Seen & Heard: The Transportation Hub Sprouted a Second Quill

••• The World Trade Center Transportation Hub finally sprouted a second quill. Someone should get it a Propecia prescription….

••• Have you marked your calendar for Thursday? Joy Gryson and I are welcoming in spring with a special pre-Mother’s Day event at her store at 106 Franklin. Everyone who attends gets 25% off and, with a purchase of $300 or more, a free Beach Street Travel Case. Come by and say hi! We can gossip about Tribeca. The party is 5:30 to 8 p.m.

••• Xoos French Shirts is having a moving sale through the end of the month; also, the store furniture—steel tables, wood table, chairs, customized shelves—is for sale.

••• From Downtown Boathouse: “First Volunteer Meeting of the season @ Pier 26 tomorrow, 5/6 @ 6:30pm. Tour the new boathouse before @ 6. New volunteers welcome!”

••• There’s signage for Indigo Design at 48-50 Walker, that storefront that has been—and maybe still also is?—the office of Soho Studios (and you know they must get walk-ins all the time).

••• 181 Duane would like an addition, if the ribbon on the roof is any indication—that’s what owners have to do to get it approved by CB1 and the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

••• I recently watched Ghostbusters for the first time since it was in theaters—Sigourney Weaver was so luscious!—and I was struck by a scene at “City Hall,” when the guys’ car is shown leaving the Municipal Building—and the red sculpture at One Police Plaza wasn’t red, but dark. The website of the artist, Tony Rosenthal, has an explanation: “5 in 1, 1973-74, consists of five interlocking discs which represent the interconnectedness of the City’s Five Boroughs, Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island. […] Rosenthal envisioned interlocking five discs painted red in his original 5 in 1, 1973-74 maquette. However, a lack of funds prevented the red paint coat originally specified by Rosenthal, and this Landmark Sculpture was initially installed with its raw Cor-Ten Steel exposed. Because of the exorbitant cost of constantly removing graffiti, funds were later raised to paint the 5 in 1 Sculpture Red, ultimately completing the One Police Plaza Commission with the Artist’s original vision.”

••• The big rental building going up at 460 Washington is above ground.

460 Washington 5514

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5 Comments

  1. Here’s a question: when/how is the gray frame of the oculus going to become white? The gray looks awful; I’m crossing my fingers that this isn’t “value engineering” and it will end up white. Any ideas TriBeCa citizen?

    • Not a clue. In the five (!) years I’ve been doing this site, I’ve never been able to get any traction regarding the WTC. I’ve tried reaching out to Silverstein and the Port Authority, and other than one email from the latter (that was followed by radio silence), I’ve never heard a peep back. Big companies and organizations tend to look at blogs like this as nothing more pests (and I can see their point, even if I think it’s misguided). In any event, that means TC tends to be in front of traditional media outlets (because I don’t wait for the official word) or behind them (because I don’t receive the official word).

      • Thank you for writing the blog! It get me through my days at work and get me excited about all the amazing news in our lovely little neighborhood :)

      • The Durst Organization is driving the 1WTC building process and the value engineering.

  2. Here’s a little inside information on the WTC.

    Visit the official WTC website. http://www.wtc.com/about/transportation-hub

    The official website indicates that the Federal Transit Administration is developing “future transportation services” at Ground Zero.

    Now, look up New York State Senate bill S4912(2013). The bill authorizes the operation of autonomous, self-driving cars on Empire State roadways.

    Ground Zero, the former World Trade Center (WTC), is becoming the World Transportation Center (WTC), epicenter of America’s new, ever-expanding, universal infrastructure for driverless automobiles.