Free Cooking Lesson in Union Square

A sign of the times. The long abandoned Zen Palate restaurant on Union Square West has been stripped of its copper facade as high as human hands can reach. Copper scavengers on the prowl.

Next week (April 11 to April 15), Contractors will continue to excavate earth and rock, and load out material. We will continue to underpin both adjacent buildings with DOB approval of our means and methods. Drilling of tie-backs, lagging and sheeting around the perimeter will progress as well. The following week (April 18 to April 23), we will continue rock excavation and loading out, as well as underpinning both adjacent buildings, lagging and sheeting.

The W Hotel has undergone a $100 million renovation, including new restaurants and a new rooftop bar. With room rates now at $650, it’s pretty high-end.

The Union Square Partnership unveiled a brand-new street mural installation along the pedestrian areas of the 14th Street Busway between Broadway and Union Square West. Titled Collective Vision, the artwork is designed by celebrated street artists GERALUZ and WERC, a Brooklyn-based couple. The mural is presented in partnership with the NYC Department of Transportation’s Art Program, and was installed over a 5 day period last week with the help of community partners and volunteers.

The design of Collective Vision is inspired by the power of nature and unity as strong extensions of humankind and the Earth. The street mural features the ruby-throated hummingbird to illustrate the power of resilience in standing together against injustice and extinction. Each of the flowers presented in the mural depicts an endangered native plant, from the striped coralroot and swamp sunflower to the sandplain gerardia. These illustrations remind viewers that we all need love and energy to stay alive and flourish, drawing a parallel to the need for solidarity and cooperation amongst humanity, a necessity in order to survive and live harmoniously.

The mural also pays homage to the history of movements fighting for social justice in Union Square, as well as the struggle for racial equality in America, while celebrating the role public spaces play to unite communities in collective activism and shared experience.

“Union Square has a proud history as a gathering place for all New Yorkers to come together in collective empowerment to make their voices heard,” said Jennifer Falk, Executive Director of the Union Square Partnership. “We are honored to have the work of artists Geraluz and WERC grace 14th Street in Union Square, promoting the significance of resilience, love and solidarity in this historic location, which has long celebrated community activism and fights against injustice.”

“We are proud to share the “Collective Vision” mural with the beautiful community of Union Square” share artists GERALUZ + WERC. “Painted in a love language of gratitude in the form of a bouquet of resilience. It’s an honor to create artwork in a place with so much history of unity and power of the people.”

Geraluz and WERC are Brooklyn-based artists who have worked on many featured murals across New York City. As a team, the couple is passionate about the beautification of public spaces, community empowerment, and art as a healing tool. They often work by taking an analytical and archeological approach to create site-specific pieces that are harmonious with the surrounding area.

DOT implemented the 14th Street Busway pilot project in October 2019 as an exciting new transit upgrade for 14th Street, and as a street design prototype for the city-at-large. The center of the busway crosses the heart of Union Square, where sidewalk extensions were installed to make additional space for walking. These new pedestrian areas are situated in a highly visible confluence of foot traffic and transit access. Collective Vision is the first artwork to activate the pedestrian areas, presenting a remarkable opportunity to support, enhance, and celebrate the new pedestrian-focused infrastructure while communicating an important message and beautifying the neighborhood.

“We’re overjoyed to continue pedestrianizing Union Square with the introduction of Collective Vision,” Falk continued. “While the creation of the 14th Street Busway was an incredible first step in rethinking public space prior to the pandemic, the installation of the street mural goes further to highlight the wide, open areas in Union Square created to provide New Yorkers with ample, safe space to walk and enjoy.”

In early 2021, USP announced the Union Square-14th Street District Vision Plan, aimed to increase public space by 33 percent and make the district more accessible and pedestrian-friendly. USP is a non-profit organization that operates as a public-private partnership, promoting the district’s key advantages and diverse array of assets, as well as advocating for its continued growth and success. For more on the Vision Plan, visit unionsquarenyc.org/vision.

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation maintains a cool interactive map that shows you all the places it is currently working to preserver the Village’s most important landmarks. They are very busy people.

From the current issue of The Villager:

When Danny Meyer opened the Union Square Cafe 24 years ago, area rents hovered around $8 per square foot. Today comparable space could rent for up to $400 per square foot.

The business dilemma of astronomical rents was one of the issues under consideration on Mon., Nov. 10, at the Union Square Partnership Fall Forum titled, “Spotlight on Commercial Diversity in Union Square.”

A panel of four experts joined moderator William H. Kelley, the Partnership’s director of economic development, in a roundtable discussion of the area’s commercial landscape.

More than 75 residents and local business owners attended the forum in the Union Square Ballroom, in what one participant described as an attempt to “think outside the box and look forward.”

Kelley explained the motivation behind the forum:

“In its heyday, Union Square had this wonderful gathering of mom-and-pop businesses,” he told The Villager. “Recently, the area has become an international gathering of businesses.”

Forum participants debated if this evolution was an inevitable result of growth or if there were there any tools the Union Square area or even city government could employ to create a more stable mix of large and small businesses.

“I think Union Square is fascinating,” said panelist Larisa Ortiz, of Larisa Ortiz Associates and a co-author of “Real Estate Redevelopment & Reuse.” “It’s a model and a template that other cities have followed,” she said, noting the presence of iconic restaurants and the Greenmarket.

According to an examination of gentrification trends by New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, the number of businesses in the Union Square area rose almost 20 percent from 1990 to 2000, and have grown an additional 8 percent since 2000.

Of those businesses, 11 percent represent food services and “accommodations.” The largest number of retail businesses — 23 percent — are clothing and accessory stores.

Ortiz was concerned how the neighborhood could maintain its character when park-fronting property is privately owned and rents are set by overheated market forces.

“Let’s help interesting speciality business and restaurant spaces on the side streets,” she suggested.

To gauge interest in topics for the forum, the Partnership sent out a questionnaire in September to more than 3,500 local residents and businesses. A question asked what the most important issue facing Union Square is.

The survey drew almost 300 responses. Topping the list of concerns, 43 percent of respondents said pedestrian congestion and safety are of primary importance. Another 24 percent believed addressing the neighborhood’s changing character was paramount. Six percent saw completing reconstruction of the square’s north end as important.