Sandwicherie Replaces Fresh & Co.

Barnes & Noble has announced that former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will kick off her national book tour for Hard Choices on Tuesday, June 10, at the Union Square Barnes & Noble (33 East 17th Street) in Manhattan. Secretary Clinton will sign copies of her new book beginning at 11:00 A.M.

A limited number of wristbands will be distributed starting at 8 A.M. on Tuesday, June 10, and will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. Customers will have their copies of Hard Choices signed in the order they arrive. A limit of one book per customer will be signed and the signing of other books or memorabilia will not be permitted.

Finally, the big part of the renovation is complete. And the fountain lines up with 5th Ave., which, apparently, was really important to the architects even though no one else seemed to care much.

Next week (June 10 to June 14), material and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on all floors inside the building. We will be working on the new sidewalks around the building on 13th st. Additionally we will be working on the roofs of the building.

The following week (June 17 to June 21), material and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on all floors as well as sidewalk work.

This weekend the site will be open on Saturday, June 8st for interior, roof, and sidewalk activities between the work hours of 7AM and 5PM as permitted by the City.

Check out Qi on the north side of 14th between 5th and 6th. It’s a Thai restaurant that comes with lots of philosophy about spiritual centeredness and such. You can eat, and you can enrich your spirit, or qi (pronounced “chee”). May be a little bit upscale for this block. We’ll see.

Two new condos will soon be on the rise just across 5th Avenue. The larger of the two will be at 31 West 14th St. (rendering pictured below). The other one is at 5 West 13th St., the former block-through office of Social Services. Residents of the 14th St. side of our building will recall how many people mistook our building, at 12 East, for the office at 12 West. It was annoying.