••• Whole Foods isn’t the only retailer getting made over by Amazon: “Look what replaced the registers on the 5th floor at Century 21,” reports P. “4th floor is now visitor lounge with chairs, lamps, etc.” The point of these lockers is convenience, right? Because I don’t know that getting to the fifth floor of Century 21 is all that easy, ever. (And could they be more institutional?)

••• James found the likely explanation for the name of Holy Ground, the restaurant opening in the former Super Linda space at W. Broadway and Reade, in a 2002 New Yorker article by Catherine Schine: “The Church Farm just west of St. Paul’s Chapel was also the site of [New York] city’s red-light district, home to as many as five hundred prostitutes. It was known as the Holy Ground. Convenient for the sailors and laborers who worked on the wharves and docks to the west, the Holy Ground was just a short stroll away for the students of King’s College and for the rich living in fine, new houses on Broadway and working near Wall Street.”

••• From the Historic Districts Council: “HDC hired Denisha Williams and Jeff Byles of Being Here Design to study New York City’s historic street pavements and write this report, the first ever of its kind. In the new report, our city’s historic roadbeds, sidewalks, crosswalks and even embedded train rails are examined. This thorough report identifies past and present solutions to our historic streets and examines the feasibility of them in the context of ADA.” I didn’t read the report (PDF), but you should. The photo, of Greenwich Street, is mine.

••• I posted the answer to last week’s Where in Tribeca…? It’s 57 Leonard.

••• Opening Sept. 7 at R & Company: Oops, “the first public exhibition by French designer Pierre Yovanovitch. The exhibit is part of the gallery’s annual Guest Curator exhibition and will include an original series of furniture and lighting by Yovanovitch, alongside contemporary designs and mid-century Brazilian masterworks from the R & Company archive.” Great graphic.