Your reporter visited an open house at 15 Union Square West. The verdict: the ceilings are incredibly high and the windows are huge. Fixtures are fantastic although overdesigned for someone with more sedate tastes. The most interesting feature: an interior atrium complete with 19th century ironwork and a skylight that will be restored. Incredible to see it. The big problem: these apartments are insanely expensive.
The New School has been saying since late February that it now plans a smaller building on its 5th Ave. site.
Have you noticed that many dry cleaners, including the one on 13th closest to our building, are now billing themselves as “organic?” What does that really mean. Not much in reality. Click here to read an article and watch a video report.
Over on East 12th St., it was Piola, the Brazilian pizza place, and now it’s Ribalta, the Italian pizza place. And it’s a pizza school, too. UrbanDaddy writes:
There are book smarts.
There are street smarts.
And then there are pizza smarts.
Today, we’re going to focus on that last one.
Also, we’re going to eat a bunch of pizza pies.
So let’s enroll at Ribalta, the only pizzeria in New York with three different types of ovens and its own university (but alas, no football team), now open.
Bottom line, this restaurant is really quite absurdly serious about pizza. The dough: imported from an Italian mill and aged 48 hours before baking (we’ll let you imagine what this does to a crust). The tomatoes: all San Marzano and all hand-crushed. The ovens: plentiful, varied and powerful.
Yes, these master pizzaiolos/fusspots felt it was necessary to install three different ovens in the place. Brick. Wood-burning. And stainless-steel convection. Reason #1: to bake your sausage-and-sage pie precisely the way God intended. Reason #2: the syllabus required it.
See, when this place is not standing in as the prototypical Friday night date spot, it’s doubling as the city’s first Scuola Italiana Pizzaioli—an esteemed pizza school that’s been around in Italy since the ’80s. So eventually you’ll be able to register here for classes, seminars and lectures on the science of the slice.
Assuming you scored high enough on the pizza SATs.
The W Hotel Union Square is up for sale after owner Host Hotels & Resorts retained Eastdil Secured to market the 20-story property at 201 Park Avenue South. The brokerage is pitching the 205,00-square-foot, Beaux-Arts style building as a possible residential conversion opportunity, per marketing materials. The 270-room hotel, located on the corner of East 17th Street just north of Union Square, includes 26 guest suites. Bethesda, Md.-based Host Hotels acquired the property in September 2010 for more than $185 million, according to the New York Observer. The building was renovated and reopened in 2000 and houses two dining establishments – the Irvington restaurant and the W Living Room bar and lounge – operated by Scott Gerber’s Gerber Group. The hotel also includes 6,600 square feet of meeting space, a fitness center and a business center.
If you’re curious about the plans for the New School’s new construction on our block, there will be a public presentation on February 17. Here’s how the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Presentation is billing it:
On Wednesday, February 17 at 6:30 pm The New School (TNS) will make a public presentation of its current plans for a new development at 65 Fifth Avenue, between 13th and 14th Streets. Having originally proposed a 300-350 ft. tall building rising straight up over the entire site which would have required several zoning variances, TNS is now proposing a much smaller, 16-story, 189 ft. tall (plus mechanicals) building which will set back above the 6th floor and which conforms to the existing zoning for the site. The presentation will be similar to that which was made to GVSHP, other community groups, and elected officials in December. The plans are not yet finalized at this time, but do contain significant details about TNS’ thinking and progress on the design.
The fact that the mass and height of the proposed building has been reduced significantly from prior proposals in a very positive development. However, GVSHP does have concerns about the metal and glass design currently being contemplated for the facade of the building. The public presentation to Community Board #2’s Institutions Committee will be an opportunity to learn more about TNS’ plans for the site, ask questions, and provide feedback about the project.
Attend the public presentation on Wednesday, February 17th at 6:30 pm at the St. Vincent’s Hospital cafeteria on 12th Street.
