••• The World Trade Center is really getting whipped into shape for Monday’s opening of 3 World Trade Center. Besides the murals (on the mechanicals at what will one day be 2WTC) and the plaza south of the Oculus (also opening Monday; first photo below), there will be a new plaza at the northeast corner of the World Trade Center site, at Church and Vesey (second photo). And a ton of fences have come down, making for better views all around. I just hope we’ll be able to walk on the west side of Church all the way to the Oculus, which would take a lot of pedestrian pressure off of the east side; the sidewalk alongside the St. Paul’s churchyard is narrow and jammed with tourists, commuters, and touts. (To the reader who reverse commutes on the PATH, having to force his way upstream through the misdesigned Transportation Hub: I don’t think another PATH entrance is opening, alas.)

••• “How about a roundup of restaurants showing the World Cup, with a focus on ones that would otherwise never have a TV in the room?” emailed Ned Baldwin of Houseman. “We’re going to put a big one on one of the shelves behind the bar.” I’m not inclined to initiate a roundup, but if people know of other places shows the tournament, feel free to chime in.

••• Opening tomorrow at Barney Savage Gallery: “Working with self-imposed structuralist plans, Paolo Arao set out to create a new 18-x-15-inch painting each week during a single session during the 2017 calendar year. The result was a body of 52 dynamic abstract images that explore the idea of queer imagery without the depiction of the body. The gallery is pleased to present all 52 unique paintings, some of which are done directly on canvas or linen while others are pieced and sewn together, to create an image of similar scale. They have been hung as a grid as the artist intended, creating a day-to-day and week-to-week fluidity.”

••• The 25-story building at 1 Beekman has topped out; that’s it on the left, and trust me, there’s a flag at the top. The orange project next door is 25 Park Row, which will be 59 stories (more than double its current height). We’ll have to settle for partial blockage of the lower row of Xs on the Beekman Hotel’s condo tower.

••• Shooting tomorrow in the W. Broadway/N. Moore area: what might be a Johnson & Johnson commercial.