Urbanite

After more than 160 years, St. Saviour's in Maspeth has been deconstructed and is awaiting a new life at a nearby cemetery. Click here for a photo gallery of the final steps of the dismantling, courtesy of Christina Wilkinson. And click here for a gallery of the church as it looked when it had been stripped down to its austere wooden beauty.

-- Rolando Pujol

As a long-time New York resident and actor, Chris Noth loves the city. But he has one major issue.

“I think we shouldn’t give over to what I call greedy, unscrupulous builders,” Noth said at a recent press event for the “Sex and the City” movie, in which he reprises his role of Mr. Big.

Noth wants people to pay more attention to neighborhoods’ characters and historic icons, mentioning his support of a movement to keep the 13th Street Repertory Theater alive and his distaste for many of the gigantic new structures going up around the city.

“It wouldn’t hurt the mayor to realize that they made a lot of money building these buildings and they might want to keep an eye on what the character and essence of this town is. It’s neighborhoods. Its smaller businesses and smaller buildings,” Noth said. “I don’t necessarily think a glass tower that’s 40 stories high [is representing that]. We’re not Dubai. Were New York.”

What does he really miss? Stoops and coffee shops — traditional meeting places.

Guess there’s still the movie theater, albeit most likely an AMC or Regal.

— Julie Gordon

Victorian Flatbush: The yellow cab is the only hint you're in New York City.

We're big fans of Victorian Flatbush, a gem of an area that routinely leaves even longtime New Yorkers gape mouthed upon their first visit This slice of suburban splendor will become a little more accessible next month during the annual Victorian Flatbush house tour. It's on June 8 from 1 to 6 p.m. Advance tickets are $16, and $20 if purchased on the day of. Call 718-859-3800 or visit here.

MORE: Click here for an amNewYork tour of the neighborhood. We'll also put up additional posts in the next few days from a more recent visit to the area, as well as nearby Midwood. And this Thursday's City Living profile will be on Flatbush.

-- Rolando Pujol

Crews Friday afternoon were taking down the last of the scaffolding from 2 Columbus Circle, revealing the only distinct architectural feature that survived the building's epic overhaul -- Ada Louise Huxtable's lollilops. Well, they belong to architect Edward Durell Stone, of MoMA and GM Building fame, but former New York Times architectural critic Huxtable gave us that great label. Those lollipops -- or, OK, columns -- at the base are now covered in glass, preserving the building's namesake element. Smart move.

But the marble Venetian palazzo of which she wrote so famously in the 1960s has been utterly extinguished. And in its place, well, you decide. The original structure was one of those buildings New Yorkers loved, just loved, to harsh on. We may well have been guilty of said crime during our less forgiving moments. After all, buildings should be judged in part by how successful a home they are to tenants, and 2 Columbus Circle never excelled in this respect. What it needed was a tenant who could appreciate its role in architectural history, its charms, and yes, its quirkiness.(That whole "portholes, but no windows" thing was a nonstarter for most folks, except perhaps for Verizon switching-station technicians.) That proved to be too tall an order, and time ran out for 2 Columbus Circle.

We were expecting more, much more, given the fevered debate over this building's future. At this point, we can say this much with authority: 2 Columbus Circle now blends in perfectly with its sleek neighbors, looking right at home with the Time Warner Center and the reclad Trump Tower across the way.

The circle is corporate, clean, and now, complete.

-- Rolando Pujol

Note: If you haven't yet read the first architectural review of the new 2 Columbus Circle, click here. And this comment thread on Curbed is not to be missed. Here's Urbanite's previous 2 Columbus Circle coverage.

The Market Diner's former parking lot, shown below, will accommodate about 100 patrons. (Photos by Rolando Pujol)

The space-age Market Diner in Hell’s Kitchen, once a hangout for Frank Sinatra, is on track to reopen during the first week of June, its new proprietors confirmed Monday.

“It’s not going to be a regular old school diner,” said Nick Tsinias, son of one of the diner’s new operators. “It’s going to be a 1950s diner outside and a more modern diner inside.”

The 1962 diner’s exterior, with its zig-zag roof in the Googie architectural style, will be surrounded by outdoor seating for up to a 100 people. Before it closed in 2006, the diner was known as one of the few businesses in Manhattan to have its own customer parking lot.

The indoor changes will create a more natural and modern look, Tsinias said Monday. The decor will feature a rock sculpture and wooden furnishings.

The eatery, at West 43rd Street and 11th Avenue, will also feature a bar that will sell frozen drinks. The Market will also add a couple of non-diner items to its classic American fare, such as spring rolls.

The Tsinias family, which leases the diner from Moinian Group, has been in the diner business for almost 35 years and owns the Cosmic Diner, which moved to West 52nd Street and Eighth Avenue after many years in Columbus Circle.

-- Marlene Naanes

Left: Three 1820s houses recently landmarked (the middle one is believed to have been a lesbian bar in the 1920s). Right: Provincetown Playhouse. (File photo by Jefferson Siegel)

A historic incubator of Greenwich Village bohemia and American theater is slated for the wrecking ball.

New York University has announced plans to demolish the 1918 Provincetown Playhouse, which featured the early plays of Eugene O’Neill, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Edward Albee. The building is not landmarked.

“This is a world famous historic site that is critical to the development of alternative theater in America,” said Andrew Berman, president of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. “To demolish it is sacrilege.”

NYU has proposed tearing down a block of buildings, 133-139 MacDougal St., and replacing them with one, slightly larger structure for its law school, among other uses. It has also proposed incorporating a similar-sized theater into the project.

“They want to demolish a theater, offices, and residences in order to build a theater, offices, and offices,” Berman said.

NYU officials did not return phone calls seeking comment, but John Beckman, a university spokesman, said in an email, “the overwhelming tone from people in the neighborhood is moderate and constructive; Andrew Berman's comments are the exception, not the rule,” and he called the plans, “sensitive and sensible.”

It seems these days that moving architectural gems is the only way to save them from sure destruction. Moving the Cheyenne Diner will be a snap compared to the laborious and careful work required to take apart another treasure, St. Saviour's Church in Maspeth, and reassemble it again about a mile away. Well, the deconstruction is under way. Christina Wilkinson of the Juniper Park Civic Association, the organization that fought successfully to save the church, sent along these photos. See more here.

-- Rolando Pujol

Urbanite's St. Saviour's archive.

The Moondance Diner at 12:40 a.m. Aug. 11, 2007, as workers begin pulling
the diner off its foundation. (Photo by Jefferson Siegel)

Following the good news that the Cheyenne Diner has been saved, photographer Jefferson Siegel checked in with his memories of the Moondance Diner's last night in the city, and this photo from its departure:

Just after 9 p.m. on Friday, August 10, 2007. workers began lifting the Moondance from its foundation on the corner of Grand St. and 6th Ave. It was the coldest night of the summer and a bit rainy, which must have been pleasant for the workers but it made the crowd of onlookers even more melancholy.

This was the night police were alerted to the possibility of a radioactive threat against the city, so as the evening progressed there was increased police activity down the block at the exit of the Holland Tunnel.

As night turned into early morning, the diner was lifted on hydraulic jacks. Steel rails were slid under the gleaming chrome structure and it was pulled to the curb. As it was slowly pulled along the rails the basement was exposed to the elements. Just after 6 a.m. Saturday morning the Moondance was finally loaded onto a truck headed for the George Washington Bridge and points west. By Saturday afternoon the temperature had soared back into the 80s as passersby stopped to look through a fence where the diner had once stood.

Folks soak in the sun last Friday near Giginos at Wagner Park in lower Manhattan. The AIA Guide calls the building, which is also a viewing platform, "a grand brick sculpture." (Photo by Rolando Pujol)

* The next chapter in the saga to save a row of small businesses on Ninth Avenue in Chelsea is May 3, when a protest will be held. [Jeremiah's Vanishing New York]

* Those ubiquitous Star Wars ads around the city have inspired noteworthy subway mashups. [Gothamist]

* ... and who could miss the Slave Leias at Comic Con. [Vulture]

* "Look who's talking to Charlie ... Charlie Rose." D.C. expats may remember that jingle from his less highbrow WRC-TV talk show of the early 1980s, but now this video brings the jingle to life. [Gothamist]

* Illegal advertising blossoms anew, this time for cell phones. [Queens Crap]

* Last Saturday marked the 81st anniversary of Mae West's imprisonment on Roosevelt Island on a morals rap. [Roosevelt Islander]

* Remembering the Brooklyn earthquake of 1985. Yep, you read correctly. [OTBKB via Gowanus Lounge]

* Jeff Koons' sculptures now grace the top of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. [Unbeige]

* And up in Massachusetts, an awesome neon Dunkin Donuts sign from 1957 -- from the era before there was a DD on every block -- is for sale. [Hatch]

-- Rolando Pujol, Cha

The world got a peek at One Bryant Park's lobby last week. Here's a fresh look at its spire, which is fairly close to completion. Emporis lists it as New York's second tallest building. The seemingly new building that is in the foreground is not new at all, but is the old New York Telephone tower that has been reclad in glass.

One Madison Park, below, has already transformed the skyline feel of what had been a relatively modest collection of skyscrapers around the park. It's quite skinny -- essentially a 60-story townhouse in the sky -- and is definitely the showy attention grabber in these parts now. In the foreground is the Metropolitan Life tower from 1909, which was New York's tallest tower until it was dethroned by the Woolworth Building four years later.

-- Rolando Pujol

The Vatican's Mission to the United Nations at 25 E. 39th St. has always struck us a rather curious bit of architecture. A townhouse reclad in a glass-and-steel sheath that appears more at home on a 60-story skyscraper somewhere on Park Avenue. Flagpoles and an ominous gate complete the corporate look. The effect is strange: It looks like somebody took an office tower and shrank it to six stories.

We can't blame the Vatican for this. The townhouse was turned into into a tiny tower in 1968, and a finance firm, Metalurg, sold the building to the Vatican in 1994 -- just in time for Pope John Paul II's 1995 visit here -- for a cool $3 million, a steal by 2008 standards.

The idea to convert an 1870 townhouse into a tiny tower in the International Style is odd, and very much a product of 1960s-style urban planning.

-- Rolando Pujol

I was passing through the Columbus Circle hub on a recent warm day and two things caught my eye and slowed my pace. As I came out of the subway I saw a lone stranger under the Globe looking down upon the commuters. He did not move - and all I could think was that he appeared, both physically and figuratively, to have the weight of the world upon his shoulders.....

The Trump building's globe

As I moved downtown to 57th Street, a glint of sunlight bounced off a building causing me to look up (which as a New Yorker, we almost never do.) I stopped to admire the Hearst Building - with its mix of old and new architectural styles. I know many opposed the building of the nicknamed "lava lamp" above the old structure, but it still attracts the eye with its odd glamour. A little revolutionary and evolutionary, no?

-- Liz Esquirol

The Hearst Building

Updated 8 p.m: The Cheyenne [amNewYork print story here], one of Manhattan’s last railroad-car-style diners and a cozy refuge for Farley Post Office workers and Penn Station travelers, is closing its doors after more than half a century.

An employee confirmed yesterday that the neon-lit, chrome-covered diner would shutter “around the end of the week,” but referred further questions to the eatery’s owner, who did not return messages before deadline. A city preservationist who led a successful effort last year to rescue a similar establishment said he would launch an effort to save the Cheyenne after amNewYork informed him of the diner’s fate.

“Definitely. I’m going to get right to it,” said Michael Perlman, who founded the Committee To Save The Moondance Diner.

Regulars of the 24-hour diner were stunned by the news, which was first reported yesterday on the blog Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York.

“I’m so upset right now,” said regular Raquel Sanchez, 36, of Harlem, upon learning the news. “This is like the feel of an old-school diner. It’s warm, it’s good food, big portions.”

The Ten-Eyck Troughton Residence was a Salvation Army home for women from the middle 1950s until recently, when the organization sold the Murray Hill building to a developer. Last year, most of the furniture was cleared out and recently, the facade wall plaque was finally taken down. The awning of the East 39th Street building remains, as does a leftover of its mid-century roots -- a bomb shelter sign.

The building has been in the news a bit recently. The Times documented the battle by several residents to hang on there and at another Salvation Army residence, the Parkside Evangeline in Gramercy Park. Here's the Salvation Army's take on the dispute.

A few weeks back, this building, whose historic name is Allerton House, was landmarked, so whoever does move in will have to preserve the building's Northern Italian Renaissance charms, which include a remarkable roof line.

-- Rolando Pujol

Our Ryan Chatelain catches up with Bucky Dent, neighborhood businesses and fans as the team begins its final season at the House That Ruth Built. This will be a strange season in many ways. One fascinating aspect is that you'll have two Yankee Stadiums side by side: The 1974-75 version, which undid lots of the original detail, and the new ballpark, which is a throwback to the old stadium Ruth knew, and restores that lost detail in a slightly more compact stadium.

The new Yankee Stadium took another symbolic step forward Saturday with the installation of the "eagles" next to the stadium name. Compare Saturday's photo with the way the sign looked in 1948. It's uncanny.

It seems that, somehow, the Yanks could have worked with the original, keeping the team on the same sacred ground. It's one of those turn of events we'll never accept. But it's hard to dismiss the beauty of the stadium rising next door.

-- Rolando Pujol

Flags fly at half-staff at Yankee Stadium in 1948 to mark
the death of Babe Ruth. (AP)

The New York Yankees unveils the re-created "eagle" medallions and lifts them into place Saturday at the main entrance of the new stadium (Alejandra Villa/Newsday).

Well, here it is -- no longer the vision for the new 2 Columbus Circle, but the real thing. Curbed is already on the case, but we just noticed the beginning of the facade's debut this afternoon and brought back this shot, with more after the jump. The pics offer a hint of what Brad Cleopfil's vision for the former Huntington Hartford Gallery will look like.

A real view of the building seems almost surreal, given the long dispute over preserving the original facade, designed by Edward Durrell Stone. The original controversially never got landmark protection, and some, including Landmark West! and even Tom Wolfe, vociferously fought for its survival. In fact, Landmark West! uses the upper portion of the original building's facade for its Web site's logo.

Stone's 2 Columbus Circle was seen by some as a quirky, but important example of "proto post modernism" that was worth saving. We shared that view, but the marble building had long been a failure as a useful thing, sitting empty for long stretches. Eventually, the city sold it to the Museum of Art and Design and with the funds and will in place to move in and transform it, its fate was sealed, despite the last-ditch effort to save it.

It's a little too early to draw conclusions about the new building. The comments on this Curbed thread, which includes many more pictures, tilt toward approval, We are certainly waiting to see how the building's iconic, lower-level "lollipops," made famous by a classic bon mot by critic Ada Louise Huxtable, appear when all is said and done.

-- Rolando Pujol

Two quick observations after the news that Cablevision won't move Madison Square Garden to the back of the Farley Post Office.

First, Madison Square Garden -- for now -- survives. They'll rehab it, just as they did in the early 1990s after dropping a plan to move farther west. Today's MSG isn't widely beloved, but heck, we have a weakness for its spherical, brutalist, space-age vibe. Today's iteration is the fourth complex bearing that name.

Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan outside the building that may one day yet bear his name. (Getty)

Second, the Farley Post Office is left alone. Damaging the integrity of a McKim, Mead and White building in this neighborhood would seem to invite bad karma. They were, of course, the creators of the original Penn Station, itself knocked down for today's MSG.

We'd still like to see Moynihan Station happen. The kernel of the idea seemed good enough, before it morphed into the project that would consume midtown.

Stay tuned.

-- Rolando Pujol

The beautiful original wood is now exposed at St. Saviour's, an 1847 work by the noted
Richard Upjohn. Here's a photo gallery. (Photos by Robert Holden)

St. Saviour’s Church, a 19th-century wooden church in Queens that’s on the cusp of demolition, may itself finally have a savior.

Built in 1847 by master architect Richard Upjohn, who also designed the landmark Trinity Church in lower Manhattan, the Maspeth church has been at the center of a desperate campaign to save it since 2005, when Maspeth Development LLC purchased the site for a housing development.

Since then, very little has gone right for the church. Promised funding for moving it never materialized, its parsonage was torn down, and old-growth trees on the property were cut. But now, the developer has set aside his housing plans and has given the Juniper Park Civic Association, which has fought to save it, until late April to move the church off the property.

And in a heaven-sent development, a nearby cemetery, All Faiths in Middle Village, has agreed to give it a home. As the clock ticks, the biggest challenge now is who will pay to move it. The group had been counting on $1 million in city funding that never materialized.

“We can’t find the money and we can’t wait,” says Robert Holden, president of the Juniper Park group. “We just want to get [the church] out of harm’s way.”

Representatives from Juniper Park are to meet Friday with building movers to determine costs and tactics for moving the church. The exterior vinyl siding was recently removed, revealing the church’s original wooden decorative shingles and other Gothic Revival details. Holden hopes if all goes as planned, the church might qualify for landmark designation.

“They’re going to be surprised when they see what we have. It’s going to be a real jewel,” Holden says. “I think this is going to be a rallying cry for a lot of groups not to give up.”

The New Yorker is one of those hotels that somehow manages to fly under the radar of many who call themselves New Yorkers, but it's always jammed with tourists. Navigating the packed sidewalk outside its Eighth Avenue entrance requires skill and some patience; it usually brings our quick city strut to a stop.

But slowing down outside this 1930 Art Deco hotel also offers an opportunity. The Eighth Avenue facade has a beautiful vestige of Manufacturers Trust bank. This golden door reeks of stolidity and wealth -- your money is safe here, it seems to be telling its Depression-chastened audience. The details are noteworthy -- check out the rays emanating from the female figure.This bank certainly invested in good architecture -- it's responsible for one of the city's finest modern buildings.

The New Yorker recently upgraded its Art Deco-style signage in a faithful way as part of an overhaul that includes a new restaurant, Cooper's Tavern, that has a bit of a Deco flair. Indeed, the management seems to have an appreciation for its history. When you're done marveling at the bank's door, be sure to check out an informative window display of New Yorker history, including a panel (visible after the jump) showing Muhammad Ali chilling in a New Yorker bed while he was at the height of his fame.

The Wingate Inn on West 35th Street in one of several sliver buildings that are sprouting up all over the Garment District. And while this slender tower is impossible to miss, so are two reminders of the city's past that are co-existing with it.

Notice the old painted ad for Kaufman Property Management, part of it covered up by the new hotel. The firm's old signs can still be found here and there in the neighborhood. Right beneath the ad -- for that perfect touch of irony -- is some old-school graffiti.

The juxtaposition of the gritty layers of the past with that sleek steel and glass is a textbook reminder of how development is changing the texture of these blocks. It seems whatever side street you take here, there's a few buildings that have been knocked down, awaiting skinny, tall successors. These folks are fighting to save the Garment District before it is truly gone. Here's an amNY story on the subject from July. The Observer took a nuanced look at the neighborhood's challenges last month.

-- Rolando Pujol

I have to admit I was a little skeptical about the demand for $2 million condos in Flushing like the one's being offered at Sky View Parc, now under construction at the crossroads of Roosevelt Avenue and College Point Boulevard.

But then again the only things I know about Flushing are the Mets and a Simpsons episode when the family visits New York: Homer sees a Flushing-bound bus and drools the words "Flushing Meadows," as he fantasizes about frolicking in a field of flushing latrines. The name Flushing Meadows is a bit misleading.

However, after a few hours in downtown Flushing I actually could see myself living there, I like a place where you can get dumplings served from a window outside your train stop. Also, I spoke with a 28-year-old woman who said there is plenty of nightlife and she seemed in the know.

The developer at Sky View Parc said that most of the units will sell for between $450,000 and $800,000, and stressed that only a small portion will sell for $2 million.

I don't know if I'll be able to afford even the moderately priced condos at Sky View Parc, but perhaps a cheap rental somewhere over that dumpling window.

-- Garett Sloane

When the wonderful Market Diner closed in 2006, it seemed yet another predictable chapter in the whittling away of New York's soul. The place was loaded with history and charm, including the Googie decor and signage, the lore of late-night meals with Frank Sinatra and the Westies, and, well, that parking lot, a head-scratcher in Manhattan but logical given its appeal to cabbies as well as suburbanites who could indulge a midnight snack just a block away from the West Side Highway.

We last swung by its abandoned home at West 43rd Street and 11th Avenue in July, and found weeds growing in the parking lot and the sense that this place had an inevitable date with the wrecking ball. But, folks, the Market Diner is getting its soul back.

The New York Times is reporting that the diner will reopen in its old home in about two months, now under the control of the family behind the venerable Cosmic Diner, which recently moved from its longtime, soulful Columbus Circle perch. The family told the Times the new Market Diner may go a tad more upscale, add a bar, and yes, even sacrifice that parking space for outdoor seating. Indeed, when the diner opened in 1962, this area was not even remotely like the residential enclave it is becoming, so trading parking spaces for tables makes sense. It's those new residents that made the diner an attractive opportunity for the new proprietors. So this is a curious outcome: The gentrification of Hell's Kitchen and environs has helped destroy interesting places, but, in this case, may be reviving one that was killed by those same forces.

The Market Diner was a welcome spot for us on many a late night. We could never get over the novelty of parking our car in a diner parking lot -- in Manhattan! The burger and fries were always solid, and hit the spot after our long drive back to Manhattan from Newsday in Melville.

The diner's return -- parking lot or not -- is great news, and is nicely timed, coming a day after we had our last meal at Armando's in Brooklyn Heights.(You must go, it closes Sunday; try the Chicken Rollatini. And watch for our blog post later this weekend.)

The family taking over the Market Diner won't be paying the about $500,000 a year in rent the landlord had been seeking, the Times reports, though how much it will pay is not known.

In a separate but important matter, the article didn't address how sensitive the new hands will be to the original decor and signage. My first hopeful guess would be that these features won't be seriously fiddled with -- after all, they are part of the joint's appeal.

So to the Market Diner, we offer a hearty welcome back! We'll add your name to the list of miracles that include the revived Second Avenue Deli.

-- Rolando Pujol

There is a big public meeting tonight at the New School over plans to build this Skidmore Owings Merrill mother at the corner of 14th and 5th Avenue. The New Schoolers are trying to get special permission from the Board of Standards and Appeals to ignore existing height and bulk regulations and build straight up. Residents mostly fear the school's "Quads in the Sky" plan, which will attempt to build a traditional quadrangular campus in the uppermost floors of the new building.

"If you look at NYU's Kimmel Center, it glows like a spaceship, and we fear we will get the same here," said Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation pres Andrew Berman. "Nobody's asking them to recreate a 19th Century townhouse, but we're concerned the office building aesthetic isn't appropriate for a residential neighborhood."

14th and 5th of course isn't the "quaint" part of the Village, really, but residents are still trying to fight for whatever kind of light and air they can get.

"I am happy the New School is expanding, I think it's wonderful that are sucessful and more young people want to come to the neighborhood," said local resident and New School alum Susan Kramer. "But they think they are a suburban campus. It looks like a scary monolith is coming in for the landing."

If you make it to the meeting tonight do let us know.

And for more, read this

-- David Freedlander

* Virgin Mobile jumps on the 9 meme. [Adrants]

* A handy guide to resignation reaction. [City Room]

* No surprise: Kristen could really get rich off this scandal. Not that she needs money. [Guest of a Guest via Daily Intelligencer]

* The work of art "Annotated Spitzer" will go on a tour tracing Kristen's steps to D.C. [Dealbreaker]

* Dealbreaker hosts a celebratory drink today at 5:30 at, where else, Spitzer's Corner. [Dealbreaker]

* Where to get your Spitzer memorabilia. [Gothamist]

In other news ...

* Three restaurants in the news: Minetta Tavern, Florent and Armando's. The news is mostly bad, but hopefully not in Minetta's case. [Lost City]

* What's with the toilet paper ads on the subway? [City Room]

* At the end of Christopher Street, you may spy the end of an era. [Jeremiah's Vanishing New York]

* The evictions continue at the Hotel Chelsea. [Curbed]

* This is awesome. An interactive map of property sales around the city. [Brownstoner]

* Red Hook poultry market is on the block. [Gowanus Lounge]

* A day after looking at bad Time covers, here's an exploration of great Esquire covers. [Gothamist]

Updated 6:54 p.m. The transformation of the High Line from a rotting railway to a postmodern park traveled further down the track Wednesday as plans were unveiled for a new tower slated to open next year.

The building, shown above, called HL23, is the first project by architectural theorist Neil Denari. It will lean above the elevated park at an angle and taper upward to give the appearance of growing out of the old rail bed.

“The site makes what the building is, happen,” Denari said. “ The High Line is the start of the action. I used to live near there, and I always thought that if you could give me my choice of places to build in the city, I’d take this one.”

Denari’s not the only one. There are now more than 40 projects going up around the elevated railway, and the area is quickly becoming known in architectural circles as a global hot spot for new and interesting buildings.

“Because there is no context in this neighborhood, I thought you could do something different,” said Alf Naman, the project’s developer.

The 11 residences at HL23, which gets its name from its location on West 23rd Street between 10th and 11th avenues, will range in size from 1,850 to 3,600 square feet, and cost between $2.65 million and $10.5 million.

The project was unveiled yesterday at craftsteak, a Chelsea restaurant, to brokers and industry insiders.

The 14-story building will be the focus of a June exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York on new architecture and the High Line.

Some locals are wondering, though, if development in the area has gone too far.

“It’s too much, and it’s a lot of dust and traffic,” said Silvia Baldwin, 58, a 16-year resident of the neighborhood, as she pointed to the forest of construction cranes looming over her West Chelsea street. “I feel like we’re losing too many low-income people.”

John Tyler, 65, a life-long resident of the area, agreed. He used to work on the piers unloading ships and remembered when the neighborhood was mostly tenements and trains ran on the strange tracks that seemed to float in the air.

“I wish it didn’t change so fast,” he said. “What was here they should have left alone. They should just let certain parts of Manhattan be.”

-- David Freedlander

Updated 6:06 p.m. There was new hope for the tenants of 1520 Sedgwick Ave. in the Bronx yesterday when the city nixed a deal to sell the building - the birthplace of hip-hop — to a real estate developer.

Residents of the 100-units of affordable housing have been living in fear since learning that real-estate mogul Mark Karasick had made an offer on the Morris Heights property where DJ Kool Herc pioneered the art of mixing beats on dual-turntables in the rec room in 1973. The city could not legally listen to the hip-hop historical argument in considering the sale, but the Department of Housing Preservation and Development did looked at the finances of the sale.
“We couldn’t see a way the rents allowed under Mitchell-Lama could cover the purchase price,” said Neill Coleman, a spokesman for HPD.

Tenants currently pay an average of about $1,200 for the 1, 2, and 3-bedroom units, said Dina Levy of the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board. The concern is that those rents, which are already close to market rate, would have significantly increased to cover Karasick’s confidential purchase offer, Levy explained.

A woman who answered the phone at Karasick’s office said that he would not be commenting on the city’s decision. Steven Frankel, attorney for the ownership group, 1520 Sedgwick Houses Inc., said that he had no formal notification from HPD regarding their rejection of the deal and could not comment.

But tenants have not won the war yet. The building’s owners have the right to opt out of the Mitchell-Lama program, which offers tax reductions and other incentives in return for providing affordable rent.

If taken off the Mitchell-Lama rolls, the building can be sold to the highest bidder without public review. No application to leave the program has been filed yet, Coleman said.
In the meantime, tenants have found allies in Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and two not-for-profit tenant advocacy groups like Levy’s as well as Tenants and Neighbors. With their assistance, the residents hope to raise money and use subsidies that will allow them to buy the property and turn it into an affordable co-op building.

Schumer said the building's struggle was a small part of a greater need to preserve affordable housing around the city.

“At 1520 Sedgwick, we have the glimmer of hope of stemming the tide,” he said.

-- Matthew Sweeney

Photo: Mary Fountain, a resident of 1520 Sedgwick in the Bronx is fighting to keep the building affordable to tenants. 1520 Sedgwick is credited as the birthplace of hip hop. (amNewYork file/Jefferson Siegel)

Previous amNY coverage:

Residents fight to save hip-hop birthplace

Web special: 30 years of hip hop