••• “For a long time I have been interested in the terra cotta plaques on [P.S.] 234 in Tribeca, that depict scenes of a long-gone Manhattan era including the old Washington Market. […] The plaque here shows St. John’s Chapel, which stood on the east side of Varick Street between Beach Street (now Ericsson Place) and Laight Street. The church, an uptown chapel of Trinity Church, was designed by John McComb Jr. and constructed in 1803. There was an addition deigned by Richard Upjohn in 1857.” —Forgotten New York

••• Ephemeral New York looks into the history of 2 White, the 1809 building where the J. Crew Liquor Store is now.

••• Karley Sciortino, author of Slutever: Dispatches from a Sexually Autonomous Woman in a Post-Shame World, told the New York Post a story.

She nearly got arrested while helping stage a “kidnapping” in the Financial District, four blocks from the World Trade Center. One of [dominatrix Mistress] Dee’s clients (the “Hostage”) harbored a fantasy about abduction. He paid for the privilege of being accosted on the sidewalk at gunpoint, forced down an alley and stuffed into the trunk of a car. “The plan was to intercept the Hostage on his way home from work,” writes Sciortino. “[We] would approach him with a subway map, pretending to be tourists in need of directions. As soon as we got his attention, my accomplice would pull out the gun ‘discreetly,’ concealing it from passersby with her coat, and press it into the Hostage’s side. ‘No one is going to see the gun,’ Dee assured me. ‘And if anyone gives you any trouble, just say you’re shooting a student film.'” Everything went like clockwork—until the “kidnappers” pulled the Hostage out of the trunk and were “immediately ambushed by undercover police.” According to Sciortino, she was tackled to the ground by an officer while the Hostage screamed into the pillowcase she’d placed over his head. “I then, as instructed, began shouting: ‘We’re making a student film!’ over and over again. Somehow, despite our lack of cameras and the fact that my accomplice was like, 45, this instantly calmed the officers down a bit.” The Hostage insisted the story was true and the cops backed off, leaving them with a stern warning.

••• “This year’s City of Dreams Design Competition will bring silos to Governors Island. After a period of deliberation, the competition’s nonprofit organizer Figment, along with a handful or architecture and engineering organizations, have chosen Austin+Mergold’s proposal Oculi as this year’s featured design.” The rendering looks like something you pass on the way to Newark airport. —Curbed