In the News: Landmarks Likes New Pier 17

••• “A bold plan to transform the South Street Seaport’s Pier 17 with new high-end shops and a rooftop music venue earned praise from the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission Tuesday afternoon. While the commission did not take a vote at a hearing on the project, most of the commissioners gave the thumbs up to developer Howard Hughes’ plan to gut the current Pier 17 mall and replace it with a modern all-glass structure topped by a green roof. [… But] the commissioners also expressed several concerns about the details of the proposal, including fears that retail signage would overwhelm the new building’s graceful glass facade and block views of the Brooklyn Bridge.” —DNAinfo

••• Terroir is among the new food (and wine) vendors on the High Line. —Eater

••• “Yesterday Bob Townley, executive director of Manhattan Youth—a community-based after-school services provider—was experiencing deja vu at City Hall. He and six middle school students from his after-school program at I.S. 289 in Battery Park City stood with hundreds of other youth services providers and children whose programs stand to be eliminated by Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Preliminary Budget for Fiscal Year 2013. Mr. Townley, the I.S. 289 students, and many others had fought the same fight last year, but this year’s cuts go even deeper.” —Broadsheet

••• “The cost of renovating City Hall is going through the roof. More major structural problems have been discovered in the 200-year-old building that will drive up the cost of repairs and upgrades from $123.8 million to just under $150 million.” —New York Post

••• A jeweler picked up a hooker in Midtown who took him to the Cosmopolitan Hotel, allegedly drugged him, and stole $50,000 worth of uncut diamonds. At least he got laid before he got screwed. —New York Post

••• An ode to Poets House. —Wall Street Journal

••• The New Yorker reviews North End Grill: salad yes, eggs no. (See comments for link that works)

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3 Comments

  1. The North End Grill New Yorker link isn’t working.

  2. “Bold plan?” That’s a joke, right? A rectangle of glass? I can’t wait for those iconic photographs of the Brooklyn Bridge with the H&M and Burger King logos in the background. Bravo to the Landmarks Preservation Commission for preserving the aesthetic and historic nature of the Seaport. (cough, cough) Does any architect remember how to use brick or stone in construction? Check out the Greenwich Hotel or the Powell Building in Tribeca or even the Brooklyn Bridge, those were designed by architects, not the summer interns. Or did they just take the plans to an Apple Store and just tweak them? Instead of wasting all of that time and money renovating City Hall, they should have just knocked it down and put up a glass rectangle.