Seen & Heard: Community meeting for the proposed IPN tower

  • COMMUNITY MEETING FOR IPN TOWER
    Councilman Chris Marte and the Independent Plaza Tenants Association will host a community meeting to discuss the plans for a 900-foot tower at Independence Plaza on Monday, March 25, at 7p at BMCC at 199 Chambers. Read more here. Also there’s this on the height and this on the zoning. 

HAPPY BDAY TO THE MORGAN LIBRARY FROM TRIBECA
Duane Park Patisserie baked a bit of history for the Morgan Library’s 100th birthday, with a cake top, inspired by medieval treasure bindings adorned in gold, silver and gems.

BEEFBAR OPENS TOMORROW
Beefbar, the restaurant that took the former Nobu space, will have its grand opening tomorrow, March 21. Read more here. (I love the illustration they did for the opening…)

CINDY SHERMAN’S TRIBECA STUDIO
Am I the last to know that Cindy Sherman works out of a studio here? So says The New Yorker (though Wikipedia says she lives in West Soho, after selling her original Soho loft to Hank Azaria in 2005). From The New Yorker: “Sherman works alone, in a Tribeca studio or in a converted barn on her property in East Hampton, which are now chockablock with wigs, costumes, props, and prostheses, accreted over years of rummaging. For almost five decades, she has been her own willing subject, but she has long emphasized in interviews that the process of becoming her characters is only successful when they are sufficiently disentangled from herself.”

 

9 Comments

  1. Regarding the IPN tower, I wonder if the good offices of Mr Marte will push for 100% affordable? That wouldn’t be financially feasible anyway (and I think he will push whatever makes him look with the majority of the moment). I would worry less about height. The focus should be community benefits and middle income housing. Wouldnt it be cool if teachers, cops, firefighters and hospital workers could still live in Manhattan. Esp Tribeca!

    • Too much affordable housing means cheap construction and poor maintenance in a part of the neighborhood that is already notably beat up compared to its surroundings. The best result for the community would be a profitable, respected development that has the financial success to treat its surroundings with respect (and residents with the means/desire to facilitate that) instead of letting it degrade with endless litter, destroyed planters, rats, and the homeless. They should also contribute to service expansion, Washington Market, PS 234, etc. given the size and expected number of residents.

      The last thing this neighborhood needs is another tower that just winds up blighted like the rest of IPN because it was force fed affordable housing to the point where it can’t pay for its own existence.

      The renderings that have come out of the revitalized Greenwich Street streetscape look fantastic. This project can be a huge win for the area if the community is realistic.

      https://mnlandscape.com/projects/greenwich_street_revisioning

      • As I understand it, the income threshold for “affordable” is based on the median income of the neighborhood so in Tribeca, that threshold would be relatively high. Also, I believe developers are now required to dedicate a certain portion of the units to affordable housing. I’m sure there are others here who can clarify if I’m wrong.

      • Person we know who you work for. NO ONE WANTS THE TOWER IN TRIBECA.

  2. Jesus. We found the person who works at the developer. When they give you talking points you shouldn’t just copy and paste.

  3. thanks for the shout out!

  4. I thought Cindy Sherman’s studio was on Greenwhich and Vandam. Not sure where I saw that.

Comment: