away.

Unless there is another explanation for this on Avenue A.

Overnight Citi Bike recap

What's going on @CitibikeNYC? There are a half dozen abandoned citibikes in the east village at 8th at and 1st ave. pic.twitter.com/ujlkpa0idC

— DS (@davidsokol) October 18, 2014

Hooks, line and sinker

Here is Mary Timony's new band, Ex Hex, with "Waterfall." The D.C.-based power-pop trio's first record came out last week.

They'll be at the Mercury Lounge on Nov. 2.

Trees to grow on East 12th Street (and elsewhere)

You've likely seen crews digging up chunks of the sidewalk around some side streets in recent weeks… this morning, EVG reader Greg Masters spotted these workers on East 12th Street just west of Avenue A… they're prepping the plots (which maybe look like fresh graves?) for two new trees along here…





It's all apparently part of the Department of Parks & Recreation's Street Tree Planting program.

This is fine and all, but it is taking up valuable sidewalk space for more docking stations or _______________________.

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition

[Tompkins Square Park the other day via Bobby Williams]

State: Airbnb listings mostly illegal (The New York Times)

HVAC Units at relocated Dunkin' Donuts on East 14th Street driving neighbors crazy (BoweryBoogie)

East Sixth Street between First and Second Avenues will be named Miriam Friedman Way (DNAinfo)

Jeremiah Moss on the two marble cemeteries of the East Village (Metro)

In her new showing opening Sunday at Joe's Pub, Penny Arcade confronts a gentrified New York (The New York Times)

Court gives NYU OK on $6 billion neighborhood-gobbling expansion (Capital New York)

So what is the Lowline, and who is it for? (The Lo-Down)

What happened to the Jewish supply stores of Essex Street? (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Christo lets a good meal get away (Gog in NYC)

Support for Siempre Verde Garden on the LES (The Villager)

Hearth and Proletariat teaming up for an Oktoberfest meal Sunday (Details here)

Looking at the former stables in the Village (Off the Grid)

Restaurant apparently not returning to Union Square pavilion (A Walk in the Park via Eater)

"Shadows & Blood," an exhibition of works by the New York artist Richard Hambleton, continues through Nov. 9 at Dorian Grey Gallery, 437 E. Ninth St. (Details here.)

...and we only heard about this crowdsourcing campaign yesterday... longtime East Village residents Adam Alexander and Leslie Sternbergh Alexander are trying to raise money by selling some of their art collection in return for money to pay for rent... (The income challenges followed Leslie's bout with colon cancer.)



Find their IndieGoGo page here.

The Tuck Shop is alive and well on East 1st Street

[Image via the Tuck Shop website]

As noted this week, the Australian-based pie and coffee chain closed six out of its seven NYC locations, including the outlet on Fourth Avenue and East 13th Street.

In the comments, several readers noted how much they like the original meat-pie purveyor here — The Tuck Shop at 68 E. First St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue.

Seems like a good time to check in with owner Niall Grant.

We are alive and well and, in fact, had our best month ever in September. October is looking even better so we will be here for a long while to come with the support the community. We've been open for nine years already and will be signing a new lease shortly.

I have been a East Village resident since emigrating from Ireland in 1992 and opened the Tuck Shop in part because I felt there were enough Irish bars in NYC already.

Tuck Shop did close the St. Mark's Place location last July. There is a second Tuck Shop location in the Chelsea Market.

(Every Day Is) Halloween: At the Ricky's Pop-up Shop on East Houston

Given that Halloween is like two weeks away, we stopped by the Ricky's Pop-up Halloween store in the Shoppes of Red Square along East Houston. To see what was what.

There is a lot of crap stuff to choose from.

Like wigs!





And accessories!







And costumes for couples!



And Jedi Knight posers!



A lot of the costumes are pretty much the same as the last time as when it was a Halloween City a few years ago… (except for the Mitt Romney masks)











Maybe buy this to join the crew hanging out across the street from the Bowery Hotel...



And not really sure where to categorize these two...

Reader report: The Wash House has apparently closed; space is for rent

The Wash House, the laundro-bar that made a big splash when it opened earlier this year, has apparently closed, per a tipster.

It is/was the place at 44 E. First St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue where you could have some beer or wine or a grilled-cheese sandwich while someone washed your clothes in the back.

The place certainly had some public relations power behind it, landing coverage everywhere from NY1 to CNN. (Apparently all that press didn't convert many viewers into customers. And their PR power skipped over neighborhood outlets.)

The Wash House website is no longer active ... and they were closed during stated business hours yesterday ... and there haven't been any updates on their social media accounts since May.

Meanwhile, the space has been on the market. Current asking rent is $4,500 a month (plus $165,000 key money), per the NYCRS site, which also notes that the space is "Eligible for full liquor license in 4 months."

As BoweryBoogie pointed out back in February, there was "vehement opposition from the 1st Street Block Association and CB3 District Manager Susan Stetzer" over this beer-wine application.

However, SLA Chairman Dennis Rosen approved the wine and beer license subject to a zoning resolution with the DOB.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A 'laundry bistro' in the works for East First Street

Oh, that laundro-cafe concept really happened on East 1st Street

Nope, still not used to it

51 Astor Place aka the IBM Watson Building.

Films that we want to see: 'Stations of the Elevated'

"Stations of the Elevated" opens tomorrow for a week-long run out at BAM. We'd like to see it.

Some thoughts in the press:

Manfred Kirchheimer's Stations of the Elevated (1981) is a 45-minute proto-hip-hop bliss-out, a masterpiece of train- and tag-spotting dedicated to memorializing the extravagant graffiti on its era's MTA trains and how those trains rumbled across Brooklyn and the Bronx, bearing not just exhausted New Yorkers but gifted artists' urgent personal expression.

(Alan Scherstuhl, the Voice)

Graffiti no longer represents the menace it did in the seventies and eighties. It’s arguable whether most New Yorkers even find it offensive anymore. It is part of the romantic, rough-and-tumble past, preserved in museums and coffee-table books. You are just as likely to see graffiti on the streets of Brooklyn as on the Web site announcing a new Brooklyn condo, an evocative signifier of urban bona fides. Graffiti quietly anticipated the look and feel of contemporary advertising, from guerrilla marketing to the notion that every surface was a potential billboard.

(Hua Hsu, The New Yorker)

An appreciation: Raquel's garden on 1st Avenue

[EVG file photo from July]

The First Avenue bike lanes arrived back in in July 2010 ... the new concrete pedestrian island and tree pit at First Avenue and East Seventh Street provided one longtime East Village resident with an urban garden that has been well-admired these past four years.

When sunflowers arrived in September 2010, Raquel Shapira noticed that no one was watering the plants.

So she bought a watering can across the street at Saifee Hardware. The Tile Bar, which is the closest business to the island, lets Shapira keep the can there and use their water.

Guerilla gardening hasn't always been easy here. (Case in point one and two.)

As the gardening season winds down, we asked Shapira a few questions about her work.

Why did you decide to start tending to the plot on a more regular basis?

After seeing the sunflowers not being tended to, I could not ignore them or watch them die. As other plants started to appear ... the mission was kept alive. The following years I started planting my own flowers.

What has been the most rewarding part of this? The most frustrating?

The most rewarding is having a piece of greenery in the middle of NYC cement no matter how small it may be. The sunflowers bring smiles to people faces and many stop to take pictures. It's a joy.

Of course, the most frustrating thing is or are the flower thieves. This past spring I saw a woman cutting tulips in broad day light. Luckily I was around to shoo her away. Sunflowers are usually stolen during the night, which makes me suspect that weekend drunks are most likely to be blamed.

I heard that you received a new watering can.

For my birthday this year, my friends at the Tile Bar gave me a larger watering can, and each of them signed it as a card. Was a beautiful gift that reduced my exercise routine.

What's in store for 2015 here?

Next year I'm hoping to get wildflower seeds and sow them early spring. I may venture to other islands along First Avenue and sow them there as well — although I will not be able to water those. Of course plants that exist in the plot will always be taken care of.

Any parting thoughts?

What I like about this garden is keeping it organic. I have seen small plots on streets between Broadway and Fifth Avenue where every few months new plants are being forced around the trees to make the rich tenants happy. This garden is not the same. I let every plant live to its fullest and I'd like to keep it this way even if it doesn't look like a Fifth Avenue plot.

And yes – it's pretty much the end of the season, except the cosmos decided to bloom quite late. Even the vine growing on the tree is showing signs of life with new flowers. So I'm keeping an eye as always.

Here's Shapira (center) with her friend Manny Verdi (far left) on First Avenue and East Seventh Street. As for the other two fellows, they were moving a couch and stopped for a rest. Photo last Friday by Lori Kohn.



For further reading:
the little garden that could
Loisaida Nest

Thanks to The Village Voice

The Best of New York 2014 issue named EVG as the Best Local Website.



Yikes. There go my plans to "temporarily close for renovations" next week.

Seriously, though — thank you. Everyone.

And congratulations to my blogging friend Jeremiah Moss, whose Jeremiah's Vanishing New York was deservedly named Best Chronicle of New York's Ever-Changing Face.

S & P Liquor & Wine back in business on East 5th Street

Back in late July, the city ordered three small businesses on East Fifth Street just east of Second Avenue to vacate their storefronts due to a "structural" issue in one of the apartments in the building above…

Goggla tells us that the liquor store has returned … they haven't fully restocked the shelves just yet (the landlord made them move their stock from the basement to a warehouse). However, they are still able to make deliveries.

Unfortunately, Jamie the check-chasing guy is still operating from the van outside his storefront. (Today's Cut hair salon remains closed too.)



Last month, Jamie offered us this explanation about the situation:

What happened was there was some construction being done [in the building] and a person put their foot through the ceiling. The person below them had enough and finally called the fire department and police department. Because of the condition of the place, the fire department looked, didn’t like what they saw, didn’t see any permits, and they went around the whole building. By the end of the day, it was everybody out — full vacate.

Updated 8:28 p.m.

Read the comments... looks as if they will have to close again for some repairs...

Previously on EV Grieve:
3 small businesses temporarily closed due to structural issues at 300 E. 5th St.