courtesy Curbed

•••”3 World Trade Center just got a fresh new look [….] The big change being the cross bracing on the front of the building is now gone. One tipster proclaims ‘they have dropped the x bracing on the building and the giant video screen both things that made this building the most unique of the new WTC towers. In my opinion Larry Silverstein has just ruined the complex for me.’ Yikes! No need to worry, construction on the Richard Rogers designed building isn’t going to be start until 2020 anyway. When it’s done the building is set to be 80 stories (1,170 feet) of retail and office space.” (Curbed)

••• “Africa Israel USA, billionaire Lev Leviev’s U.S. real estate unit, agreed to sell 88 Leonard […] in a deal the company values at about $222 million. The 352-unit tower went into contract this week, said Tamir Kazaz, chief executive officer of the U.S. division of Tel Aviv- based Africa-Israel Investments Ltd. He declined to name the buyer.” (Bloomberg) UPDATE: @CraigKarmin on Twitter said that the buyer is Chicago’s Waterton Associates.

••• Pick-A-Bagel, in the Goldman Sachs Dining and Entertainment Complex, has closed for renovations; it’ll reopen Wednesday. (Broadsheet Daily)

•••”An upscale steakhouse”—sigh—”will soon replace the shuttered Carmine’s Italian Seafood near the South Street Seaport. Called ‘The Fighting Chair,’ the new bar and restaurant is the latest project of the entrepreneurs who brought the Five Guys burger chain to Manhattan a few years ago.” (DNAinfo)

••• “Residents of Cedar and Liberty Streets (between Trinity Place and Greenwich Street) live closer than anybody else to the new World Trade Center site, and Tower 4 in particular. […] In June, residents encountered a new frustration: a proposal by the Fire Department’s Ladder 10 (which is headquartered at Liberty and Greenwich Streets) to reverse the flow of traffic on Cedar Street, so that the emergency vehicles exiting the firehouse can turn left on Greenwich Street and left again on Cedar and then head uptown on Church Street. This will allow fire trucks to make a speedy exit and avoid pedestrian traffic on Liberty Street.” (Broadsheet Daily)

••• “The city is breaking its own noise code by jackhammering late at night on the Brooklyn Bridge, officials admitted to angry residents this week. The Department of Transportation—which is managing the four-year, $508 million overhaul of the landmark bridge—has received violations for the noisy work and is looking for a solution, but in the meantime, the loud construction will continue, officials said.” Yep, that sounds like the DOT. (DNAinfo)

••• “Eddie’s Pizza Truck recently built a cart that’s now under the High Line and will soon be serving pizza at Duane Square in Tribeca.” (DNAinfo)

••• Curbed got invited to a party to reveal the renovated townhouse at 321A Greenwich (between Duane and Reade), now on the market for $22.5 million.