Daniel Maurer 100 Third Avenue (l) and 219 First Avenue (r).

A couple of new apartment buildings are showing themselves off today. On Monday, EV Grieve noticed the netting coming down at 219 First Avenue, a four-story building that has been enlarged to six stories with a penthouse. And this morning, a couple of blocks down 13th Street, The Local spotted scaffolding coming down at 100 Third Avenue. Originally a four-story building (and the site of theaters such as Blank’s Winter Garden, Sans Souci, and the Lyric), it now boasts seven floors, one of which will house the new Nevada Smiths. (The bar had hoped to relocate there this month.) We’ll have more about these buildings soon, but in the meantime admire(?) their shiny new facades.

Natalie Rinn Mr. Berman, right, at a protest on Thursday.

One of the most vocal opponents of New York University’s proposed expansion near Washington Square Park wants Borough President Scott M. Stringer to hold a public hearing before making an advisory decision about the controversial plan next month.

Andrew Berman, Executive Director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, drafted a letter to Mr. Stringer last Friday as the Borough President began his month-long review of the university’s proposal. The note, which came on the heels of Community Board 2’s unanimous advisory decision last Thursday against the expansion plan, was also signed by 15 community members, including block association leaders, preservationists, and Mark Crispin Miller of N.Y.U. Faculty Against the Sexton Plan. Read more…

Evan Bleier

Patricia James has been a resident of the Two Bridges public housing complex for more than half of her 67 years. About two years ago, mice began entering her apartment through holes underneath the radiators. The rodents, she said, were eating her food, nesting in her clothes and disrupting her family life. “At night my grandchildren can’t stay over,” she told The Local. “They get in the bed.” She said the New York City Housing Authority failed to fix the problem, so she stopped paying her $517-per-month rent.

In March of 2011, the Housing Authority deemed Ms. James chronically delinquent and began eviction proceedings. Between her back rent and other fees, she now owes more than $14,000.

After a month of negotiations between her lawyer and the city, the two parties have come to an agreement in principle, and Ms. James has readied a cashier’s check for $15,000. But she hasn’t yet turned it over. The Housing Authority, she said, has pledged to allow her to remain in her apartment so long as she pays the back rent, but it has refused to put it in writing — an odd tactic that her lawyer says he has never confronted in 35 years of practice. Read more…

Curbed asked its readers to redesign the office building that developer Edward Minskoff is bringing to 51 Astor Place. The results are alternately funny and inspired, and worth a look: the winner of the contest (and a $100 gift certificate for the St. Mark’s Bookshop) proposed a building that “would be composed of fragments of lost East Village landmarks. An unfinished work, the building would be continuously assembled, growing taller and more visible as the neighborhood continues to vanish.”

Want to live in one of the most controversial apartments in the neighborhood? Here’s what the layout of your new pad will look like!

Earlier today, The Local got hold of the blueprints for 315 East 10th Street, the building that got the go-ahead for a rooftop extension literally hours before the Landmarks Preservation Commission declared it within a historic district along Tompkins Square Park.

The completely new, 1,523-square-foot fifth floor will feature a pair of one-bedroom apartments (accessible by elevator!). The exterior will have a new “historic” touch, too: a spokeswoman for the Landmarks Preservation Commission said that the owner of the building, Ben Shaoul, has pledged to build a replica of the existing cornice on top of the new floor. Read more…

After a failed demolition attempt by would-be developers, the historic building at 128 East 13th Street will hit the auction block thanks to an order from a State Supreme Court judge, The Real Deal reports. The building, which was home to one of the city’s leading sellers of horses and horse-drawn carriages and later served as sculptor Frank Stella’s studio, was the subject of much lobbying by preservationists once developers Isaac Mishan and Joseph Sabbah revealed plans to replace it with a seven-story building in 2006. The pair defaulted on $10.5 million in loans, resulting in last week’s court order.

First John Legend put his pad up for sale and now The Observer reports that Scottish singer-songwriter K.T. Tunstall has sold her duplex at 525 East 11th Street for $1.5 million, about $75,000 less than what she bought it for in 2008. The 2-bedroom, 2.5-bath home with 540-square-foot terrace went to one Farsad Golnaz.

Rachel Citron A 2007 exhibition at Milk Studios.

Residents who are fighting eviction from the the Hotel Chelsea were baffled by an invitation they received to a Thursday evening concert by Patti Smith in the hotel’s ground-floor ballroom. Commenters on Living With Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog wondered whether the writer and musician, who recounted her time as a resident of the hotel in her 2010 memoir “Just Kids,” was being paid by Joseph Chetrit, the real estate investor who recently purchased the landmark 23rd Street building and is renovating its interior. Today, the songstress, in a statement reprinted by the blog, said she was not being compensated for the performance, which was her idea. Read more…

G.V.S.H.P.

After defying his landlord’s repeated requests to stop holding events at A Gathering of the Tribes, Steve Cannon,who founded the homegrown gallery in 1991, has received a notice ordering him to vacate his East Third Street live-work space by Feb. 1. The gallerist, who said that he had neglected to sign a new rent agreement in part because he is blind, has vowed to prevent yet another disappearance of an eccentric art space.

“I’m going to fight her,” Mr. Cannon said of his landlord. “I don’t think she has a leg to stand on.” Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown

A letter sent from Kenneth Fisher to local politicians indicates that the attorney’s client, Benjamin Shaoul’s Magnum Real Estate Group, may be close to reselling the property that houses the Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, which Magnum recently purchased for $25.5 million. With a new for-profit operator in the mix, the deal would allay fears that the building will be replaced by condos, and would help insure that it continue to be used as a nursing home.

The letter was sent on Wednesday to State Senator Daniel Squadron and other politicians who had earlier written to Mr. Fisher reiterating their position that “any future use of the building should retain nursing home beds on the Lower East Side.” In his response, Mr. Fisher indicated that on Dec. 6, he was advised by a lawyer representing Cabrini that an earlier plan to relocate the not-for-profit nursing home had fallen through, and the Center was now negotiating to be purchased by a for-profit operator that might also be able to purchase the building from Magnum. Read more…

Lauren Carol Smith The rooftop extension at 514-516 East Sixth Street.

Speaking of rooftop additions, the three-year battle against an extension to an East Sixth Street building continues. Today, State Senator Daniel Squadron testified before the city Board of Standards and Appeals, urging that the landlord be forced to remove the addition that looms above neighboring buildings. Last year, the Board had ruled that the new sixth floor of the building at 514-516 East Sixth Street could remain in place, but that the seventh floor had to be removed. The landlord, Ben Shaoul, is now seeking a waiver of that order.

“By granting this variance, the Board of Standards and Appeals would set a precedent that would allow additional apartments to be built far in excess of what current zoning laws allow,” Mr. Squadron said. “Granting today’s request could also lead to a permanent change to the original height of the tenement buildings on East Sixth Street, putting the buildings out of context with their neighbors and altering the feel of an historic neighborhood.”

The dispute over the rooftop extension mirrors complaints about an extension to 515 East Fifth Street, which is also owned in part by Mr. Shaoul.

Brody/Amirian

The eight-story, 33-unit building replacing an antebellum row house at 316 East Third Street has been revealed.

The building, designed by the oft-criticized Karl Fischer, features large windows and a linear aesthetic similar to the architect’s design for 427 East 12th Street.

According to the website of the developer, Brody/Amirian, all apartments in the building will be for rent. Read more…

The housing advocates at Good Old Lower East Side will host a workshop next Wednesday on how to use the state Department of Housing and Community Renewal to one’s advantage in the fight against neglectful landlords. The talk will cover how to best to combat “harassment, rent overcharges, reduction of services” and other common tenant woes. A lawyer will be on hand to answer questions beginning at 7 p.m. at the Perseverance House at 535 East Fifth Street.

Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation A rendering of the rooftop addition to the Puck Building that was shown at a public hearing.

For the third time, the owner of the historic Puck Building was sent back to the drawing board because his plans for a new rooftop penthouse were deemed too obtrusive.

“It’s too tall, it’s much too visible and what you see is too aggressive,” said Frederick Bland, a commissioner with the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Jared Kushner, the owner of the New York Observer and the principal of Kushner Companies, which owns the building at Houston and Mott Streets, has tried to gain approval for the proposed condominium since September. In October, the company returned to the landmarks commission with a more modest design, and was rejected again. Today, even more modest designs met the same fate.
Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown The orders, dated Nov. 9.

Stephen Rex Brown The construction site.

Department of Buildings inspectors slapped the site at 331 East Sixth Street with a stop work order on Wednesday — the latest setback for the controversial project that is rumored to be the future home of “Friends” star David Schwimmer.

The order cites a complaint — filed through 311 — that the construction is undermining a property next-door, causing it to shake.

Last month the site was hit with a violation for failure to post the required permits for an eight-foot-tall fence at the front of the lot.

The antebellum row house was demolished in September to pave the way for a five-story, one-family building. Since the project was revealed, rumors have swirled that David Schwimmer is the man behind the demolition. The Local has made numerous efforts to find out who will be living in the house, as well as what it will look like, all to no avail.

Stephen Rex Brown

The Department of Buildings has cleared the way for the demolition of 316 East Third Street, a transitional Federal/Greek Revival-style row house that preservationists have been fighting to keep standing.

Earlier this week, EV Grieve noticed that an application for a demolition permit was listed as approved on the D.O.B.’s Website. A representative at the buildings department confirmed for The Local that an approval was issued on Nov. 1. The developer had not yet picked up the demolition permit as of Thursday evening, but the fate of the 177-year-old building seems to be all but sealed.

Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, said, “It’s extremely disheartening that we’re going to be losing another one of the few, remaining 19th-century houses on the far eastern edge of the East Village. It’s amazing that it survived, and equally amazing how quickly they’re disappearing.” Read more…

The housing advocates at Good Old Lower East Side want to teach you how to fight back against neglectful landlords. Tonight at the Perseverance House at 525 East Fifth Street between Avenues A and B, community organizers will give pointers on forming and managing strong tenants organizations. The meeting starts at 7 p.m.

Meredith Bennett-Smith

John Aliseo’s photograph is stark and haunting: a woman with a lined, worried face stares past the camera, her back to the setting sun. On Wednesday, it was perhaps the most popular photograph at the opening of an exhibition at the Mark Miller Gallery on Orchard Street. “Our Eyes, Our Lives” premieres the work of residents at Barrier Free Living, a shelter on East Second Street that specializes in serving individuals with disabilities and victims of domestic abuse.

The exhibition was the brainchild of photojournalist Emily Anne Epstein, 26, a staff photographer at Metro newspaper whose grandparents hail from the Lower East Side. She first visited Barrier Free Living last year as part of a work assignment documenting the affects of budget cuts on shelters across the city. After she photographed the shelter’s residents, they asked her so many questions about her camera, she decided to return in May to teach them. Read more…

Photos: Lauren Carol Smith.

After more than ten years, Adria Petty – the photographer and commercial, documentary, and music video director –  is selling her condo at 325 East Ninth Street. The three-bedroom, 1,500-square-foot unit, at the ground floor of a building that dates back to 1905, is going for $1.995 million.

Since 2008, Ms. Petty – daughter of rock star Tom – has spent most of her time in her native Los Angeles, shooting music videos (most notably Beyonce’s “Countdown” and “Sweet Dreams”) and advertisements, including spots for Clorox and McDonald’s. But yesterday at a meeting in her East Village kitchen, she told The Local that she has moved back to New York in the interest of “inspiration and good people.” In February, she bought a small apartment off of Washington Square Park. Her Ninth Street digs hit the market last week. Read more…