Next week (June 24 to June 28), material and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on all floors inside the building. Additionally we will be working on the roofs of the building.
The following week (July 1 to July 5), material and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on all floors as well as sidewalk work.
A Queens man is hoping to turn sleeping on the streets into big bucks for the homeless.
Yusef Ramelize, a 33-year-old graphic designer, will leave his Ozone Park apartment Sunday and take up residence in Union Square Park. He won’t shower and he won’t have shelter during his “Homeless for One Week” project.
“My reasoning for doing this is to inspire people to make sacrifices within their own lives,” Ramelize said of his project, now in its second year.
He raised $3,635 in March 2009 and donated it to the Coalition for the Homeless. This year’s beneficiary will be the Food Bank of New York.
Ramelize will hand out flyers and keep a videotaped diary of his experiences in order to help elicit donations on his website, homelessforoneweek.com.
“It’s really about me pushing myself to see how much of a sacrifice I’m willing to make every year to get the word out,” Ramelize said.
Ramelize chose Union Square to pay homage to his biggest inspiration, Mohandas Gandhi, who is immortalized with a statue on the west side of the park.
“That’s one of the reasons I did it here,” Ramelize admits. “He wanted to bring peace around him, and he was willing to sacrifice his life.”
As if braving the elements for seven days wasn’t enough, the slender Ramelize will also be fasting from sunrise to sunset for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The Union Square Partnership has proposed a wide-ranging collection of enhancement to remake Union Square Park, expanding its edges into the surrounding streets to make it a much bigger and more attractive pedestrian-oriented area. Click through the links in their letter below to see much more.
They write:
The Union Square Partnership is proud to announce the release of the Union Square-14th Street District Vision Plan: a bold new vision for transforming Union Square-14th Street into New York’s most accessible space.
The Wall Street Journal ran an exclusive today showcasing the Vision Plan, stating “…the plan’s ultimate goal is for parkgoers to know they have ‘arrived at a place that is special.'” Read the full article here.
Building upon USP’s past investments, including the renovation of Union Square Park’s north end, City initiatives like Parks Without Borders, the 14th Street Busway, and the pedestrianization of Broadway, along with the more than one million square feet of new private development underway, our Vision Plan focuses on five key improvements prioritizing accessibility, district-wide connectivity, and substantial increases in public open space.
Designed in collaboration with Marvel, the Vision Plan is the culmination of a two-year-long engagement process working with community members, local business leaders, urban designers, transportation experts, and City and State agency partners. With over a thousand individuals engaged at twenty separate engagement events, it was the largest outreach effort in the Partnership’s 45-year history.
We are sure you will have questions and feedback about the Vision Plan and there will be many opportunities to learn more. The first is our official Vision Plan: Launch Event hosted in collaboration with the Urban Design Forum on Tuesday, January 26th at 12:00 PM. Please RSVP here.
Next, we will be hosting a series of Vision Plan: Community Conversations via Zoom to facilitate more robust discussions and gather feedback. Dates + times will be announced soon but you can express interest in attending a session here.
To familiarize yourselves with the plan, we have launched a dedicated web page with a robust amount of detailed information about the Union Square-14th Street District Vision Plan. Click on the link below to download and read the full report, our info sheet, and press release, as well as view the annotated renderings. There is also an FAQ, which hopefully will address most of your initial questions. You can explore more via unionsquarenyc.org/vision.
We look forward to fostering dialogue in the coming months that will guide our investments and set future priorities. It is my hope that as you review the Vision Plan that you will feel the impact of our collaborative community process and continue to share feedback as we move forward to the next stage.
In case you happen to be on Faceook, there’s a Union Square group that is having a sort of networking mixer party on May 6 from 3:30 to 5:30 at the corner of University and 14th. Details here.
Join your neighbors on the roof on October 1st at 6PM. It’s pot luck, so bring something.
An invitation from the New School to attend a preview of the new building on May 6:
April 26, 2010
To Our Neighbors, To meet the university’s evolving needs, plans for the construction of a new University Center at 65 Fifth Avenue will continue to move forward this summer. Because The New School has made it a priority to engage the entire university in the project’s development, we invite you to view the next phase of building design at a second exhibition featuring an overview of the current plan. We will also have a model of the building on display. Please join us on May 6 from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Theresa Lang Community and Student Center on the second floor of 55 W. 13th Street. This open house will include new renderings of the building design, academic and social spaces, sustainability systems, and details about the construction schedule. As in the past, attendants will be able submit comments and ask questions of many of the principals, including New School staff, architects and professionals from the design firm and construction trades. We hope to see you there.
Striking barbers meet to talk things over at the north end of Union Square in 1913. Those were the days.