Left rectangle ads redesigned
Robert Ripps book
History of Tribeca Buildings
Seen & Heard: Opening Date for the Bennett Bar
••• Capital Audio & Electronics on Duane is having a closing sale; everything must go but it’s only on selected items….
••• The Bennett, the new bar where Petite Abeille used to be, opens Monday (Nov. 23).
••• “Furball” is shooting in the Walker/Cortlandt Alley area on Friday. That’s likely a fake name; will try to find out what it stands for. Garfield 2? UPDATE: @OLV says it might be Zoolander 2, which is shooting around town and would have a silly nom de cinéma.
••• And “Spear” shoots in the Warren Street area tomorrow. That’s the code name for John Wick 2.
••• Does anyone know what’s going on in the former Duxiana store at Hudson and Laight? There was a long guy working in there yesterday, and I didn’t have the vim to interrupt him.
••• A reader noticed that work is finally starting on the topper of the Cast Iron House (361 Broadway)—it’ll be very modern (rendering below), which could certainly work but the building looks so good in its refurbished state that you almost hate to see it added to.
••• M. M. De Voe noticed that Ciao café at 99 Nassau has closed.
••• One Taste, which teaches Orgasmic Meditation, is having a potluck dinner tomorrow night. (File that one under “Sentences I never thought I’d write.”) FYI, “It’s a casual atmosphere that will include some connection games.” Eighteen and over.
••• Five cars with NYPD permits—”official NYPD business,” my behind—were parked halfway on the White Street sidewalk yesterday. Someone else flyered them with notes explaining that parking above sidewalk vaults is stupid and dangerous. Come on, 1st Precinct: Police thyself. The permits are numbers 15477, 15478, 15479, 15483, and 15500, and I have photos if anyone wants them.
11 Comments
Comment:
Medium rectangle #1 (top)
Right column rectangle ads
Mega rectangle
Restaurant guide icon
I love your use of “the vim”.
Noticed the parking situation on White Street for the past month. Didn’t check if they had NYPD permits though.
BTW, HD is having a party from 7-9pm on Sat 12/12, pretty sure there will be bikes parking (illegally) on the POPS.
White street isn’t that narrow, so why park like this?
The abuse of the system by the NYPD is abysmal – running through red lights, making illegal turns, going down one way streets the wrong way, sleeping on the job, talking on a cell phone while driving, smoking in uniform…I’m happy and grateful for all that they do to protect and serve us, but practice what you preach! I sometimes wish I could give cops a ticket when I see them breaking the law..
I believe those look like phony parking permits and were not DOT-issued. They have gotten a little smarter by varying the numbers.
White Street b/w Broadway and Cortland Alley (side across from Harley Davidson) has been converted to NYPD and Health Department parking this week. No more 6pm parking. It’s getting harder and harder to find street parking in the area, it’s going to get worse when folks move into those multi million dollar condos.
Has anyone else noticed that at night the Staple St. alley has become a haven for drug dealers? At first, it was just a lot of folks smoking pot in the alley every night. Over the past 2 months, this has transitioned into dealers selling drugs on a nightly basis. How do we get the police to start patrolling the alley and running these folks out before it becomes much more dangerous and spills into the broader neighborhood? Can this be addressed by CB1 or someone else to put pressure on the police?
You can wait until CB1 does something but it’s probably better to start off by calling the precinct when you see it so they can send some guys over right away.
Re Cast Iron House: There are cities which have landmarks laws which do not allow structures to be built on top of historic buildings. New York’s law says that if you can’t see it from the street you can basically build whatever you like. The stricter version says that looking down on a building from neighboring sites is important, too, in preserving the look of the original and will not allow such topping additions. Ought we try to change our law?
No. Few existing rooftops have any architectural significance when viewed from overhead (from largely private property) that additions detract from. Most undeveloped rooftops are tar beaches, that consist of HVAC units, elevator overhead machine rooms, and water tanks, none of which are original to most landmarked buildings. Further, most additions differ substantially from the original building in style, thereby delineating the old from the new.
A rooftop addition that is not visible from any public thoroughfare balances the public interest in preserving the facade with the private interest to develop one’s property (and pay more property taxes to support the City’s budget).
Ah, real estate speaks! Yes, the rooftops may in themselves be unremarkable but a glass box balconied extravaganza (crowned by its own HVAC unites and machine rooms) on top of an old building seen from above, whether from someone’s apartment or from the floors of a public building, can look an unholy mishmash and change dramatically the perception of the building’s having any any kind of innate historic importance.
It is specious to argue in effect that one should not mar the views of Tribeca loft building rooftops when seen from the penthouse of 56 Leonard Street!
One would do more good to lobby to extend landmarked districts–and prevent future buildings of the Leonard St Jenga high-rise type–than to try to protect unremarkable views of architecturally insignificant rooftops for the benefit of the views from high-rise apartments and offices, a.k.a. “real estate,” especially those being built adjacent to landmarked districts! If the Landmark district had extended north of the Cast Iron House in question, the abomination that is the northwest corner of Broadway and Franklin Sts would not have been allowed to be so horribly disfigured, but would rather have been restored to its 1860s appearance.
The strength of the Landmarks Law in preserving New York’s history should not be undermined by proposals like this with significant new restrictions on Landmarked buildings for de minimis benefit to “real estate,” namely “protecting” views of architecturally insignificant roofs from other “real estate”, and said alleged benefit accruing largely to those people who choose to live and work in the predominantly non-Landmarked taller buildings nearby.
A modern rooftop addition on an architecturally insignificant roof which is set back from the street is clearly visually distinguished from the original historic fabric when seen from above. Trying to blend the addition into the building would be more confusing and do more damage to the historical integrity.