New Hyatt Hotel Shaping Up

Well, that was quick. Our downstairs neighbor Spiderbands went defunct quickly.

It’s hard to run a business in Manhattan. So hard, in fact, that even the beloved City Bakery couldn’t survive.

Click here to see drawings of how the new traffic flow around Union Square will affect your daily walk. They are huge changes.

Sad to see local photo store Ben Ness go. It was a good place to get passport phots done and was staffed with a nice bunch of guys. It will be interesting to see if the space goes to a local business or to a chain. Pinkberry perhaps?

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation maintains a cool interactive map that shows you all the places it is currently working to preserver the Village’s most important landmarks. They are very busy people.

From The New School:

Next week (September 19 to September 23), Contractors will continue to excavate earth and rock, and load out material. Installation of bracing rakers and line drilling will progress as well. Concrete foundation walls around the perimeter of the site and slab on grade work will continue. Interior core foundation work and underground electrical and plumbing will proceed. Contractors will be removing the interior earth ramp. DOT approved street connections to underground utilities on Fifth Avenue will progress. A small cherry picker crane will arrive on site next week, and be stationed inside the Fifth Avenue fence. This crane will remain on site for approximately two months.

The following week (September 26 to September 30 ), we will continue with concrete foundation walls and slabs, line drilling, rock excavation, loading out, interior core foundation work, street utility connections on Fifth Avenue, and underground electrical and plumbing.

DEP continues to repair the water main along 13th Street. As part of this work, the DEP may periodically shut water service off. This work is out of our control.

The site will be open on Saturday, September 17th. Work hours are between 9AM and 5PM as permitted by the City. To control noise levels, work activities will be limited to the placement of formwork, plumbing and electrical work, site utility connections, waterproofing and rebar for concrete placement, and the installation of walers and braces. There will be no rock excavation, rock chopping, or hauling on Saturday.