Urbanite

There appears to be new confusion about construction at Ground Zero.

Reuters' is reporting that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said his company would save $3 billion by not having to build at Ground Zero thanks to its deal with Bear Stearns.

That’s news to the Port Authority, which owns the site. Officials at the authority told Reuters that as far as they know, JPMorgan remains interested.

JPMorgan was supposed to build a tower for a new headquarters at the World Trade Center, but the plan was threatened when the financial giant made an offer to buy out Bear Stearns. The merger of the two firms meant JPMorgan would assume control of Bear’s prime offices on Madison Avenue and it has been unclear if the World Trade Center project would go forward.

A final twist: The mayor’s own budget seems to lay any uncertainty to rest and says JPMorgan won’t build at Ground Zero.

It’s pretty clear on page 28 of the Executive Budget Fiscal 2009 Budget: “J.P. Morgan decided to forgo building a new tower at the WTC after the purchase of Bear Stearns. Instead they will now occupy Bear Stearns’ five-year-old on Madison Avenue.”

-- Garett Sloane

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

It's hard to miss this sign -- and the store's purpose is exceedingly clear. Below, The Loews Kings, closed in 1977 and still awaiting a redevelopment plan. Barbra Streisand was an usher here once.

We took a long tour the other day through the Flatbush and Midwood sections of Brooklyn, beginning with lunch at Di Fara's and ending with dinner at Picket Fence on Cortelyou Road. In between, we found lots of noteworthy stuff, including some of New York's most charming residential neighborhoods. A few of us will be dropping occasional posts on our experiences. Here's some highlights from a short stretch of Flatbush Avenue we traversed. On a late Saturday afternoon, it was teeming with vibrant street life and interesting shops and sights. Our photographic highlights continue after the jump.

-- Rolando Pujol

Just a perfect neighborhood stationery store sign, with plastic lettering and a corrugated metal background.

One of the most interesting old-sign discoveries we ever made was at 33rd and Madison, a doomed corner with a towering future. Here's the recently erected shroud of gloom that portends the teardown, and, below, the cool signs that briefly saw the light of day, as well as -- after the jump -- a few more shots we hadn't published before of the buildings that are set to come down.

-- Rolando Pujol

Lou Coletti, the president of the Building Trade Employers Association, has something of a new idea for improving the woeful record of the city’s Department of Building’s: Getting rid of the agency all together.

The proposal came during today’s city council hearings on increasing building safety.

“We are facing a crisis which requires bold and creative action,” Colleti said. “What is needed is radical reform.”

He added, “Government needs to reform in a way that will allow this industry to continue to be the economic engine that fuels this city’s economy and does so in way that doesn’t compromise safety. They are not mutually exclusive goals.”

The proposal calls for the establishment of a public benefit corporation, a “New York City Construction and Standards Authority,” that would act much as the School Construction Authority does, and would lead, backers allege, to streamlined bureaucracy and greater safety.

“There are some 30,000 police officers, 15,000 firefighters, and 450 building inspectors,” Coletti said. “Building inspectors receive virtually no professional training, are underpaid and work primarily Monday—Friday 8 a.m –4 p.m.”

The proposal seemed to unsettle some members of the council, but councilman Erik Martin Dilan (D-Brooklyn), who chairs the buildings committee, said he was anxious to hear more.

“They cited the School Construction Authority as an example, but they didn’t call for getting rid of the Department of Education,” he said. “Some of what they said makes sense. We certainly need to improve the DOB, I’m just not sure the solution is to totally abolish it.”

We swung by the site of Armando's on Friday during a hours-long exploration of Brooklyn Heights. The iconic Armando's sign was standing guard, and the interior, as seen from the sidewalk, was largely the same, and looks as though the restaurant is closed for perhaps renovations, not forever. One token that saddened us was the discovery of an "Open" sign, sitting by the window never to be used again.

A pleasant counterpoint was our visit to the very much open Lassen & Hennigs, another Brooklyn Heights institution on Montague Street. From the moment we saw the sign, we were intrigued, and ordered the L&H Express, a roast beef-cheddar extravaganza on a roll. The sandwich choices -- many named for Brooklyn neighborhoods and streets -- were overwhelming. But the atmosphere was pleasant, the place was packed, and the staff was friendly, just what we like in a neighborhood joint, in this case one that dates to 1949.

-- Rolando Pujol

Lassen & Hennigs
114 Montague St.
718-875-6272

The Hell's Kitchen site is now buzzing with construction. Below, a photo from Community Board 4's Web site of a former building on the site, which housed the Kraft Restaurant.

The sounds of construction have finally broken the silence of stalled development on a Hell’s Kitchen block.

For more than two years, the site at West 42nd Street between Dyer and 10th avenues has been little more than a running joke to neighbors, who could only laugh at the stagnating pond that formed after the developer, The Related Cos., razed the buildings and development plans were put on hold after community opposition.

“They left a big hole in the ground that started collecting a lot of rain,” she said. “We went nuts here. The neighborhood started calling it Lake Related. Some tenants even joked that they now had waterfront property,” said Maris Rendanty, 53, president of the Manhattan Plaza Tenants Association, which represents residents of a complex across the street from the construction site.

Now the final blueprints fit what the community had been seeking: A mixed space that allows for a 58-story high-rise and restores two theaters to the site. The complex is set to be completed some time in 2010, according to the developer.

Related bought the block in 2004 and faced a battle over the developer’s plan to build a site for Cirque Du Soleil. After Related tore down the Houseman and Fairbanks theaters in 2005, the community wanted off-Broadway venues more in spirit with the area, something the new plan provides.

475 Kent Ave., the converted warehouse space on the Williamsburg waterfront, is still not up to code, a fire department spokesman said Monday.

The building had been home to hundreds of artists, musicians, and designers, all of whom were evicted last winter when the city found that the building was a fire hazard.

The FDNY was due to inspect the building last week, but was told by the landlord, Nachman Brach, that it was still not ready for examination, FDNY spokesman Jim Long said.

Reached by phone and asked when the building would be ready for inspection, Brach said, “I have no idea. I have nothing to tell you.”

-- David Freedlander

Photo from roof of 475 Kent Ave, on Flickr

Mary Adams The Dress, a boutique on the once artsy Lower East Side, withstood the times but could not withstand the monthly rent of today. The Ludlow Street store is closing after 24 years, but will go out in style (pun intended).

”The Lower East Side has changed a lot, becoming heavily touristy.
It doesn’t really suit my business anymore,” said the store’s owner and namesake Mary Adams.

Adams’ pieces have appeared in fashion shows at the legendary ’80s nightclub Danceteria, the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Palladium.

She hopes to relocate but is wary of the real estate market. Instead she wants to enjoy her privacy while continuing to do private
appointments.

“I’ll miss the Lower East Side, it had its ups and downs but it is where I’ve been since I started,” said Adams.

--Kathleen Bulson

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.”

Port Authority head Anthony Coscia acknowledged yesterday that the cost of the World Trade Center transit hub was ballooning, and said that the agency must adjust to new financial realities.

Yesterday it was reported that the cost of the soaring Santiago Calatrava designed transit hub at the site was ballooning to over $3 billion, close to $700 million more than the agency had originally budgeted.

“Those budget numbers were developed almost four years ago,” Coscia said. “We remain very committed to retaining the cost of that project as much as possible.”

The initial plan is in danger of being scaled back but officials would like to keep the grandeur of the architect’s original vision.

Coscia said the success of the transit hub was vital to the future of Lower Manhattan, comparing its presence there to that of Grand Central Station on the East Side.

Community activists want their voices heard before plans are finalized to redevelop the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx.

A group called the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance is heading to City Hall at noon Thursday to make their case. The group, which represents churches, community groups and unions, wants a say in the negotiations on the armory's future, the alliance has said.

Right now, preliminary plans for the site call for retail development that would create 2,000 jobs.

The alliance wants to ensure any jobs pay a living wage and that new businesses won't displace old ones, a member of the group said. Another grievance is that the group wants new schools to be built as part of any development plan, which they say the city promised them.

-- Garett Sloane

Photo via paul rush nyc walks on flickr

So say a bunch of Tudor City residents who say that the planning commission, the city council,and yes, billionaire developer Sheldon Solow himself, acted arbitrarily and capriciously in giving approval for the $4billion, mega high rise development. Here's the story.

---David Freedlander

Photo:Vivian Gilbert, a resident of 5 Tudor City Place is one of many residents in the Tudor City neighborhood of Manhattan who opposed to the Solow Project along the East Waterfront. (Dennis W. Ho)

Interesting side note regarding the timing of buildings' commish Lancaster's resignation

On Thursday, Lancaster was scheduled to appear before the Assembly's Cities Committee, chaired by mega-Lancaster hater Assemblyman Jim Brennan.

Obviously, this was something Lancaster hated doing. The last time she appeared before the committee, last year, she did so only after the threat of subpoena, and then showed up only briefly, even though members of the state legislature tell me that she was the whole focus of the hearing.

For what's it worth, the timing of the announcement today--and Hizzoner's public ditching yesterday do seem curious, since most of the damage - -to our city, its citizens, and their sense of well-being, had already been done.

---David Freedlander

Click here for updated story. Earlier post below.

A day after the mayor said he wasn't happy with the Department of Buildings in the wake of the uptick in construction accidents in the city, the agency's commissioner Patricia Lancaster resigned today.

"This morning, I met with Patricia Lancaster at Gracie Mansion and accepted her resignation as New York City's Buildings Commissioner," the mayor said.

Lancaster has been facing heat from newspapers and bloggers, especially since the March crane accident in Turtle Bay that killed seven people. It turned out construction of that building should never have been allowed under zoning laws. Thirteen people have died in construction accidents in 2008.

Lancaster has overseen the agency for six years, during the city's historic building boom that has transformed city neighborhoods.

Yesterday, Bloomberg said: "I don't think anybody should be fully satisfied with the Department of Buildings. Whether they've done everything they can is something I'm looking at."

She was out by this morning. From Bloomberg's release:

"Over the past six years, Patricia has moved the Department of Buildings a long way forward by fighting corruption, strengthening inspections and oversight, increasing the public's access to information, and bringing increased levels of professionalism and integrity to all levels of her agency. Patricia led a comprehensive overhaul of the City's byzantine building code, the first in 40 years, which will make the construction of homes, schools, stores and offices in New York City safer, more affordable, and more environmentally friendly for years to come. Patricia leaves a strong foundation of reform and improvement for her successors to build on, and I thank her for her dedication to making New York City a far better place to live, work, and visit."

Today I submitted my resignation, which Mayor Bloomberg accepted. It has been an honor serving in his Administration and I thank the Mayor for this opportunity. After six years in public service, I made this decision because I felt it was time to return to the private sector. I am proud of the groundbreaking work the department has done during my tenure to root out corruption, increase transparency, overhaul the building code, and increase safety for workers and the public alike.

-- Pete Catapano and Rolando Pujol

Photo: In this May 2007 photo, Patricia Lancaster is seen with Mayor Michael Bloomberg. (Photo by Jonathan Fickies)

More:

From AP.

From The New York Times.

Photograph of 475 Kent Avenue by imjustsayin' on Flickr

April 28. That's when the Fire Department will give the artists colony building in Williamsburg a once-over, according to long-time resident and "floorlord" Lillian Mauer, checking that new sprinklers have been installed, fire alarms in good working order and the hallways have been sheetrocked.

"We are expecting positive news, but there are a lot of caveats to that," Mauer said.

Another floorlord, Deborah Masters, said the situation was confusing, but that she hoped the building will be certified for occupancy after the inspection.

Mauer added that well over half of the former tenants are still in a state of limbo, sleeping on couches and shacking up with friends.

"I think not knowing the move-in date has been the worst part of it," she said. "If people knew it was going to be three months then they could have stayed with friends or gotten a short-term sublet, but nobody knew when we'd be able to come back. But they want to return. This is a very dedicated group of people."

-- David Freedlander

Updated 8:05 p.m.: One of New York’s last railcar-style diners will live on, but hash will now be slung on the Red Hook waterfront, miles from its 68-year midtown home.

A construction manager bought the Cheyenne Diner, which served comfort food at 33rd Street and Ninth Avenue until closing April 6, and plans to relocate it to the Brooklyn neighborhood in the next month, a preservationist said yesterday.

Mike O’Connell, of O’C Construction and the son of a noted Red Hook developer, signed a contract to purchase the chrome-covered structure for $5,000 and will now work on securing permits to transport it to its new home.

Preservationist Michael Perlman, who formed the Committee To Save The Cheyenne Diner, was elated.

“It will gain a new lease on life in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and contribute to the appeal of an up and coming neighborhood," he said in an email.

We learned in October that the Empire State Building will be getting New York's largest Starbucks. Work on the space is moving along -- in fact, a Starbucks sign, with an Art Deco sensibility, is already up. Stay tuned.

-- Rolando Pujol

Cool exhibit coming up next month at The New York Public Library exploring the use of eminent domain in the city.

The above photo, called "Untitled/This is Just to Say #75" is by local photographer Ethan Levitas, who takes snaps of train cars and passengers on elevated rail lines throughout the city.

The NYPL's press materials say the exhibit is "about the reorganization of urban space and its public use in New York City."

Ever since the Supreme Court decided that local governments could take private property and give it to another private developer, this issue has been roiling local governments, ours especially, so it's nice to see an artistic take on it.

More photos after the jump

---David Freedlander

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

Scaffolding is an epidemic around the city these days, going up for restoration projects that seem to drag on forever. What it does for small businesses is pose a real challenge due to reduced visibility of their awnings and signs.

We have to hand it to the folks at One Stop Framing Shop in midtown, who are apparently dealing with the scaffolding covering their business by creating a sign that fits perfectly into the scaffolding, and can't be missed as you walk down the sidewalk. It's a creative solution to a common problem, and, while we're at it, speaks well of the shop's way with frames.

-- Rolando Pujol

When last we examined the sad fate of Glad Tidings Tabernacle Church, there was still a bit of the Penn Station-area church left standing, but enough to know that a sacred place was going down. Only brick from the era of Reconstruction remains in the lot from which a glamorous hotel is set to rise.

-- Rolando Pujol

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Mazhar Alhadid, a dentist from Flushing Avenue in Bedford Stuyvesant, and Jim Moore, senior vice president of business affairs for FreshDirect chat in Bedford-Stuyvesant Thursday.

It was announced in late May on the Bed-Stuy blog that grocery delivery company FreshDirect would begin service to Bedford-Stuyvesant and the launch day has arrived.

Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz was present to usher in this new era of fresh foods in a box delivered to the doors of Bed-Stuy residents.

"Those who love to eat but are always rushed—-both the good cooks and those “foodies” who, like me, never attained that skill and head straight for the tasty prepared foods, are thrilled that Fresh Direct is catering to underserved neighborhoods, which benefit from the availability of more quality, healthy foods,” said Markowitz in a statement.

-- Lauren Johnston

AP Photo by Jason DeCrow

Oh how the mighty 80s rockers do fall -- or is this a rebirth? Anyway, the latest in a string of (formerly) big name acts to perform (oddly) at J+R Music and Computer World downtown is: Asia. Do you have "Heat of the Moment" stuck in your head just hearing the name? We do!

If you want to see Asia - get moving. It's Noon at J+R (23 Park Row)

We wish we could go to the "show" ... but we can't -- so if you go, can you send us your video clips? Please? (lauren.johnston@am-ny.com).

And now, New York City, put your hands together for ASIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-- Lauren Johnston

Our camera draws attention in the window, which is atop a collection of signs, including a brilliant hand-painted affair. (Photos by Rolando Pujol)

To find reasonably undisturbed pockets of retail character left in Manhattan, the edges make a productive place to hunt. A walk down a swath of 10th Avenue last week yielded some pleasant finds in this old Westies stomping ground. Highlights include a mini-empire of shops run by "Sonny," a 1950s-style hotel sign, a Latin record shop, and some ghost signs for player pianos right on a townhouse's facade. Photographic evidence of our excursion, which went from the high 50s to 42nd Street, continues after the jump:

-- Rolando Pujol

Finally, a place to pay our New York Telephone bill. This sign has happily not been updated with the names NYNEX, Bell Atlantic or Verizon. Perfect.

Dib Reda has sold clothes in lower Manhattan for 18 years and never wants to leave, but times are tough for businesses like his that are disrupted by an unprecedented level of construction.

Small retail operations like Reda’s are eligible for a cash infusion from the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which is doling out $5 million in HUD grants.

“It’s hard to make rent. It’s hard to make a living,” said Reda of Stylz clothing store on Fulton Street. “We need some kind of help to stay in lower Manhattan.”

The maximum grant of $25,000 for each business could make a difference for Reda, who said he is losing half his business thanks to the nonstop construction in the area.

“One byproduct of redevelopment is the imposition on street-level retail businesses,” said Avi Schick, president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.

St. Saviour's in Maspeth; see more photos here. (Robert Holden)

Updated: Preservationists and community activists alike are rushing against the clock to move St. Saviour’s church so they may honor the deadline for relocating the building. In yet one more turn in the story of the little church that could, the Juniper Park Civic Association, which has led the effort, is pulling out all stops to get the Maspeth church safely to its final resting place, including the equivalent of a preservation SWAT team, which has started its assessment of the building.

Civic association president Robert Holden met with representatives from a building moving company last week. Moving the church in one piece is “cost-prohibitive, with estimates beginning at $150,000—and that’s just to get it down the street,” says Holden. In addition to excavating costs, moving the building intact requires pricey permits for dismantling utility wires and trimming trees. The new site at All Faiths Cemetery is about a mile away.

“Every time, there’s been some little obstacle,” says Holden. “We’ve come to the conclusion to just get it off the site however we can.” That leaves dismantling the church, timber by timber, a task that must begin soon. Though the developer has agreed to extend the end-of-the-month deadline once a good-faith effort to move the building is underway, Holden says “the church is the obstacle to any sale [of the land].”

A group of graybearded squatters, anarchists, and activists who battled police 20 years ago in Tompkins Square Park are once again fighting for the right to gather there.

And once again, they say, the authorities won’t let them.

The Parks Department has designated Aug. 2-3, the weekend closest to the 20th anniversary of the Tompkins Square Park Riots, as a “no-amplified sound weekend,” a monthly quality-of-life measure for parks in Manhattan. The group was told that its lineup of 1980s punk bands and political speakers is unwelcome.

“Cops come out, gentrifiers come and go, but we’re still here, we’re still active, we’ve never been chased out,” said Chris Flash, editor of the underground newspaper The Shadow, and a 30-year resident of the area. “The city has displaced many of us, but it’s important to remind people of a time when the neighborhood rose up.”

The Tompkins Square Park Riots began after the city tried to remove squatters from the park and institute a 1 a.m. curfew. Heavy-handed efforts by the police to remove the protesters lead to widespread violence, much of it caught on tape, and the event has widely been considered a low-point in the police-community relations in the city.

And though the landscape has changed, with many of the old squats that ringed the park now converted in multi-million dollar condos, veterans of the old battle say they still have the old fight in them.

“It’s like we said back then, ‘Whose park? Our park!’” said Karl Rosenstein, 56, adding a common expletive between the words. “If they won’t give us a permit, I say we just take the park back over.”

Park and city officials said they remained hopeful of working something out, but said the group had been less than flexible of working to come up with a solution.

“We have approved many permit requests for this group and were willing to work with them to find alternate dates in this case, but the group rejected this compromise,” said Parks Department spokeswoman Christina Deluca.

--David Freedlander

If for some reason you have this rainy April Fools' Day off, head over to the hearings at Manhattan Community College, where Villagers and preservationists alike will square off against St. Vincent's plans to sell, tear down and rebuild.

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation helpfully passes along these talking points:

* It is the largest proposed development EVER in a New York City landmark district; if approved, it would include the two largest buildings EVER approved in any of NYC's ninety landmark districts (even those in Midtown and the Financial District) in the 43 year history of NY'S landmarks law.

* The plan proposes to demolish nine buildings in the Greenwich Village Historic District, some of which are as much as 85 years old. No one has ever sought, much less gotten permission for, demolition of nine buildings in a NYC landmark district.

Also, there is this helpful vid:

---David Freedlander

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 go