Lauren Carol SmithThe 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.
Left: The building as it is today, without the addition. Right: The most recent proposal. Note the small structures on the roof. Kushner Properties
Jared Kushner did not succeed the first time he sought approval for a rooftop addition to the landmarked Puck Building, and he’s still trying again and again.
Today the Landmarks Preservation declined to approve a plan for a condominium on the roof for the third time, this time because a rendering of the proposal was found to be inaccurate. Still, it appears that approval of the plan — the three others were rejected for being too ostentatious — is near.
Kushner CompaniesA previous version of the rooftop addition, which was rejected.
“The architecture has calmed down. It’s not a statement anymore,” said Frederick Bland, a commissioner with the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Throughout the process, which began in September, Mr. Kushner has remained positive in spite of the rejections. His tone hadn’t shifted so close to the finish line.
“We are pleased with the progress we’re making,” he said in a statement. “This continues to be a productive process leading to a very special finished product which will improve the building in many ways.” Read more…
At a meeting of Community Board 2’s S.L.A. Licensing committee tonight, the owners of Boerum Hill delicatessen Mile End will ask the board to support a beer and wine license at its forthcoming NoHo location. Noah Bernamoff, an owner of the Montreal-style smoked-meat destination, said that he expected neighbors to object to his plans to serve draft beer at 53 Bond Street.
During a telephone conversation earlier today, Mr. Bernamoff said that the beer program would be a nod to Lower East Side delicatessens of old. “Ultimately the idea is to eat a classic deli sandwich with a classic deli beverage, which until the 1940s was beer,” he said. “The beer is going to be integrated into a wider beverage program. We’re going to be making our own sodas, doing hand-squeezed juices, and serving Stumptown coffee.” Mr. Bernamoff said he is currently talking to Red Hook brewer Sixpoint about creating a Mile End beer that might use malts smoked in the deli’s smokers. Read more…
The BBC reports that the authority in charge of developing public spaces for the London 2012 Olympic Games has picked a name for the Olympic village, and it’s: East Village! Once the games are over, the new neighborhood – the latest to steal our name after that development in Calgary – will consist of 1,439 homes (mostly for rent) and 1,379 “affordable” homes for rental and purchase, as well as a school, parkland, and more than 30 shops, cafes and restaurants.
The Bowery Hotel, where the accommodations are a few steps up from the tents of Zuccotti Park and the room rates aren’t exactly 99%-friendly, might not be the first place where you’d expect an Occupy Wall Street event to take place. But tonight, East Village-based author Daniel Pinchbeck will team up with Penn Badgley (the actor best known for his role in “Gossip Girl”), Zoe Kravitz (the actress, singer, and model who is daughter of musician Lenny Kravitz and actress Lisa Bonet), and several other bold-face names to host an evening of music and discussion at the hotel, to coincide with Occupy’s latest “Day of Action.”
During a conference call with Aaron Stern, a West Village-based producer of music- and film-industry events who is helping to stage tonight’s salon, Mr. Pinchbeck told The Local that he had written about Occupy Wall Street on his Website, and had attended some of the marches and general assemblies; but he and his fellow hosts had remained mostly “on the periphery” of the movement. Read more…
Two puppet festivals at the Theater for the New City this month will feature performances of children’s fare like “Little Red Riding Hood,” as well as more avant-garde material, like the prisoner uprising at Attica in 1971. Bread and Puppet Theater and the Voice 4 Vision Festival begin on Dec. 7 and 8, respectively, at the theater on First Avenue. The former will also feature “Man of Flesh and Cardboard,” an examination of Bradley Manning, the soldier facing life in prison for allegedly leaking a bounty of government information through WikiLeaks.
DNA Info, EV Grieve, and Runnin’ Scared have more on the temporary closing of Billy’s Antiques. Billy Leroy tells Runnin’ Scared, “Everyone’s like, ‘Oh my God, the tent is closing! Sniff, sniff.’ But try sitting in here in winter. The conditions are rough, and I think it will be nice to have heat, maybe air conditioning. But will it be a tent with everything splattered on the sidewalk? No.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, Foursquare has outgrown its office at 36 Cooper Square and has signed a 10-year deal at 568 Broadway near Prince Street.
According to the Lo-Down, times are tough at the flea market behind the struggling Mary Help of Christian’s Church. One vendor used to make $300 to $350 per weekend, but “today, she said, she is lucky if she reaches $100. Add the $80 it costs to rent her table and the $5 to $10 in equipment storage fees, and she is essentially breaking even.”
Lady Gaga has been rather ubiquitous lately. Around the same time she signed books at the New Museum, her former Stanton Street apartment went up for rent. Meanwhile, here in the East Village, she was posing for Annie Leibovitz. Check out the behind-the-scenes footage that VanityFair.com has posted to YouTube and (at the 0:58 mark) you’ll recognize the Launderette at 97 Second Avenue, which is no stranger to such takeovers. The video contains nudity, but the most memorable part might just be when Gaga wobbles down Second Avenue in gigantic platform shoes.
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…
Chelsia Rose MarciusSkaters hop the fence at the now-closed Open Road park.
Open Road Park — the lot on 12th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A that attracts skaters from across the city — is closed to the community until further notice.
Mark Federman, principal of East Side Community High School, which sits adjacent to the park, cited overall disregard for the space as well as drug use on the premises, including the smoking and selling of marijuana.
“At this point it’s not really a safe space to keep open,” he said. “We decided that we’re just going to keep it closed until we figure out a way to resolve these issues.” Read more…
Gamma Blog has now posted video footage of the Occupy Wall Street Farmers March from La Plaza Cultural to Zuccotti Park, and the Examiner reported from the scene on Sunday. Speakers included Mike Callicrate, who in 1996 was among a group of farmers who sued I.B.P. (now Tyson) for violating anti-competition laws, and Jim Gerritson, who led a suit against Monsanto.
P.S. 63 no longer wants to be associated with President William McKinley. The East Village school, which serves students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, is seeking to change its name to P.S. 63 S.T.A.R. Academy.
Principal Darlene Despeignes said the current name, P.S. 63 William McKinley, no longer reflects the nature of the school, located on East Third Street between First Avenue and Avenue. Last year, she brought the issue to District 1’s Community Education Council, which told her should could start re-branding as the S.T.A.R. Academy.
“The name William McKinley doesn’t denote anything about our school culture, community or the families we serve,” said Ms. Despeignes, who took over the school four years ago. “We’re more progressive than we were in the past and we really want to show off who we are through our name.” Read more…
Over 115 years after it began as an all-boys choir boarding school, Grace Church School is adding a new high school division this fall. The school is currently renovating a building at 38-50 Cooper Square and accepting applications to its first ninth grade class, which will have up to 80 students. The deadline for applicants is next Thursday, Dec. 15.
Sandwiched between N.Y.U. (the building’s previous occupant) and Cooper Union, and located across the street from the new Preschool of the Arts, the new high school will be part of a complete transformation of Cooper Square that includes the unveiling of a new park and pedestrian plaza that the school will help maintain parts of along with Cooper Union. Read more…
The above photo is from the Occupy Wall Street Farmers March from the La Plaza Cultural community garden to Zuccotti Park. You can see more of Tim Schreier’s photos here. On Sunday, about 250 participants (by EV Grieve’s estimate) marched to promote “dialogue, solidarity and solutions to corporate control of our food system,” according to a flyer.
The Times reports that Billy’s Antiques, the tent near the corner of Bowery and Houston that has been stocked with oddities and ephemera since 1986, will close so that its landlord can start construction on a two-story building. Billy Leroy, the tent’s “Barnumesque” owner, will be allowed to reopen in the new building, but a member of his staff considers the closure “part of that final transition to a landscape of Pottery Barns and Starbucks.”
Last night, politicians and neighbors gathered at the St. Mark’s Bookshop to celebrate the lowering of its rent. So the bookstore survives, but for how long? Will it still be on the corner of Ninth Street and Third Avenue in a couple of years? Or will there be a giant bubble tea shop there instead? It seems like a good time to document an institution of a kind that’s vanishing from the East Village.
As a physical space, St. Mark’s Bookshop is sort of retro-futuristic, and more theatrical than relaxing. There is a big-city sense of being on stage. No attempt is made to foster the kind of somnolent, wood-paneled cubbyhole atmosphere so beloved of the stereotypical independent book store. Anyway, it would be a difficult trick to pull off, what with those HVAC pipes slithering around above the customers’ heads like giant, interstellar worms. Read more…
Earlier today, the International Business Times reported that hotelier Andre Balazs and his partners at Ironstate Development in Hoboken, N.J. purchased the Cooper Square Hotel for $67.5 million – not the $91 million that first made headlines. The Local has now discovered that The Standard East Village isn’t the only place in the neighborhood where Mr. Balazs’ partners have been active – Ironstate is also involved in a project that will develop one of East 13th Street’s most talked-about properties.
Last month, developer Charles Blaichman purchased the set of long-vacant lots on 13th Street between Second and Third Avenues for $33 million. City finance records show that one of Mr. Blaichman’s partners was Applied Development Company, headed by brothers David and Michael Barry – the same pair that runs Ironstate Development.
A spokesperson for Ironstate confirmed that the brothers are involved in both the 13th Street property (along with Abram and Scott Shnay) and the Cooper Square Hotel deal. Read more…
That lawyer on East Seventh Street isn’t the only local prone to posting inscrutable messages in the window. Zany screeds often appear in the window of Hearth’s next-door wine bar, Terroir. This month’s installment is, of course, holiday themed. You can read the messages more clearly via Terroir’s online wine list, but if you’re not up for exploring the sprawling document, know that it includes salutes to Santa Claus, Antiochus Epiphanes, and the Virgin Mary. Read more…
Infinity scarves (as they’re sometimes called, since their two ends are connected in a circle) will keep you warm in the cold weather and won’t leave you looking like you’ve been blown here by the wind. These stylish locals show off their cowl scarves, including a few that they made themselves.
Chelsia Rose MarciusMary Help of Christians on East 12th Street.
With few parishioners attending only one service per week, the nearly century-old Mary Help of Christians Church is officially on the market and making preparations to be sold.
After what seemed like several years of rumors regarding the fate of the church on 12th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A, Pastor Kevin Nelan confirmed that developers have recently expressed interest in purchasing the parish. Read more…
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Lauren Carol Smith The rooftop extension at 514-516 East Sixth Street.
