Latest New School Construction Update

Next week (November 14 to November 18), DOT approved street connections to underground utilities on Fifth Avenue and 13th street will continue. Superstructure work will continue at cellar, 1st, and 2nd floor levels. A street crane will be moved into position early on Wednesday the 11/16 on 13th street to place structural steel in the building and should be out by the end of the day, weather pending.

The following week (November 21 to November 25), we will continue superstructure concrete and slabs. Street utility connection work will continue. Sidewalk sheds will continue being erected around the perimeter of the site. The project will be closed on Thanksgiving Day, 11/24, and open for work on 11/25.

This weekend the site will be open on Saturday, November 12th for superstructure related activities between the work hours of 9AM and 5PM as permitted by the City. To control noise levels within the site, work activities will be limited to the placement of formwork, plumbing and electrical work, rebar for concrete placement and use of 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.

Goodbye Borgo Antico on 13th across from our front door. It’s turned into City Tavern, a rather uninteresting bar with regular old bar food.

We’ve had Thai restaurants as downstairs neighbors before, and now a new one may be coming to replace Corkbuzz at 13 East 13th. A liquor license application has been filed by Varith, a “family-run” Thai restaurant that has a highly regarded sister operation called Valla Table in Hell’s Kitchen run by Chuck Valla, who was a private chef prior to opening this first place in 2021. Looks good.

The north end of Union Square Park will soon look a lot better. 21 trees are on the way.

The next place to get expensive sandwiches and drinks will be Pura Vida Miami, which will open its next NYC location at 5th Ave. and 15th St.

The first headquarters of the NAACP, was at 69 5th Ave., where the New School building is now. From 1920 to 1938, they flew this flag whenever they received a report of a lynching anywhere in America. This view, which hasn’t changed much, is looking south on 5th Ave.