Pranakhon is Very Good

Next week (November 19 to November 23), Material and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on all floors. Curtain wall installation on the lower floors along 14th st. has been completed and the crane has left the job. The site will be closed on the 22nd for the holiday but will be open Friday the 23rd and Saturday the 24th.

The following week (November 26 to November 30) Material and equipment deliveries and installation work will continue on all floors.

This weekend the site will be open on Saturday, November 17th for interior related activities between the work hours of 7AM and 5PM as permitted by the City. Con Ed will be working in the street.

According to this NY Times story:

The city’s Department of Transportation has declared its pedestrian plaza on the north side of Union Square, the fourth such major street revamping along Broadway, an out-and-out success, despite some early qualms from residents.

The redesign, implemented about a year ago, banned most cars from the block of Broadway north of Union Square, between 17th and 18th Streets, and closed a traffic lane on Union Square North. Tables and chairs were placed on the closed-off areas, and the neighborhood’s green market was able to expand.

The idea was to simplify a particularly tricky intersection where a confusing jumble of traffic signals and two-directional car lanes had resulted in a string of pedestrian injuries.

But the plan initially met stiff opposition from residents and businesses in the area, who complained about traffic jams on residential streets and problems for delivery trucks. A raucous community board meeting resulted in outcry and a mass walkout from protesters.

One year later, the city’s traffic engineers say that the improvements, for cars and pedestrians alike, have been palpable. (Here’s a pdf link to the report.) And no businesses or store managers appear to have registered complaints with local officials.

Radar samples found that about 12 percent of cars on Broadway between 20th and 19th Streets were now exceeding the 30 mile-per-hour speed limit, down from 28 percent of cars before the changes. Pedestrians can navigate a shorter crosswalk at the north end of Union Square, and they are waiting a shorter time for a “walk” signal.

Bicycle riders, who benefited from an additional protected lane along East 17th Street, also appear to be enjoying the changes: the agency found a 16 percent jump in cyclists in the area on weekdays, and a 33 percent increase on weekends.

Still, automobile drivers now appear to be avoiding the stretch of Broadway south of Madison Square, where the street was reduced to a single lane of car traffic and the direct car connection through Union Square was severed.

The number of cars traveling on that stretch has dropped by about half since the plaza was installed, the report said. Some of those drivers may be choosing to take Fifth Avenue or Park Avenue South for southbound trips through the area, slightly slowing those routes. The average speed of taxis along Fifth Avenue fell slightly after the plaza was installed, and southbound trips on Park Avenue South took longer.

But the Transportation Department noted that average speed along West 18th Street, where residents were most fearful of jam-ups, rose by about 14 percent, to 7 m.p.h. from 6 m.p.h. And average speeds on Park Avenue South stayed relatively unchanged.

The Union Square Partnership, the neighborhood’s economic development group, conducted a door-to-door survey of area businesses, and 60 percent of those who responded said they were happy with the new traffic configuration. About 35 percent had no opinion.

Still to be determined: some illegal left turns at the always-dangerous perpendicular intersection of Union Square West and 14th Street. (Initially, the agency had hoped to close off parts of Union Square West entirely, but some businesses objected.) The city said it was working on new street adjustments to tackle the problem.

Bring your electronic junk to the north end of Union Square on January 12 from 10-2. Here are the details:

We accept the following working and non-working consumer electronic equipment:

• Computers (laptops & desktops, servers, mainframes)
• Monitors (CRT and flatscreen)
• Network devices (routers, hubs, modems, etc.)
• Peripherals (keyboards, mice, cables, cords, chargers, etc.)
• Tablets and e-readers
• Components (hard drives, CD-ROMs, circuit boards, power supplies, etc.)
• Printers under 100 pounds, scanners, fax machines, etc
• TVs, VCRs, DVRs, DVD & Blu-ray Players
• Digital Converter Boxes, Cable/Satellite Receivers
• Portable music players
• Audio-visual equipment
• Video-games
• Cell phones, pagers, PDAs
• Telecommunication (phones, answering machines, etc.)

We no longer accept:

Batteries (except lead-acid batteries from UPS (uninterrupted power supplies) systems, rechargeable batteries can be dropped off for recycling at any store that sells them, also check out IKEA and Staples stores for battery recycling.

Media, such as disks, DVDs, VHS tapes, cassette tapes, etc.

Please visit greendisk.com to purchase a shipping label to get these items recycled

Next week (July 16 to July 20), Mechanical equipment deliveries and work on them will continue at the 17th and 18th floor levels. Deliveries for the internal systems of the building have been ongoing and will continue. Curtain wall installation will continue.

The following week (July 23 to July 27), we will be working on the machine room levels on the 17th and 18th floors. Deliveries for the internal systems of the building have been ongoing and will continue, although they should not greatly affect the flow of pedestrian and road traffic.

This weekend the site will be open on Saturday, July 14th for superstructure related activities between the work hours of 7AM and 5PM as permitted by the City. To control noise levels within the site, work activities will be limited to the placement of formwork and concrete, plumbing and electrical work, rebar for concrete placement, using the crane and equipment to support all activities. Safety horns are used, and required by law, to coordinate lifting with the crane and to alert the workers of the danger overhead. We have directed the operators to limit the use of horns to one short sounding and to use the crane later in the day so as to avoid any excess noise.

Details and renderings of this new ten-story condo here.