Latest New School Construction Update

Every Thursday at 9AM from June 18 until August 13 you can join Brooklyn Bridge Boot Camp at the south end of Union Square for a free cardio workout. Feel the burn.

Next week (January 23 to January 27), Superstructure work will continue at and 3rd, 4th and 5th floor levels. All sidewalk sheds around the site have been opened up.

The following week (January 30 to February 3), we will continue superstructure concrete and slabs on 4th and 5th floor levels.

This weekend the site will be open on Saturday, January 21st for superstructure related activities between the work hours of 7AM and 5PM as permitted by the City. To control noise levels within the site, work activities will be limited to the placement of formwork and concrete, plumbing and electrical work, rebar for concrete placement, using the crane and equipment to support all activities. Safety horns are used, and required by law, to coordinate lifting with the crane and to alert the workers of the danger overhead. We have directed the operators to limit the use of horns to one short sounding and to use the crane later in the day so as to avoid any excess noise.

In addition to the normal work this Saturday we will be installing the main auditorium trusses at the 3rd floor level. During the installation 13th St. will be closed as well as some lanes on 5th Ave. Pedestrian traffic will also be temporarily closed on the east side of 5th ave. for safety during the lifts.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns. Thank you.

Jane R. Crotty
Senior Vice President
George Arzt Communications, Inc.
123 William Street, 22nd Fl.
New York, NY 10038
T (212) 608-0333

From the Observer:

Jason Scherr, owner of the cafe that the New York Press named best new coffee shop in 2008, has signed a lease for about 1,600 square feet at 123 Fourth Avenue, between 12th and 13th streets, in which he will open his third Think Coffee by the end of the summer, according to Jason Turner, his broker at Zelnik & Company Real Estate. Think is taking the space of the closed Panorama Galleries on an otherwise rather shoddy block that just happens to be steps away from N.Y.U.’s Third Avenue North dorms and its soon-to-be-completed new dorm on 12th Street.

Think Coffee’s two other cafes are at One Bleecker Street and 248 Mercer Street.

“Think Coffee thought it was an emerging street that had some upside,” Mr. Turner said. “Rents are significantly lower than on Broadway or University, so he can be within the Union Square submarket without having to pay Union Square rents.”

A new bar-restaurant is now open at the Hyatt Union Square

At Bowery Road, a neighborhood American restaurant, Chef Ron Rosselli’s flavorful and thoughtfully prepared dishes are inspired by long relationships with local farmers and purveyors and loaded with seasonal produce from the Union Square Greenmarket. The restaurant takes its name from its location on 4th Avenue, which was formerly called Bowery Road when it served as the pathway to Peter Stuyvesant’s farm.

Located directly off the lobby, Bowery Road is open from 7am-11pm for breakfast, lunch, dinner and weekend brunch.
Rosselli has also worked at Locanda Verde and The Standard Grill.

The hotel now also sports The Library of Distilled Spirits, which: “pays tribute to liquor makers and their craft with over 700 bottles made around the world. Explore the collection neat, or shaken and stirred into more than 150 classic cocktails. Barkeepers and encyclopedic volumes of single spirits will help you choose.”

The Fourth and Singl, the hotel’s two dining-drinking options, have closed. The two new establishments are operated by APICII, “a multi-concept restaurant company.”

Our new neighbor Ann Roth tells us about this incredible image of the 14th St. building that she dug up:

“I found the image on the web, where someone was selling a hand-colored print of the 14th Street facade, from a magazine that dates to 1891. So it clearly dates to that year (or earlier), not 1899, as all the real estate ads say. I ordered it, and they immediately took it off their site, so I can’t send you the link, but I copied the image first, so I’ve attached it. I must say, I wish it still had the fancy spire. The architects were D’Oench & Simon. Albert D’Oench studied in New York and Stuttgart, and then worked for Robert Morris Hunt (who designed the Metropolitan Museum’s facade) for a while. He was the NY Inspector of Buildings for five years, which seems to have mainly involved fire safety. After that, he had a successful architectural partnership with Albert (or Bernard?) Simon, and they designed and built several fire stations in New York. D’Oench later married the mayor’s daughter. Clearly a man with good connections. The plan calls it a “store building,” built it for Mrs. Mary S. Van Beuren, who was the granddaughter and heir of Henry Spingler (who I think has a building on Union Square named after him). She lived nearby, on 14th Street, just west of 5th, and seems to have been a bit of a sharp customer, to judge from some of the legal tussles I found when I searched her name on Google.”

Cosi, which closed on the corner of 13th and 6th a while back, finally has a new tenant: PinoMaximo, an all-things-Italian place specializing in pizza and gelato. Not open yet, but looks tasty.