In the News: Citigroup Renovation Update

••• Citigroup updated Community Board 1 on the progress at its headquarters: “The project is half-way through what is now said to be six years of construction, a year longer than originally projected.” (UPDATE 3/28: “The Tribeca Trib piece was inaccurate and has been corrected,” emailed a Citi rep. “We have always spoken of a five year construction timeline, to be completed by the end of 2019. That has not changed and remains in place today.” I changed the headline of this post accordingly.) The company is still saying that its new auditorium, first announced back in May of 2015, might be available for public use, but “no decisions have been made on the cost or other details on how it will be made available to the public.” CB1 would like there to be an emergency shelter there. And some good news about the trees: “Citi has abandoned its plans to accommodate security bollards by removing many of the trees on the Greenwich Street side of its building. ‘The public agencies worked with us [and] we’re now relocating those bollards out away from the tree line,’ [Citi’s John] Krush said. Because of a water main below the sidewalk, he said, ‘It took us about six months to reengineer that. The good news is we’re going to keep most of those trees along Greenwich Street.'” —Tribeca Trib

••• “The ‘Fearless Girl’s’ smash hit run on Broadway has been extended. City Hall announced Sunday that Mayor de Blasio has agreed to allow the bronze figure of a sassy pre-teen to remain on its spot until February of 2018.” I’m all for girl empowerment, but artists everywhere should be concerned about the co-opting of—and utterly changing the meaning of—another artist’s work (in this case, the bull). That it’s a corporate promotion makes the whole thing even less palatable. —New York Post

••• “A three-car collision at Murray and West streets Sunday afternoon around 1:30 p.m. left three people injured, none seriously.” —Tribeca Trib

••• The New York Times looks into “a crucial test for Mayor Bill de Blasio’s ambitious plan to start a citywide ferry service this summer. Hull 200—which will eventually be renamed—was the first completed piece of a fleet under construction at shipyards in Alabama and Louisiana. So it served as the bell cow on the journey north from the Gulf Coast. For the most part, the trip involves hugging the Eastern Seaboard for more than 1,000 miles in a ferryboat designed to zip between landings in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. But the first obstacle is the Florida Peninsula, which adds a few days and hundreds of miles to the schedule. […] Hornblower Cruises and Events, the company that the city chose to operate the ferry service, decided to try to save time and avoid trouble by cutting across the width of Florida instead of going around it.”

••• “ESquared Hospitality, the New York restaurant company that established the chain with vegan chef and cookbook author Chloe Coscarelli, said it has ‘terminated’ all ties with Ms. Coscarelli and will operate By Chloe without her.” An outpost is opening at the Seaport District. —Wall Street Journal

••• “The BPCA has a rock-solid reputation among borrowers, largely because of how much residents pay—and how much more they will pay in years to come.” —Broadsheet

 

5 Comments

  1. Kudos to both Erik here and Carl G at Trib Trib for calling the West St incident a “crash” or “collision” rather than “accident.” Would that our dailies were so perspicacious.

  2. Perspicacious is a great word.

  3. I’m with you Erik re the Fearless Girl. I (a woman) worked on the Street during the “Boom Boom Room” era and still see it as an all too glib and easy, virtue signaling bit of advertising that totally changes the meaning of the original work. The raging bull doesn’t represent Wall Street (the market is both bulls and bears, ya know), it represents a rising stock market and thus prosperity. So the girl is standing athwart prosperity? Makes no sense at all as a positive message for State Street to be sending.

    Even in the context that State Street and the artist meant the pair to be seen, it’s actually ridiculous — they are subtly reinforcing the idea that it’s ok for Wall Street men to refer to and treat women in their workplace as little girls there to ruin the fun.

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