By Eliot Brown for the WSJ

••• The Wall Street Journal has a slideshow of Four World Trade Center.

••• The New York Post argues against the World Trade Center Performing Arts Center.

••• Laughing Man now sells chocolate. —CNN

••• Eater gets a “design tour” of Macao Trading Co., which is looking at opening an outpost in L.A.

••• “After residents complained about feeling unsafe crossing [Battery Park City's] streets, the Department of Transportation began studying three intersections—North End Avenue and Warren Street, North End Avenue and Murray Street, and South End Avenue and West Thames Street—to determine whether they need different traffic signals, a DOT official said Tuesday.” —DNAinfo

••• The African Burial Ground National Monument Park Office is getting banners on Broadway. —Broadsheet

STREET ACTIVITY PERMIT: CB1
The organizer for CB1′s street fair on W. Broadway between Chambers and Barclay on Friday, Aug. 10, didn’t show, so the application was held over.

STREET ACTIVITY PERMIT: TRIBECA FAMILY FESTIVAL
The massive annual event will be Saturday, April 28, on Greenwich from Beach to Reade, including on various streets in between. Vote: 8-0. (It was mentioned that Regal still refuses to lease its theaters, so don’t expect many Tribeca Film Festival screenings in the area.)

412 GREENWICH: APPLICATION FOR AMENDMENT TO ZONING RESOLUTION
As I mentioned here, the wonderful single-story parking garage at Greenwich and Laight is doomed. What I hadn’t realized what that the address (412 Greenwich) is also 71 Laight, which I’d written about before and had always thought was 401 Washington, next door. Taconic Investment Partners is buying the site with the garage and 401 Washington (where Capitol Glass once was), combining the two into one development. The facade of the new building at 412 Greenwich will mirror the one at 401 Washington, which will be restored and a penthouse added on top. (I had read about the mirroring, but I thought that was about another building. All the buildings up there do kind of look alike.) Anyway, the current owner of the site didn’t get the paperwork done in time, so the zoning resolution from years ago has to be amended to allow the site to be developed by 2016 (instead of January 2012). CB1 Landmarks Committee, CB1 Tribeca Committee, and CB1 proper had already approved architect Morris Adjmi‘s design years ago. Each building will have around 18 apartments, and there will be separate retail lots on the ground floor (I like the idea of retail, but northwest Tribeca has an awful lot of empty storefronts…). A committee member asked if there was language in the resolution to protect against “density,” which seems to go against CB1′s general goal of affordable housing, but whatever. Any change along those lines would have to go back before Landmarks, which no one wants to do. Pictured (click to enlarge): A rendering, looking southwest, of the new building (where the garage is now), and what the two buildings will look like from Laight. Vote: 7-0; the chair recused himself because his company is involved in the project.

SIDEWALK SEATING PERMIT: TURKS & FROGS
Renewal. Vote: 8-0.

WINE & BEER LICENSE: RBC NYC
Held over at the applicant’s request (the phrase “lease negotiation difficulties” was mentioned).

WINE & BEER LICENSE: MASLOW 6 WINE BAR
As we could tell from the agenda, Maslow 6 wine shop is taking over Vinovino (which has closed, by the way). Maslow’s Keri Jackson says we can expect more reasonably priced wines (good!), that it’ll be a place for people who want to appreciate wine or just drink it. Also: better beers, more food, and real tables and chairs. A potential menu is pictured; click away. Vote: 8-0.

IN CONCLUSION
There was a discussion about the committee’s 2011 achievements and 2012 goals that I mostly ignored—until one member mentioned something I had heard about a long time ago (but neglected to follow up on): The strip-mall Japanese restaurant at the base of Independence Plaza North apparently draws huge crowds of reveling young people on Friday and Saturday nights; it may be an all-you-can-eat/drink situation. Another member said the NYPD’s 1st precinct had said they’d look into it, but nothing seems to have come of it.

WHAT WASN’T DISCUSSED…
A new liquor-license application for the Barzinho space on W. Broadway, which must have been held over at the applicant’s request.

••• Reader Dave wrote in asking if there was any update on Aamanns/Copenhagen, the Danish restaurant opening on Laight, so I checked in with the PR rep: No opening date has been set.

••• Tribeca Citizen has 999 “likes” on Facebook. I do my best not to care about that number, but would someone please make it 1,000?

••• It’s so nice to have the southern sidewalk of Reade between Church and Broadway back. I don’t even mind the scaffolding.

••• Brick Underground interviews an anonymous Tribeca doorman. It’s not exactly juicy.

••• The New York Times reviews Kutsher’s: “The food here’s not bad. And such big portions!”

by Ruby Washington for the New York Times

••• Soho Rep’s “The Ugly One” is reviewed in the New York Times.

••• The New York Times looks at Hudson Square and Trinity Church’s role in creating it. Isn’t this a story they’ve done many times before?

••• Director Abel Ferrara is planning a film based on the Dominique Straus-Kahn situation. It’ll star Gerard Depardieu and Isabelle Adjani. —ArtInfo

••• Aarón Sánchez of Centrico has opened a restaurant called Mestizo in Kansas City; it was reviewed by the Kansas City Star.

••• American Icon is opening another outpost on Fifth Avenue above Madison Square Park. —New York Post

••• “Pizza & Pasta [Delight] is operating on a month-to-month lease and in danger of losing its spot in the Southbridge complex at Fulton and Gold Street. [...] The Southbridge Towers Board of Directors voted on Feb. 2 to scrap plans to boot the restaurant and replace it—and the soon-to-be-vacant Key Food store next to it—with what it was describing as a ‘high end wine and spirits’ store. [But] with the next door Key Food relocating to a bigger space at 55 Fulton St. this spring, Southbridge needs to find a new tenant. The board is not convinced it will be able to do so without packaging it with the Pizza & Pasta space.” —Tribeca Trib

••• “The Historic Districts Council is objecting to the demolition of 52 [Lispenard] and alteration of 54 Lispenard. The council feels that 52 Lispenard retains some significant architectural details that would change the character of the district if it were destroyed and replaced with a nondescript structure.” —Curbed

••• A parade report from the New York Times. (Photo by Todd Heisler for the NYT.) Personally, I left the area before 8 a.m., and I haven’t regretted my decision once.

••• New York magazine reviews Kutsher’s, and more or less likes it. Judging to what extent the restaurant pays respect to tradition seems to be missing the point….

••• “Lower Manhattan will receive 100 more beds for the homeless thanks to a $2.7 million grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York to the New York City Rescue Mission. [...] Construction will begin in the next few months and continue into 2013. [...] By doubling the Mission’s facilities, the organization will be able to serve homeless single women for the first time. Out of the 100 additional beds, 12 to 15 will be reserved for homeless women.” —Broadsheet

••• “Last September, the Belgian design duo behind the label A.F. Vandevorst launched a traveling pop-up shop [...] and tonight it begins its first American residency at the Patron of the New [...]. Called ‘TSTSITW,’ or ‘The Smallest Traveling Store in the World,’ the shop showcases the designers’ clothes alongside medical accessories like a hospital bed and a dentist’s lamp.” Through Feb. 23. —Racked

••• “Karl Fischer’s 24 story tower dormitory for Pace University is beginning to rise at 180 Broadway and John Street. A reader’s photos show the first three floors going up at the construction site, all slated for retail in the new building, and it looks like the first two will be part of one store.” —Curbed

(But first, read about 346 Broadway here.)

I know the building(s?) from going to Community Board 1 committee meetings, many of which are held on the seventh floor. I had never seen more than the lobby and the seventh floor, though, so I wandered over to do some diligence. First, let’s admire the façade(s?). The hell with this “(s)” business: It’s one building, or rather two that have been conjoined.

Click to enlarge

The AIA Guide has historical background: “Originally Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank Building/now City of New York office building, 51 Chambers St., between Broadway and Elk St. N side to Reade St. 1908-1912. Raymond F. Almirall [the architect]. The third facility of the Emigrant Bank to occupy this site. Organized in 1851 to serve the City’s Irish Catholic immigrant population, the Emigrant was once America’s wealthiest savings bank. The building, a mix of Beaux Arts and Art Nouveau, is now used by the City’s bureaucracy. Note the ranks of copper oriels in the light courts and the spirited—if somewhat flat—sculptures that top each wing: The source of Almirall’s ornament was Vienna, not Dublin.” P.S. The “Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank” on the western and eastern sides is actually written in white brick, not painted on.

The building is U-shaped, with entrances at either tip of the U; the (old?) main entrance appears to be solely for wheelchair access now, if the ugly black plywood ramp is any indication.

As with 346 Broadway, the façade has marvelous details.

What knockers, as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein might say. I entered the building at 49 Chambers, the eastern door. There’s a security station, but it’s less aggressive than 346 Broadway. (You have to show ID, but you can keep your belt on.) The lobby is ornate, but I didn’t want to get kicked out for taking photos just yet, so I got in the elevator and went to 14, which is actually 13. I think the 13 superstition is idiotic, but in a commercial building, fine—why risk alienating a renter? Government workers, however, should suck it up.

The hallways are extremely depressing. They look even sicklier because there the light in many of the hallways turned my photos green. (The hallways are generally beige.) I tried to tone the green down after the fact, but it’s still unpleasant.

And the hallways all pretty much look like that (but they’re not all green, at least).

Did you notice the windows looking into the hall? Reminds me of school (but then many depressing, institutional buildings remind of school.) Most floors had a few nice details, though. I love mosaic.

Although it’s hard to tell in the above photo, the bottom half of the light glows red if the elevator is going down. I turned the last two photos into black-and-whites because the green was overwhleming.

The glassed-off stairways, separated from the halls by red swing doors, are pretty great. The stairs themselves are narrow, though. Two adults would have a hard time passing each other without possible accusations of frottage. By the way, frottage is the word of the day. Try to use it in a sentence! Bonus points for frotteur.

I stopped on the seventh floor because I thought I might be able to peek into a room. The one where many CB1 committee meetings are held was in use, and it’s unremarkable—the character was remodeled right out of the building. I did see the anteroom below. Can’t you just hear someone saying, “Wait here until the principal is ready to see you.”

The only interesting thing here is more transom-like windows. I think these may have looked into the men’s room, which had some great tiling—it reminded me of Weather Up.

On the first floor—I think (I got confused)—there were also stairs that broke the sad, green monotony of the hallway.

More stairs lead back down; on the plateau are windows that look outside—fresh air was coming in—but I’m not 100% sure what the hell I was looking at. And since I had to use the flash to see/capture it, I got the heck out fast. I don’t like flash anyway, and I like it even less when I’m trying to be sneaky.

Part of the reason I was confused was that the first floor wasn’t the ground floor—as if this were Europe or something. I headed to the western end of the building, figuring I’d take the stairs to the lobby. I went down at least four flights, maybe as many as six, before I got to the lobby. (The stairs keep going….) At one point, the thought occurred to me that I had discovered a portal to hell, except the stairwell was suddenly marble-lined, so maybe it was more of a The Devil’s Advocate kind of hell.

The upshot: No one was in the western lobby, so I could take a photo unobserved. To the best of my knowledge, you can’t get to the other lobby without going to the so-called first floor (or possibly downstairs).

The bottom line? I have such a stiffy fondness for these old buildings that I wish Matt Abramcyk would take them all over and turn them into Smith & Mills–y hotels. Whether the Civic Center needs a hotel—especially if Temple Court turns into one, and what with FiDi’s boom in mid-level hotels—remains a significant question. But while 346 Broadway would make awesome condos, this stretch of Chambers—with the Tweed Courthouse across the street and the Municipal Building down the block—just doesn’t feel residential. As great as the lobbies are, most of the charm of 49-51 Chambers is on the outside, and maybe the city can handle taking care of it. As for the inside: 1) It already feels like a school. 2) If the stairwells are too narrow for older kids, make it an elementary school, where kids don’t move around as much. 3) The adjacent parking lot would work perfectly as a play area. Case closed.

On parade day, when I was walking fighting my way down Reade to get to the subway, I realized that the building is H-shaped, not U-shaped. I can’t tell to what extent the Reade side (which has a Reade Street address) is a separate building—I don’t think it is at all, but the doors appear to be unused. But when I was in the building, I saw no obvious way to get to the northern half. It wouldn’t matter except I noticed what must have been the bank’s once-dazzling lobby, barely visible in the photo below (click to enlarge).

UPDATE: A reader wrote in about the old bank lobby: “It’s still in great shape. The Council used it for about a year for public meetings while city hall was being renovated, so you should be able to find some recent photos online. They made some temporary modifications for it to handle the public meetings, which you’ll notice in the photos, but prior to that it was in renovated condition, and it’s likely back that way since it’s an interior landmark.” The photo below by Hiroko Masuike comes from this New York Times story.

P.S. Can you get me into 22 Reade? Email tribecacitizen@gmail.com. I took matters into my own hands.

••• “Louis F. Latilla, 65, and his wife, Terrie Latilla, 59 [who] live in Tribeca and own the Manhattan Fruit Exchange at Chelsea Market,” told the New York Times about dining at the West Village restaurant RedFarm. No offense to the Latillas, but it’s a pretty dumb column—although not as dumb as the NYT article about how the Giants have fairy dust on their side.

••• “Battery Park City’s Liberty Luxe Penthouse Wants $29,500/Month,” laughs Curbed.

A few Seen & Heard items that don’t quite warrant their own post:

••• “Coming soon” signage has been put up at the new Kaffe 1668 (on Greenwich bet Beach and Hubert).

••• I hear Super Linda isn’t opening until at least Wednesday.

••• I had to spend most of Saturday night in the emergency room—not because of me (I would never get sick at such an inconvenient time)—and it was my first experience of any kind with the New York Downtown Hospital. I’ve never gotten the impression that anyone there reads this site, but if they do, thanks again for being extremely considerate.

Here they are, property by property; click to enlarge. (The Stephen John Nash at 123 Chambers is NBA player Steve Nash.) I wish you could click through to StreetEasy for more info. Maybe someday….

••• Soft-opening tonight: Lotus Blue, the Yunnan (that’s a Chinese province) restaurant in the old Nam space on Reade. Get 10% off your entire bill. I peeked in—it looks nice!

••• I just noticed the ad pictured at left. Has it really been there since at least September?

••• 37 Warren—the building at the southwest corner of Church that’s getting four new stories—will be called Warren Lofts, according to the outgoing message at 212-371-5100, the number on the banner recently put on the building (and it’s being repped by Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group). The sign also has a URL (37warren.com), but it goes nowhere. Warren Lofts rings a bell….

••• The new Aroma Espresso Bar at Church and Barclay is positively roomy. So the future of the café is… a diner?