In the News: One Night in Taybeca

••• Today in Taylor Swift news…. The singer (and Tribeca resident) had fans over to  her Franklin Street loft to preview her new album, says the New York Post: “They headed across the hall and into Swift’s apartment—outfitted with a beautiful piano, books whimsically displayed in birdcages, a signed Oscar de la Renta sketch of Swift’s 2014 Met Gala gown and lots of Le Labo candles, personalized to read ‘Taybeca’ (a mash-up of ‘Taylor’ and ‘Tribeca’). ‘It was beautiful—everything was very antique yet new,” [one fan] says. ‘It looked like an Anthropologie store, but prettier.'” Also in the Post: Swift was named a “Global Welcome Ambassador” for New York City, so she can promote it the way she does Diet Coke and Subway. I’m going to decide that Patti Smith was busy.

••• “Howard Hughes Corporation picked up another site in the Financial District’s South Street Seaport historic district—this time, an eight-story rental property at 85 South Street. […] The property, between Fletcher and John streets, holds 24 apartments and a ground-floor retail space occupied by high-end dog daycare and spa Fetch Club. The off-market deal does not include air rights.” You might recall the Howard Hughes Corp. also bought 80 South Street…. —The Real Deal

••• New York Journal was meh about White Street.

••• More on the One World Observatory at 1 World Trade Center, opening in the spring. And look, a video! (You can mute it without missing anything.) —Wall Street Journal

 

8 Comments

  1. Anyone else find the video creepy, with ghost-like figures throughout (not a great idea for a building built on a killing field) and the mid-elevator sequence where all the buildings of Manhattan rise up, like the film of the Towers falling was run backwards? And of course, the only way to the down elevators is through the gift shop!

    • Are your talking about Taylor Swift and her apartment? I agree, creepilicious.
      #TaybecaCitizen

    • During the Draft Riots in the early 1860s the lampposts of Church Street were adorned with the bodies of hanged black people. Doyers Street (“The Bloody Angle”) saw more murders than any other location in NYC until 2001. The African Burial Ground (Duane St.) was unknown until construction there started turning up bodies. I could go on, but that’s the way history works, no? Cities are built on blood, but their constant rebuilding can also stand for the perpetuity and rebirth of life. Depends on how you look at things I guess.

      • I’ve got no problem with building there and I’m glad they did in a way that includes (hopefully) vibrant commercial activity. I just find the choice to show spectral see-through human figures rather than solid ones in the promotional video to be creepy, given the location.

        • I understand. I have to look at tons of these animated renderings for my work, and this style is the industry norm. It’s off-putting to me, but mainly because it’s banal and contributes nothing to the presentation. This isn’t a case where human scale needs to be illustrated.

      • I didnt know any of that…. very interesting

      • Great comment…..so true.

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