Next week, 03/18/2013 – 03/22/2013 mMaterial and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on all floors inside the building. Roof work, work on the new sidewalks around the building, dismantling of the exterior construction hoist and related exterior building work will also continue. Take-down of the 14th Street sidewalk shed will begin this week and will be followed by continued site work on 14th Street.
The following week, 03/25/2013 – 03/29/2013 material and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on all floors and roofs. Sidewalk work and dismantling of the exterior construction hoist and related exterior work will also continue. Site work on 14th Street will continue.
The site will be open this weekend for continued hoist removal related activities between the work hours of 7AM and 5PM as permitted by the City.
The Observer reports:
Richard Cantor, a principle in the real estate marketing firm of Cantor-Pecorella, considers that the best of Village life consists of “very luxurious” apartments that incorporate the “open expanse” of loft-style living with the communal intimacy of townhouse residency. How serendipitous that Mr. Cantor’s firm should happen to be marketing the new(ish) eight-unit development at 12 East 13th Street co-engineered by DHA Capital and Continental Properties, which, he recently told the Observer, evinces just these same qualities! You know what they say, it’s always easier to sell a product that you truly believe in.
Certain longtime denizens of the Village, of course, would no-doubt quarrel with the tenets of Mr. Cantor’s appraisal, but his luck on East 13th Street has been pretty good so far. He reports that the development has made its first sale, of the full-floor Residence #4, which, he said, went for just shy of its $11.25 million asking price. The buyers, he said, were a young-ish family already living in the area and pleased indeed to find a place of this size–four bedrooms, 4,816 square feet–so near the heart of the neighborhood. The patriarch, naturally, is in finance.
But surely it was not size alone that lured the new owners; there is also, for example, the very luxurious open expanse of the condo’s townhouse-like intimacy to consider. The building, which was converted from a parking garage, retains a trace of automotive functionality, offering private parking spaces gratis for residents via a state-of-the-art robotic system. More creaturely comforts include high ceilings and big windows for plentiful light and air, custom Italian cabinetry, and bathrooms with generous portions of slab marble and Italian limestone.
Mr. Cantor said that he expects several more closures in the coming weeks, and occupancy no later than this summer. But for all you big spenders out there, the glass-sheathed triplex penthouse, we were given to understand, remains available. All you need to move in is $30.5 million, which seems eminently reasonable, for the very best of Village living.
Read more at http://observer.com/2015/03/best-of-the-village-garage-to-condo-development-notches-first-sale-around-11-25m/#ixzz3UYu20ZHe
Curbed has a big article outlining and analyzing all the current, upcoming, and potential efforts to make 14th St. better in all sorts of ways. 
Next week (July 15 to July 19), material and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on all floors inside the building. We will be working on the new sidewalk around the building on 13th st. Additionally we will be working on the roofs of the building.
The following week (July 22 to July 26), 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, July 13th for interior, roof, and sidewalk activities between the work hours of 7AM and 5PM as permitted by the City.
The Villager reports:
This year has witnessed many milestones in the ongoing renaissance of the Union Square district. While New York City and the nation struggle to break free from this recession, Union Square stands as a rare bright spot and is poised to remain a vibrant neighborhood during these worrisome times.
The arrival of more than a dozen new businesses plunged the district’s retail vacancy rate below 4 percent, making Union Square among the most viable business locales in the city. Retailers lululemon athletica, Skechers, Muji and 7 for all Mankind, as well as new eateries Pret a Manger, Crumbs, Lillie’s, Cantina Latina and Momofuku Milk Bar, helped to strengthen the broad base of offerings in the area.
And while the departure of Circuit City and the Virgin Megastore was a temporary cause for concern, we couldn’t be more pleased that Best Buy chose to open its first 24-hour store in the nation in the former Circuit City space this month, and that next spring, the city’s first Nordstrom Rack will open in the lower level of the Virgin location. Our partners at The Related Companies are to be congratulated for moving so quickly to fill our district’s most visible retail space.
The north-end project in Union Square Park, now more than 90 percent complete, has been eagerly followed by park lovers and community stakeholders. This is why we are very pleased to announce that the community’s new and expanded 15,000-square-foot playground is set to open this month. In addition, pedestrians can now walk the repaved 16th St. transverse complete with new park benches. The western, northern and eastern plazas, which had been resurfaced and reopened earlier this year, have been well received by visitors and Greenmarket vendors alike, with a new row of 25-foot-tall Japanese pagoda trees lining 17th St. and Union Square West. Additional features of the renovation include the rehabilitated pavilion and additional restroom facilities, which should be completed by the end of the year.
The Partnership’s ongoing beautification efforts, combined with the district’s engaging and vibrant lifestyle, continue to attract people from across the city to our area for a variety of reasons. We once again made a series of targeted investments for the upgrading, maintenance and beautification of the park. The high points of this season’s efforts include the expansion of the stone screening area of the center lawn by 2,500 square feet to accommodate additional bistro tables and chairs, as well as the expansion of many of the planting beds throughout the park. The Partnership also funded improvements to the dog run, including a new gravel surface and much-needed repairs to the dog run entrance walkway, which had been flooding after heavy rain.
Partnership-sponsored programming was a big draw this year, especially our free Summer in the Square series, which once again proved to be a hit with children and adults alike, featuring fitness classes, kids’ programming and multiple musical performances. We expanded our selection of volunteer events from the biannual It’s My Park! Day, to preparing food for those in need with God’s Love We Deliver, to collecting food from Greenmarket vendors at the end of a busy day for City Harvest. One of the most anticipated occasions in the Union Square district every year is the annual Harvest in the Square, the city’s premier food-tasting event. This year more than 50 restaurants and beverage companies served signature dishes and cocktails to over 1,000 foodies. These events are all great ways for active residents and employees to come out and give back to their community while getting to know their neighbors.
Union Square continues to be among the cleanest districts in the city, which is crucial to its overall success. Our Sanitation Team has worked thousands of hours sweeping sidewalks and removing tons of garbage to ensure the area is inviting. With a 59 percent increase in foot traffic over the last five years in the neighborhood, more trash receptacles were added, including Big Belly Solar compactors, which reduce our carbon footprint by decreasing the number of garbage bags used and lessening the number of vehicular pickups.
Another important factor to Union Square’s vitality is the Greenmarket. As New York City’s largest and most famous greenmarket, the year-round, open-air market attracts shoppers from around the region looking to support their local farmers.
Union Square’s rich history is relived every week during the Partnership’s Crossroads of New York walking tour, which draws a diverse group each Saturday for a free, 90-minute exploration of the social and political history of the neighborhood through discussions of the people, architecture and forces that have shaped the community.
While the past year has been eventful for the Union Square district, there is more to look forward to in the upcoming months, especially the annual Holiday Market operated by Urban Space Management, which returns to the south plaza on Nov. 25 and runs through Christmas Eve. Don’t forget to stop by the Holiday Market’s information booth and pick up your restaurant coupon flier good for discounts at 22 local eateries
The Union Square Partnership team, including our board of directors, Residential Advisory Committee members, business partners and staff, work hard to make sure that Union Square remains a flourishing community. To follow the district’s progress, learn more about our work and sign up for our monthly newsletter, visit us at www.unionsquarenyc.org .
In honor of Climate Week, a coalition of scientists and activists reset the digital clock with red numbers seen on the side of a building in Union Square and changed it into a “ClimateClock.” The numbers now count down the years, days, hours, minutes and seconds the Earth has left to take action to stop global warming from going over 1.5°C more than the pre-industrial levels.
According to the organization, who aims to put the countdown clock in cities across the world, the clock’s calculation is based on the world’s current rates of emissions and the amount of CO2 that can still be released into the atmosphere. The clock simply counts down to when the “carbon budget” runs out. If the world manages to lower its emissions, more time will be left on the clock.
The clock is based on the carbon clock made by the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) which uses data from the recent IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C, ClimateClock says.
The artists responsible for putting up the clock in Manhattan told the New York Times in an interview that the display will be up until the end of Climate Week, Sept. 27. Artists Gan Golan and Andrew Boyd also told the paper that they created a mobile Climate Clock for Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg last year before her appearance at the UN Climate Action Summit.
With the backdrop of recent wildfires and hurricanes, which scientists say show how climate change is magnifying the extremes in weather, protests for climate action are expected all over the world on Friday.